This is my contribution to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Birds prompt.
With nearly 40 years of bird photography in my archives I decided to go with one photo from each decade.
1980s. An adult Eurasian Blue Tit feeding young in a specially constructed nestbox in a garden in Hatherton near Nantwich in southern Cheshire, England.
1990s. Male and female American Avocets in summer (breeding) plumage on a slough near Punnichy, Saskatchewan, Canada.
2000s. An Osprey with a White Sucker on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton, Ontario, Canada.
2010s. An immature Ruby-throated Hummingbird on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada.
This is my contribution to Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Anything that Flies prompt.
An immature Ruby-throated Hummingbird on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada. Gulls over Hurleston Reservoir, Cheshire, England. Snow Geese on autumn migration, Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area, Saskatchewan, Canada. An impression of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada.
This is my contribution to Amy’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: My Photography Journey prompt.
I had quite a few ideas for the challenge, none of which I could build a theme around. In the end I decided to simply pick one favourite nature or landscape image from each decade I have been taking photos. Because landscapes and nature have been constant subjects during my photographic journey.
As a result it’s also partly a journey around some of the places I have lived over the years.
1970s. Trees in snow covered farmland in Hatherton, Cheshire, England. I was still in secondary (high) school when this shot was taken. Taken a mile down the side road from my parents house at the time. It was part of the portfolio that got me a place at art school. Despite having been online for nearly a quarter of a century this is the first time I have posted the full frame, uncropped version. I have always cropped to a panoramic format in the past.
1980s. Storm clouds and light beams over Loch Arkaig, Scotland. Memorable because I had spent three days shooting landscapes in almost constant rain. The rain stopped early evening of the third day and the sun started breaking through the storm clouds. This shot was published worldwide by Olympus Japan and won a national photo contest in the U.K.
1990s. An American White Pelican on Last Mountain Lake. Probably the hardest decade to pick a favourite. I moved from the U.K. to Canada and was doing a lot of nature and landscape photography. One of the most memorable moments was sitting in the water at Last Mountain Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada while a flock of American White Pelicans swam and fished around me.
2000s. Osprey with a White Sucker over Lake Huron. This decade saw me living in Ontario, Canada. For the first 8 years I lived in Southampton on the Lake Huron shoreline. I would frequently head down to the lake shore for sunrise and sunset. If I was down there for the sunrise I would often hang around looking for birds. One morning I watched this Osprey catch the fish and immediately start getting harassed by a couple of Herring Gulls. The Osprey is looking at one of them while the water still drips off the bird and the fish. This was my second year shooting digital.
2010s. A juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbird in late summer. I was now living on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario and in 2018 did a 52 week photo project which is how this blog started. This shot didn’t make it as a weekly pick for the project but it was published in a bird calendar the following year.
2020s. A portrait of a Coneflower. One year into the 2020s and a surprisingly difficult pick. I had a few nice sunrises from the local bay and a nearby lake last summer and autumn. Which meant that I couldn’t pick a favourite because they were all too fresh in my mind. However, I spent part of the first Covid-19 lockdown photographing flowers and plants with various unusual lenses. For this Coneflower I used a fast portrait lens wide open. It’s been a favourite since I took it.
I decided to go with a natural history theme and had a few ideas for the challenge before thinking of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird.
As this bird doesn’t have a ruby coloured throat it’s a female. Given how smart the birds plumage is I suspect that it’s a juvenile female hatched from an egg earlier in the summer. It was photographed on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario in August.
I enjoy these sort of challenges as it allows me to come up with a theme. Sometimes I take a sideways look at the prompt and head off in a direction that only has a tenuous connection to the challenge.
I had a couple of ideas for the challenge before thinking of abstract images. Possibly because I had photographed a few abstract images of ripples on the local bay this past summer and autumn.
I briefly considered a post exclusively of ripples but decided that would be more appropriate if the prompt was the letter R.
In the end I decided to go with a small selection of photos taken over the past 35 years.
Lichen on a tree trunk with a cheap CCTV lens on the camera.
Foxtail Barley. Detail of the seed heads, it was more about the colour than the plant.
A motion blurred female Ruby-throated Hummingbird.
Ripples on Georgian Bay. Photographed in 1985 and possibly my earliest photo of ripples.
