No Bird Audubon

It’s always a treat to get called by Audubon but this one offered a strange paradox – depict a bird sanctuary sans the birds. It seems that an earlier attempt to illustrate this story resulted in flash photographed birds and angry birders. I was sent in to unruffled the feathers (not literally) and take my camera nowhere near the birds (yes, literally). The chimney swifts nest primarily at night and are sensitive to human and mechanical intrusion, so my assignment was to tell the story of the sanctuary and it’s keepers, but not the swifts.

This portrait of Paul and Georgean Kyle was created when I found a wooden mobile of flying birds and my photo assistant hung himself off the side of their balcony to let the rising sun cast the shadows on our sitters.

Take away the go-to solution and it’s scary, and exciting (reminds me of Lars Von Trier’s The Five Obstructions).
See the full Audubon chimney swifts story, High Hopes.

Image: Paul & Georgean Kyle, photographed for Audubon Magazine, April 2011