Tim Laman

| Wildlife Photojournalist

Wildlife Diaries

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Scarlet Ibis

Capturing the “Ibis Moon” Image

by

Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you well and feeling optimistic about 2021.  It’s going to be another challenging year, but I think things are looking up.  Stepping outside last night to have a look at the full moon, I was reminded of my image below.  It’s not often I can include the moon in an image of birds, but when it happens, it makes for something special.  I hope you enjoy the story behind the image.

Ibis Moon
I was in the remote outer delta of the Orinoco River in Venezuela, in pursuit of images of one of the most brightly colored birds on the planet, the Scarlet Ibis.  The mangrove islands in the delta provided these birds with the perfect roosting site, safe from predators, and close to the mudflats where they foraged at low tide.  Every afternoon, ibises would come flying back to their roosts, and this give me the chance for some flight shots.  One afternoon as the sun neared the horizon, the waxing gibbous moon, a couple days away from full, was rising in the eastern sky and I noticed that some of the small groups of ibises sometimes passed almost in front of the moon.  Moving the small boat I was shooting from to line up the approaching ibises with the moon the best I could, I started tracking and shooting the flying birds as they passed near the moon.  This image was the result, and I love the way the composition is balanced between the three birds and the moon.  I also love the simple but bold color palette of the image.  It is rare to have a color photograph that has basically just two bright colors, the red birds and the blue sky.  It is very satisfying to capture a moment like this in a still photograph, which you know will never ever be repeated.  It’s a one-of-a-kind image.
IBIS MOON is part of my Limited Edition selection of prints
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