Award Winning Photography

Mothers Comfort

Runner Up in Aquatic Life Category

Canadian Geographic: Wildlife Photography of The Year 2022.

Lighthouse Sunset

Honourable Mention in Landscape Category

Canadian Wildlife Federation: Reflections of Nature Photo Contest 2022

Displays

Equator Coffee Roasters Virtual Gallery

My very first photography exhibit was held in my home town of Almonte, Ontario at Equator Coffee Roasters. As a budding photographer, this was a huge honour to be welcomed to showcase my favourite photos.

#1 Big Surprise

First time getting this close to a buck, and it was such a fun experience! After a few minutes taking pictures of some deer out in an open field I found this buck which was paired with a doe and followed her through the forest. Spent a few hours waiting patiently for him to show his face in an area not overcrowded with branches and got this!

#2 Wood Duck Sunset

The Wood Duck is one of our most common waterfowl species but also one of our most eye-catching to many! With clear skies the sunset brought some beautiful golden light to show off all of the colours which this amazing animal holds!

#3 Merganser Party

Before the snow and ice came, I was lucky enough to have gotten close to a group of male Hooded Mergansers that were showing off some courting displays using their beautiful crests. Even though nesting occurs in the spring like most animals, courting starts in the fall for species such as these mergansers. They will pair up during fall and winter then return to breeding grounds together until eggs are laid which are left to the female to incubate while the male leaves.

#4 Waxwing

This Cedar Waxwing was part of a group which I was surrounded by while they were foraging from the berries of European Buckthorn. A sudden pause during its busy eating gave me a chance to look through the foliage and capture this image. The branches provide a direct line of sight to some beautiful and smooth markings which this species holds.

#5 Tree Climber

This is a Red-breasted Nuthatch, a bird around the same size as a chickadee and just as active. You'll see these guys flying from tree to tree looking for insects or seeds to eat. Like many birds they have three front and one back toe but they are able to do something unique. They can swing the outside front toe to the back which allows them to climb down the trunk of the tree which is what we can see in this photo.

#6 Kingbirds

A male and female Eastern Kingbird battling mid air which I believe was part of a courtship. The Eastern Kingbird is from the order of flycatchers and almost solely rely on catching insects throughout the spring and summer. Wetlands provide a large amount of these insects for countless species. So even though we may not enjoy insects flying around they are essential to almost all life across the globe. Kingbirds got their name because of their aggression and territoriality towards other flycatchers and various bird species.

#7 Great Blue

Whenever I'm out on the kayak I always expect to see a Great Blue Heron or two on the shore hunting. I tend to carry a dry bag with my camera inside it for this very reason. The mobility of the kayak can bring me right to the herons and grant me opportunities I never had before. Though I can get close, I still try to maintain my distance and allow natural behaviour of the animal to take place. Wildlife photography is a privilege, it should be treated with care and respect.

#8 Sanderling Reflection

These fast-moving shorebirds rarely will give you a chance to compose a photo but either way it's always a joy to observe wildlife. Each species has unique behavior and if you spend enough time with them, you'll learn what it is!

#9 Frosty Hawk II

An early morning walk on the trail close to my home surprised me with this beautiful Cooper's Hawk resting after some freezing rain from the night before. Even on the trails I walk often there is always a chance to be pleasantly surprised with what nature has in store for me to see! There is always something to appreciate when you're outside.

#10 Sunrise Jay

An early morning start let me get ready for the sunlight to have this Blue Jay show off its colours. Even though Blue Jays are super common there is always something new to learn! Blue Jays often mimic calls of hawks to either warn others of a threat or to fool another bird into thinking there is a predator. Another interesting thing is that the black feathers around their face can vary greatly between each individual which may help them recognize one another!

#11 Nosy Neighbour

Three hours of not being able to feel my hands or feet was all worth it when I got this shot! This is the first Eastern Screech Owl I have taken photos of and I was super lucky to have it in its red morph. This species has a grey and red morph, either pattern in the right condition makes them almost invisible if you don’t know what you’re looking for! This owl was enjoying the sun when I saw a red squirrel starting to make its way up the base of the tree. I had a good idea of what was going to happen so I got ready and was happy to have guessed right!

#12 Eastern Screech Owl Sunrise

I was lucky to have seen this Eastern Screech Owl on such a beautiful morning. I got to see it before and during sunrise, letting take the time to watch the sun slowly creep up to the owl creating an amazing golden hour to take photos. These owls are usually found in tree hollows which are created by other animals such as the Pileated Woodpecker which creates countless homes in trees for other animals!

#13 Woodpecker Silhouette

One morning while waiting for some birds to come by I found this Pileated Woodpecker chipping away at the branches of a massive Balsam Poplar. Instead of trying to get close and with perfect light I decided to work with what I had and created a beautiful silhouette. Wood chips flying and its outline tells the story of the woodpecker.

#14 Golden Hour I

One of my favourite photos from this winter. This is a grey morph Eastern Screech Owl being drenched in golden light from another beautiful sunrise. This species is one of our smaller owls (think the size of a football), leaving it to hunt small animals such as song birds, squirrels, even getting as small as crayfish, frogs, and earthworms! Getting up before the sun and waiting for it to cover the forest has become one of my favourite times of any day. It lets me slow down and move only as fast as the sun does. Sunrise is called golden hour for its amazing light for photos and also because it's one of the most important times to be awake and aware of your surroundings to enjoy it to the fullest.

#15 Golden Hour II

I have seen many photos of this exact owl and have waited for my opportunity to take my own. This early morning was my first time coming across it and I spent a large part of my morning taking pictures but soon realized all of them looked the same. I wanted to think more creatively about how I could portray this animal. And so I started to walk away to think of what I could do. After just a few minutes of walking the owl caught my eye again but simply from a different angle which really put the darkness and golden sunlight into the photo with the owl creating a new feel to something that has been photographed many many times before.

#16 Snowy Owl Flight

After a few weeks of going out and being amazed just to see and get close to a Snowy Owl I was rewarded with the opportunity to get this shot! At sunset this owl was perched on top of a tree and slowly started to gain the attention of other photographers. With constant focus on this bird waiting for it to take flight I was able to capture its full wingspan! Such an incredible creature to observe.

#17 Mink Hunt

One of the animals which I have waited the longest for is this American Mink. A very silent, nimble and cautious creature makes it somewhat difficult to get the right picture. I got this picture in a natural small pond filled with hundreds of minnows for this mink and even American Robins to hunt. Over a few weeks I would be lying down patiently waiting for this mink to come by and was enjoying the wildlife that I saw come by in the meantime. Feeling frozen and wet from waiting for hours I started to think of going home when a brown spec came out from a little hole beside a tree stump. It was the Mink! It quickly ran along a hill and then disappeared behind a tree not far from me but still out of sight. I made up my mind that I would wait and only leave once I saw the mink again. I was rewarded by the mink coming to the pond, diving in the water, and snatching a fish right in front of me!

#18 Crabapples

Found this young porcupine super close to home hanging over the trail with little fear towards me getting close to it. With this in mind I had to take advantage of the opportunity to get a few shots! It was very busy eating crabapples and didn’t mind how close I was at times being directly under it. Porcupines are active all year and in the winter when food is scarce the go to meal is the inner bark of trees with their favourite being Eastern White Pine in this area but of course when there is a tasty crabapple tree they’ll enjoy a nice treat!

#19 Curiosity

One of my favourite pictures of the Bufflehead. A small diving duck which is migrating back up north during the spring with a window of opportunity to photograph them. This morning I was on the shoreline patiently waiting for one of them to come close by. With enough time passed I believe it was curiosity that drew this bufflehead in close and let me capture the beautiful colours it has which are hidden until sunlight hits their feathers just right.

#20 Nesting Boxes

First time this year hanging out with some local Tree Swallows that were returning to some nest boxes set up for them at a local conservation area. These are the first swallow species to migrate back north and a good sign of spring finally coming! This species usually migrates in large groups at night, getting up to hundreds of thousands at the same time! If we could see it in the daytime it would be a gigantic and mesmerizing cloud of birds!

#21 Swallow Incoming

Tree Swallows are some of the first to come back for the spring and are quite active when settling into their summer homes. These birds are aerial insectivores and are incredibly agile in the air making it very hard to get good shots mid flight! This is the best one I have so far as one came in for a speedy landing on a piece of angle iron in a local wetland .

#22 Spring Newcomer I

About to end my morning of photography, I came across two baby Eastern Cottontails which were adorable! I spent as much time as I could with this little one and at times it was so friendly that it was too close for me to even get a picture!

#23 Spring Newcomer II

#24 Night-Heron Sunrise I

Spent a beautiful few hours next to the river one morning with a Black-crowned Night-Heron. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to one and a great way today start the day! These guys hang around our rivers, lakes and wetlands hunting for whatever they can get from the water. They have a huge distribution range and can be found way up here in the north to all the way down through South America!

#25 Night-Heron Sunrise II

Even though I spent a few hours taking photos of this Black-crowned Night-Heron, it's funny that one of my favourite photos of the experience came from the first minute that I saw it. Before I tried to get close at all I snapped a few quick pictures through the branches which actually framed it up pretty well! I love the pastel colours of the background coming from the early morning sunlight.

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