The Photographer Quarterly: Finding Peace Among the Birds

I distinctly remember one long weekend in my early 30's when I was taking on a new promotion in a town in Southeastern Connecticut. I was between housing moves and I had gone in advance of my family to begin my new job when the Blizzard of 1978 hit. One of my board members had gone off on a vacation in the tropics and they had offered me the opportunity to stay in their country farmhouse on 110 beautiful wooded acres. Their one request was that I keep the bird feeders full while they were away. One night the snow began and continued for several days. Accumulations of several feet shut the entire county down. The governor declared no one was allowed on the roads and the National Guard had to be brought in to shovel snow. So in the midst of a very stressful time in my life filled with family pressures, new job expectations and insecurities about whether I had made the right choices, there I was stuck in time with drifts of snow, a freezer full of food, a good stereo with a collection of Classical recordings, wood piled next to the wood stove and an assignment to feed the birds. Time stood still for those few days, pressure poured off my chest like a bursting dam and I experienced a peace that I hadn't experienced to date. So with bird guide in hand I fed the birds. Thus began a love affair with these feather friends.

Here in my retirement years that feeling of peace returns only now I am armed with a camera and lens and the added opportunity to photograph these guys for my own personal pleasure. No shots that will appear in national wildlife magazines, no coffee table books to be published but never-the-less a joy of capturing these beautiful creatures and a quest for improving my skills and capturing that special moment. The Osprey clutching a fish out of the lake evades me still. Here are some of my favorite shots of 2016.