Feature Photo
The Story Behind the Photo
Limpkin Chicks, Florida
January 2004
For the past 5 years, I've been heading south to Florida for a few weeks each winter to escape the cold Canadian north and to do some bird photography. I have a circuit of favorite places to visit, including hotspots such as Fort Myers Beach, Ding Darling, Corkscrew Swamp, Shark Valley, Venice Rookery and Wakodahatchee Wetlands. I shoot intensively each day at dawn and dusk, often burning through a dozen or more rolls of film each day. During the middle of the day when the light is too harsh to shoot, I rest by the pool and plan my next photo excursions. How could life get any better?
Over the years I've ended up with a solid collection of bird photos from my Florida trips. Each year I go back my objective is to shoot new species or to better my images of species I've photographed before. Looking back on my trip of this past January, I would have to call it the year of the Limpkin.
Limpkin are big brown wading birds that are fairly common in Florida's swamps. They live secretive lives, rarely venturing out in the open long enough to allow a decent photograph. Although I've seen them a bunch of times, I'd never managed anything more than a record photo. So imagine how elated I was when my stepfather came back from a morning of birding, having just discovered an obscure fishing launch with an approachable family of Limpkin feeding out in the open!
Knowing this was the opportunity of a lifetime, I made the hour-long drive to the limpkin spot for many mornings that followed. The birds were on the edge of a canal which received beautiful morning light, but had dark background shadows, causing me great stress over exposures. I shot more than a dozen rolls of the adults and four chicks to make sure I'd get a handful of good shots.
Wading through my slides from that trip, it's hard not to crack a smile thinking about the antics of those chocolate brown Limpkin chicks. It was one of the most rewarding photo shoots of my life. And I can only imagine what great photographic adventure awaits me on next year's trip...
Technicals:
Canon EOS 1N; EF 600/4 with 1.4xTC
Fuji Provia 100F rated at 200 and pushed one stop
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