Exactly one year ago today. Comet C/2023 A3
Birds in Context: A Great Horned Owl surveys from a massive Saguaro with a Great comet sweeping across the sky.
This evening was the most “am I dreaming?” shoot I’ve had after over a decade of bird photography.
It feels a little bit meaningless to pick a “favorite photo”, and there is a million ways to look at that question. One way is “which photo would you choose to keep if all the others were to be deleted forever”, and by that measure this shot is my number 1.
This project for me had the perfect blend of far out pre-visualization, intensive scouting, bold risky decisions, foregoing pragmatics for something more special, and natural wonder.
It sounds cliche, but things really do work out more often than you’d expect when you fully commit to something that seems super unlikely. At first when things inexplicably work out, it feels like a one off and espousing otherwise would just be survivorship bias. Until it happens enough times that it’s clearly not.
My favorite photos I’ve taken require the dance between pragmatism and quixotism (excuse the obnoxious word choice), and for me this shot was me managing that at my best.
Birds in Context: Meadowlark and Tornado
A Meadowlark casually observes as an intense tornado churns a few miles away.
I’ll try to not be overly dramatic, but there’s no way around that a lot has gone into this one.
Of all the bird photography quests I’ve embarked upon, photographing a tornado with a bird has by far been the most challenging and taken the longest. Along the way, I’ve become well acquainted with many small towns in the southern plains; I’ve met many cool people; and I’ve witnessed many of the most incredible natural scenes I’ve ever seen and maybe will ever see.
Over my time storm chasing I’ve grown fond of the southern plains in summer. To me, this image captures the plains during tornado season. It’s a scene that’s very rare yet classic at the same time.
When I first seriously decided I wanted to make this shot concept happen over four years ago, I didn’t know the first thing about meteorology, tornadoes, or storm chasing. It took almost two years full of learning and trial and error before I saw my first brief, wimpy, but sentimental tornado. It then took even longer before I saw my first incredible tornado.
The tornado depicted in this photograph is the 15th tornado I’ve seen, the Silverton Texas tornado of June 2nd, 2024. This storm was a dream for any chaser: a high visibility, long lived tornado which was attached to a discrete supercell over good road networks. Importantly, it was also harmlessly placed in the middle of nowhere.
After spending so much time chasing, I don’t think I’ll ever stop entirely. But, I think I am finally ready to chill out with the tornadoes and spend more time focusing on quieter scenes.
Check out my conversation with Ray Hennessy on his YouTube channel to hear a little bit of the behind the scenes and to see the raw file if you’re interested.
Single photo, no photoshop
It was 2020 when I added ‘Bird with 2024 total eclipse’ to my document of future photography project ideas, but it feels like forever ago. It wasn’t just another idea; it always shone among all the rest at the very top. So much so, that years ago, I even created a photoshop mock-up of a bird with a total eclipse and set it as my phone wallpaper as a sort of “Never forget April 8th!” memento.
This kind of shot lives and dies in the scouting phase, so I got very busy scouting all over my home state of Texas. But, as eclipse day neared, the cloud forecast nullified my efforts. Unwilling to be thwarted so easily, I took a last minute red eye flight to the northeast and continued the scouting effort with the few days I had. I was okay with failing, but it wouldn’t be for lack of effort.
On the big day, I positioned myself in my chosen marsh just after sunrise and waited there until totality. It was a long day. My feelings oscillated between excitement, anxiousness, and ultimately tempered expectations and was just enjoying being out there.
When totality struck, the heron (that had been on and off the nest all day) that I hoped would return was nowhere to be seen. I quickly accepted it, and just marveled.
While I was scouting the night before, a large flock of gulls flew over the marsh on their way from feeding grounds to their roosting location. While this was not plan A, if it occurred during totality I knew there was a good chance they may fly past the corona.
During totality, I saw those very gulls heading to their roosting site. I got ready.
I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t really worrying about whether I got a shot or not, and after the gulls did fly over and I snapped off my frames, my emotional state really didn’t change. I hardly noticed myself taking pictures, as it was purely my subconscious autopilot doing the technical stuff. I’m normally the kind of photographer that gets super focused while shooting - such that it’s easy for me to not even really take in what I’m witnessing. But, totality is different. It went the other way - I was hardly thinking about photography and was just observing.
It’s a special thing.
Birds in Context: Raven with the shadow of a towering supercell thunderstorm
While hunting tornadoes, typically there are no tornados. But even without them there are so many beautiful and unique skies that only occur around very strong thunderstorms. These are what make storm chasing worthwhile to me. If it was tornado or bust, then it would be borderline unbearable.
In this case, the sharp line across the sky is the shadow of a massive supercell thunderstorm updraft at sunset. Knowing the context and scale certainly make it cooler to me, but even without knowing the details I think it still reads as “huh that’s an interesting sunset with that sharp line”.
Birds in Context: Hummingbirds flutter around a blooming agave stalk with Big Bends’ monsoon rains.
The monsoon season is my favorite time of year in the deserts of west Texas. For a brief period, all the plants are green and blooming and the birds dawn chorus is at its most vibrant.
I enjoy the stark, still quiet of the desert in the peak summer too, and it’s the contrast between that and when the rain wakes the desert up that makes it special.
The agave blooms only once at the end of its life, with a massive yellow flowering stalk that serves as a natural hummingbird feeder. It’s likely this plant was at least my age when it finally decided to put on this display and bow out for good.
I stayed by this plant for quite a few hours over a couple of days, waiting for different conditions and moments. I settled on this one with an approaching cool-toned shower contrasting with the yellow flowers.
Birds in Context: A Red-tailed hawk lands over a spring meadow
Just a simple scene with some nice framing and flow.
I find landing shots to often have much better wing positioning than take offs, since birds fully fan out their wings and flap to rapidly slow down. But getting a landing is tricky and requires prediction and more patience.
In this case, while scouting for last years total eclipse, I noticed this hawk switching between a few different trees. Since the light was not changing quickly, I had time to just sit and wait. Sure enough about 10 minutes later the bird glided right back to its previous perch where I was attentively waiting.
The burst rate on today’s cameras is typically overkill for my shooting style, but it’s situations like this where 20fps does help in nailing the perfect moment.
Birds in context: A raven sits among massive sand dunes
The winds were ferocious on this day hiking through the enormous dunes. Sand got every. where. It got in my ears, my eyes, and my camera. But, the same wind provides a sense of movement to the photo.
I can’t imagine what business this lone raven had in the dunes, but I was thankful it occasionally paused long enough for me catch up.
For me there is no absolute rule as to when a bird is “too small” in the picture, it just depends on what role the bird is serving. In this case the role the bird plays is unequivocal: scale.
I think even without the bird image could stand alone as a pseudo-abstract of dune patterns. The bird just serves as a key story element rather than having nor needing compositional weight.
Birds in Context: A vulture glides past a forming landspout tornado in the Big Bend country of west Texas.
For me, this shot is more about the wide open desert expanse, the motion of the clouds, and the light over the distant mountain, rather than the wispy little funnel itself.
Much to my chagrin, as photographers we don’t get to pick where tornadoes happen. I’ve begrudgingly become accustomed to telephone poles and power lines littered all over the place as the norm.
So, whenever the forecast is for somewhere remote and scenic - far west Texas in this case - I get excited. It’s just you, the desert, the sky, and mayyybe a bird or two if you’re lucky.
Birds in Context: Mexican Jay in burned forest
This composition has grown on me. I typically talk myself out of my Dutch tilts because let’s be honest, they can feel gimmicky. But after rumination, this one still works for me.
The lines are mildly chaotic and uneven, and the tilt helps makes it more dynamic. It feels just a bit uneasy, and I like that.
Messy imperfect shots are the ones that jump out to me during mildly delirious late nights when I’m at my least inhibited. Maybe when a shot feels a bit wacky, we can follow that away from safer ground?
Birds in Context: Lark Sparrow with lightning strike.
Severe storms can be intense, but it’s never been the raw scary power that draws me. I prefer to stay out of the heaviest rain/hail/wind when possible. Naturally, my favorite images of storms are the ones with a paradoxical calm, not the foreboding ones.
While writing this caption, I googled “serene”, and the antonym listed was “stormy”. I’ll need to have a word with the lexicographers responsible...
I always thought that on my way to photographing a bird with a tornado, a bird with a lightning strike would come for free. It should be a much less difficult shot.
But after several years of coming away with only so-so bird + lightning images, I realized that just proximity to severe thunderstorms wasn’t enough.
This past season I gave it more deliberate effort, and this shot is my favorite so far. It won’t be my last though.
