Spanish photographer Xavi Bou has spent years capturing the movements of murmurations (or flocks) of starlings through chronophotography, a type of stacked long-exposure. His latest effort is this 2.5-minute short film titled "Murmurations," which traces the mesmerizing flight patterns of the synchronized birds.
Photographer Ariel Leshinsky of Beersheba, Israel, has spent a couple of years photographing starling murmurations, those mesmerizing, swarm-like flocks. But Leshinsky adds a dose of creativity: he aims to capture and select moments when the random swarms look like recognizable things... like the "seal" in the photo above.
A European starling murmuration is one of the most beautiful natural phenomena on Earth—each bird reacting to its 7 closest neighbors, the whole flock an ever-shifting mix of patterns and shapes. So how in the world could you recreate something that intricate with stop motion photography?
A murmuration of starlings is a beautiful sight to behold, as giant flocks of birds float through the air like a dark cloud with a mind of its own. French photographer Alain Delorme captured this beauty in his project Murmurations, but instead of birds and wildlife photography, Delorme's images were created through plastic bags and Photoshop.