For a wildlife photographer, birds are an endless opportunity. They can be close or distant, tiny or imposing, ordinary or spectacular. They can also be wonderfully frustrating, flying away just as you have settled into position, or giving you nothing but a glimpse before disappearing into the trees. But when everything comes together, there is something incredibly rewarding about capturing a bird as it takes flight, its colours suddenly revealed in the sunlight.
At home, I particularly enjoy photographing the birds I see regularly. A species doesn’t have to be rare or exotic to make an interesting photograph. I’m more interested in the image itself, the light, the surroundings, the behaviour and the moment, than in building a long lifelist.
A bird doesn’t have to be rare to make a remarkable photograph.
Travelling opens another side of bird photography. Around the world, I find myself drawn to the incredible variety of shapes, colours and characters that birds have evolved. But I’m equally fascinated by behaviour: watching raptors scan the landscape, vultures gather around a kill, or a bird reveal a fleeting glimpse of the life it leads.
Whether it is a familiar bird in a Dutch landscape or a species I have never seen before, the challenge is the same: to turn a fleeting encounter into a photograph that makes me want to look twice.
