Canadian captures extraordinary beauty of ordinary pigeons in award-winning photo | 24CA News
As It Happens6:09Canadian photographer captures extraordinary fantastic thing about unusual pigeons with award-winning shot
Liron Gertsman often does not hassle taking footage of pigeons.
But when he noticed a pair of them preening one another affectionately in White Rock, B.C. — their iridescent inexperienced and purple feathers shimmering within the daylight — he was moved to take out his digicam.
“I definitely overlooked pigeons for a while. But that changed when I captured this picture because I just saw them shining in a new light,” the Vancouver wildlife photographer advised As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
“When you take a moment to appreciate a bird like that closely, there is so much subtle beauty to be enjoyed.”
Gertsman’s intuition to seize that tender second has paid off. The picture is the grand prize winner on the National Audubon Society’s annual images awards, which honours Canadians and Americans whose work “highlights the beauty of birds and the joy of capturing them through photographs and videos.”
Gertsman — who usually goes to nice lengths to {photograph} uncommon and delightful birds in far-flung locations — says he is honoured that such an easy picture took residence the prize.
“These are rock pigeons. This is not some rare species that you need to travel the world to see. I mean, anyone really could have taken this image. And I think that’s what kind of makes it special,” he mentioned.
The National Audubon Society’s Preeti Desai, one of many contest’s judges, agreed.
“I hope photos like this will lead to more appreciation for pigeons and other common birds we see daily,” Desai advised Audubon Magazine.
‘Puffin fever’
While Gertsman captured his award-winning picture whereas out for a stroll near residence, his fellow Vancouverite Shane Kalyn needed to go a lot farther to get his award-winning shot.
Kalyn received within the Audubon Photography Awards’ skilled class for his picture of a solitary Atlantic puffin perched on an algae-covered cliff in Iceland.
“This was actually the first Atlantic puffin I’ve ever seen in my life,” Kalyn advised CBC.
He was visiting Iceland along with his spouse, he says, they usually took a ferry to the Westman Islands, within the south of the nation, so he might {photograph} some nesting seabirds.
He wasn’t anticipating to search out puffins there, he mentioned, as their colony was positioned elsewhere. But his award-winning topic was one of many very first birds he noticed.
“Just by chance, [I] happened to see this one sitting in the most perfect spot,” he mentioned. “He was just perched on this, like, beautiful lava cliff with blue wildflowers and colourful algae. It was super dark, kind of a gloomy morning, which made, like, the colours pop in the photo, I felt. So, yeah, I was pretty excited.”
Desai mentioned the picture “evokes a painting.”
“I love the soft, pastel colours and especially how they pop against the gray backdrop,” she mentioned. “Another judge also pointed out that the upper rocks almost form a puffin head with a bill sticking out, and I love that.”
It might have been Kalyn’s first puffin, nevertheless it was actually not his final. Later on the journey, he hung out photographing the little seabirds at a colony in Iceland.
His picture of a male puffin holding a seagull feather in its beak — a present for its mate — was a finalist eventually week’s Big Picture Natural World Photography Awards.
Kalyn says he is hoping to maintain the “puffin fever” going with a visit to Canada’s east coast subsequent summer time.
“They’re a pretty charismatic little bird, right?” he mentioned.
Steven Chu of Mahwah, N.J., received greatest video on the 2023 Audubon Photography Awards for this clip of two short-eared owls locking talons mid-flight over the Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge in Wallkill, N.Y.
Gertsman additionally obtained an honourable point out within the skilled class for his picture of a northern hawk owl perched on the high of a snow-covered tree in Thompson-Nicola, B.C.
While his grand-prize-winning pigeon image took zero planning, this one, he says, was “the exact opposite.”
“I covered tens of miles over a few days tracking down northern hawk owls … when I saw this bird just perched beautifully at the tip of this tree,” he mentioned.
“It was the middle of winter. There was tons of snow on the ground, so I was snowshoeing around and the snow was so soft and so powdery that even with snowshoes on, I was sinking down to my knees at almost every step.”
But the trouble is at all times value it to showcase the fantastic thing about birds, mentioned Gertsman, including that he is happy to see an actual rise in birdwatching because the pandemic.
“I think the more people that are out there enjoying birds, the better hope we have for the future where we can protect birds and by protecting birds, protect the entire ecosystem that they rely on, and that, of course, we as humans rely on as well.”
