Capturing Nature

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Paul strolled through the park with his camera in hand. It was a particularly hot day, but he didn't plan to follow a very strenuous path so he left his Camelbak Rim Runner at the campsite. The real plan for the day was to capture one breath-taking photograph to hang in his kitchen at home.

Following the Watchman trail, he made the determination that he wanted to specifically try to avoid going for a landscape photo since even an amateur photographer could take a stunning picture of the grand vistas in a National Park. Instead, he'd attempt to frame one of the smaller birds that were more difficult to capture. The risk of taking too long to frame the picture created a tough dichotomy against spanning the shot before getting a chance to focus the background properly and adjust to a suitable shootingangle.

He knelt down in an area surrounded by a horseshoe of trees and bushes where a bird or two might be inclined to visit. It smelled like a flower shop, but without the undertones of gardening chemicals. Twenty minutes of peaceful relaxation helped put his mind at ease, but didn't attract any wildlife. He began to make a bird call that a park guide told him once would attract certain hummingbirds, He called, "Drrrk. Drrrk. Drrrrrk."

As more time passed, his senses became more and more aware of the nature around him. Insects buzzed and the a million-and-one smells wafted around him with each change of the wind. Several times in the distance he caught a glimpse of a small mammal scurying through the grasses and into a hole or under a bush. There were quite a few larger birds flying hundreds of feet up in the air.

By the third hour, a hummingbird landed on a branch that was only 15 feet away. It had a deep-blue (almost purplish) plume of feather around it's neck. He thought, This is perfect.. Acting as quietly and calmly as he possibly could, he maneuvered the camera into position. He had previously made sure to turn off the sound so he could change settings on the camera without having it beep everytime he pressed a button. He took aim and framed the bird with a small branch filling the whitespace in the viewfinder to balance his composition. It almost seemed as though the bird was posing for him.

He pressed the button, the view on the camera's screen froze and captured the bird. He pressed the button a second and third time just to be sure. He was astounded that the bird didn't fly away. "This is great," he remarked, and with the sound of his voice the bird finally flew away. He showed it his gratitude, "Thank you, my little feathered friend."

When he got back to his campsite an hour later, he flipped through a wildlife book and identified it as a Costa's Hummingbird. A week after that, he hung a printed and framed image of his hummingbird above his kitchen table and from that day on everytime he cooked he was reminded of his really amazing camping trip to Zion National Park in south western Utah.

Original photograph from the National Park Service: Zion National Park. The image depicts an artist-in-residence at the park and the article is an application to be the 2010 artist-in-residence. Prospective artists will be given an opportunity to "bring new insights, enjoyment, and understanding of [the Zion National Park] desert sanctuary.

Original hummingbird photograph was taken by Jon Sullivan. It's distributed on pdphoto.org (Public Domain Photo is a site that Jon runs). Details about Costa's Hummingbird are available on Wikipedia.

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