Tim Laman

| Wildlife Photojournalist

Wildlife Diaries

The Wildlife Diaries newsletter is the best way to keep up to date with Tim Laman’s latest work and travels, and to learn about photography and natural history as well. Read through his recent posts here or sign up to receive the posts via email using the form on the right.

Birds of Paradise

Are you a Bird-of-Paradise Fan?

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I know that many of you, like me, are especially fascinated by the incredible family of birds known as the Birds-of-Paradise.  I love photographing them, and sharing the stories of these unique birds.

My goal with my photography is to spread appreciation and awareness about species like Birds-of-Paradise, and the habitats they depend on, in their case, the rainforests of New Guinea.  If you want to join me in this effort, one way you can do that is by displaying and sharing my images.  Yes, this is a sales pitch, because selling my work is how I make a living so I can keep doing this.  But when you purchase my work, whether it’s a calendar, print, or book, you are helping others see and appreciate birds as well, and you have become part of my team, spreading the message.  

So thanks for reading, and as the holidays approach, and my print sale is running, think about joining me in spreading your love for birds to others.  I appreciate your support, and I believe together we can make a positive impact.

Paradise Practice
A young male Paradise Riflebird practices his courtship display on a perch in the rainforest of southern Queensland, Australia.  The adult male of this species is jet black, where as the young males have the same mottled plumage as the females.  But it is easy to recognize a young male when after watching an adult male perform this raised-wing display, he flies up to the same perch used by the adult, and goes through the same motions.  Bird-of-Paradise displays are partly instinctive, but also have a learned component, and young birds spend a lot of time perfecting their moves, and seem to take it very seriously, as you can see.

“Paradise Practice” is now available for purchase in my fine art store.

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Special Recognition from the National Geographic Museum

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Dear Friends,

Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I opened an email from National Geographic  recently, and saw the banner below?  An advertisement for the re-opening of their museum with an exhibit of “The Greatest Wildlife Photographs”, and my image “Birds-of-Paradise Sunrise” was the featured image!  This image is one of my all time favorites from my long efforts pursuing the ultimate bird-of-paradise images, so it’s very satisfying to see it get some special recognition like this.

Featured image

Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise

For those of you who might be interested in collecting large-format limited edition prints, I wanted to remind you that “Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise” is one of the few in my Limited Edition Collection, and you can check it out HERE.  It is also available in smaller sizes as an open edition.  If you ever have any questions about my Limited Editions, don’t hesitate to hit to email us at Studio@TimLaman.com.
I know I have shared the story behind creating this favorite image in a previous Wildlife Diaries, so I won’t share it again here, but if you are interested in the full story, we have a 3 minute video produced with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that is now also linked via my fine art webpage HERE.
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Spring Greetings from the Tim Laman Studio!

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Dear Friends,

I have an exciting announcement.  One of the major filming projects I worked on recently will be released Friday April 5, 2019 on Netflix!  Called “Our Planet” it is an epic eight-part natural history series, including a “Jungles” episode featuring a sequence I worked on with Bird-of-Paradise Project colleague Ed Scholes.  We were approached by Silverback Films, the company producing the series for Netflix, about ideas for Bird-of-Paradise behaviors that had not been filmed before.  We pitched the idea of trying to capture the display of the Western Parotia from the point of view of the female.  I’m happy to say we were able to deliver, and in fact, our filming produced a reveal that was even more dramatic than we had imagined…. see below. We are especially excited to be a part of this film because it carries a very strong conservation message, and we believe that the Birds-of-Paradise can be great ambassadors for the protection of New Guinea’s rain forests.

Parotia’s are Birds-of-Paradise that display on a court on the ground, and are typically filmed from a ground level viewpoint, like in the top photo.  This gives a wonderful view of the male’s dance, but is not what the female sees.  She always watches from the perch above the male, and what she sees is clearly what is important in terms of the evolution of this remarkable display that occurred through female choice.  Over the course of more than a month of filming, we positioned remote cameras in many different positions around the court, including straight above.  Eventually, we managed to capture the view looking down over the female’s shoulder at the male.  At the climax of his performance, he plunges his neck in a way that flashes his bright breast shield up toward the female, producing the striking view you see in the image below.
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Wildlife Photographer of the Year Winners Announced

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This past weekend the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition announced the winners and had the gallery opening at the Natural History Museum in London.  Tim was specially commended in the Creative Visions of Nature category and highly commended in the Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Wildlife.  You can see the winning images below.  Check out the competition’s online gallery and vote for one of Tim’s images.