Birds-of-Paradise and Strangler Figs - Papua Expedition Highlights Part 2
Following our pursuit of the Leatherback Sea Turtles that I shared in the last Wildlife Diaries, our team moved into the interior of Western Papua, where we immersed ourselves in the riches of the lowland rainforest at a small village called Malagufuk. From our base at a small guesthouse, it was a matter of a few steps and we were in the forest. Our main targets were several species of Birds-of-Paradise, but we also hoped to film other lowland specialists, like crowned pigeons, hornbills, and even cassowaries if we were lucky.
However, the plant life could not to be ignored! The forest abounded with spectacularly large strangler figs and many beautiful species of palms, so we also spent time trying to photograph and film them in interesting ways. You can see a few of my efforts below as well as a few bird shots. Western Papua, and the entire giant island of New Guinea of which it is a part, still harbors vast areas of forest, which is heart-warming to see as a conservationist. Our main objective of this expedition in fact was to bring attention to this globally important area, which represents the largest intact rainforest region in the entire Asia-Pacific, and the third biggest in the world after the Amazon and Congo basins. Both as a carbon store, and for its rich and relatively understudied biodiversity, these forests represent a global treasure.
Hope you enjoy the glimpses below into the lowland forest of Papua!
Inside the Strangler Fig
To capture this image, I stepped within the myriad of roots, and pointed my camera straight up. I was in the space once occupied by the host tree, long since rotted away. I’ve been fascinated with strangler figs ever since I first went to Borneo, and in fact I did my PhD research on fig ecology in Borneo’s rainforest. These trees start life as a seedling sprouting high on a host tree, their seed perhaps delivered in a bird dropping. They send roots down to the ground, and in the case of this species (there are many species of figs with different growth forms) the roots wrap the host tree so tightly that it eventually dies and rots away. The fig keeps growing and spreading ever wider roots, creating the incredible and rather artistic structure you see here.
Life in the Lowland Rainforest
This spectacular palm in the genus Licuala, was one of many beautiful palms that graced the understory.
Climbing plants of all types festoon the forest, from small vines like these on a tree trunk to huge woody lianas.
Images clockwise from top left:
- A beautiful caterpillar climbs a mossy tree trunk. We only scratched the surface in documenting the invertebrates, but this was a spectacular find.
- This curious looking Rufous Owl was a nice surprise. It is a typical species of lowland rainforest.
- An explosion of plumes is the illusion that a male Lesser BoP creates when he shakes all those feathers above his back. Note that his plumes are greatly elongated and modified flank feathers, not tail feathers as many assume. You can see where they originate in this shot. His tail is brown and is tucked under the branch.
- The Lesser Bird-of-Paradise was a primary target, and I was able to photograph at this lek where three spectacular adult males performed in unison in the foggy early morning light. They prefer display branches just under the canopy, so they are not an easy species to get a clear view of, even by climbing a tree. But by climbing intermediate trees and doing a little judicious pruning, I was able to create a window that afforded this view from the ground. You’ll want to stay tuned when we release the video!
Behind-the-Scenes
Here is a view of the strangler fig tree in the featured photo above, shot from the side.
I couldn’t resist setting up this self-portrait with this amazing fig tree, and it should also give you a sense of scale.
Thanks for tuning in to my adventures. Please feel free to share this newsletter with anyone who you think might enjoy it. I need your help to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of Papua’s forests!
Warmest regards,
Tim Laman
PS. We will continue to add new images and galleries to TimLamanFineArt.com throughout the year, so be sure to take a look from time to time and see what’s new. Thanks!
Are you a Bird-of-Paradise Fan?
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” is now available for purchase in my fine art store.
Bird-of-Paradise Square Print Collection
Many of my Bird-of-Paradise images crop nicely to squares, and I have been gradually adding new images to this square print collection. I love displaying these square prints in groupings on the wall, and you might as well. Here are our newest additions to the collection.
A male Twelve-wired BoP flares out his green-rimmed breast shield and presents his striking form toward a female in the direction of the camera, trying to lure her to his display pole.
A male Magnificent Riflebird twists his flexible neck and reveals the amazing iridescence of his neck feathers.
A male Superb Bird-of-Paradise reveals the brightly colored inside of his mouth as he calls from his display log, trying to lure a female. 8
Plus a Few Favorites (and Best Sellers)
Red Bird-of-Paradise Heart Display
A male Red Bird-of-Paradise performs an inverted display at the top of the rain forest canopy, his extraordinary tail wires forming a heart-shaped arc around his outstretched wings.
Blue Bird-of-Paradise in Fruiting Tree
A male Blue Bird-of-Paradise perches on the slender branch of a favorite fruit tree, Papua New Guinea.
See the full Square Bird-of-Paradise print collection here.
Another way to enjoy the Square BoP images is in one of my Calendars, which you can check out HERE. Last year's calendar, Collection No 1, can be for 2023!
Thanks for tuning in, and for considering joining me in helping to spread the love of Birds-of-Paradise, all birds, and the value of protecting our natural world.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!
Warmest regards,
Tim Laman
Special Recognition from the National Geographic Museum
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
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.
BIRD PLANET Update
I’m excited to report that my new book BIRD PLANET is now off to the printers (it will be in stores October 4). I’m really happy with the way it has come together. It has been great to have a chance to review my entire archive to choose the most inspirational images from all over the world.
If you didn’t catch it already, I want to remind you that I am offering a signed copy of BIRD PLANET (personalized if you like) bundled with a 12-inch print for $100. I’ll only have 100 copies to sell in this way, and more than have are already sold, so you are welcome to per-order now if you would like to lock that in. Books will ship in October. Follow this link to see the offer for the Signed Edition of BIRD PLANET.
As a little sneak preview, here are a few shots from the book. In selecting the images, my aim was to capture the diversity and beauty of birds, and inspire people to care for their habitats, and thus habitat for all wildlife and a healthier planet for all of us.
These and other images from the book are also available now in my special BIRD PLANET COLLECTION gallery.
Thanks for tuning in as always!
Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy. It’s a beautiful time of year!
Warmest regards,
Tim Laman
PS. For all you ORANGUTAN fans, I think you will enjoy a segment I shot of the early life of a baby orangutan for the new Netflix series “Wild Babies”, which is now streaming. And to learn more about orangutans and the conservation work I’m involved with, please visit www.SaveWildOrangutans.org.
Birds-of-Paradise and Orangutan Fundraiser is Live
As we near the holiday season I’m reminded once again of how fortunate my family and I have been to weather this pandemic relatively unscathed. I hope you have been as fortunate, though I’m sure some of you suffered losses of loved ones, and my heartfelt sympathies go out to you. It’s been a tough couple years.
As we get through this, I am feeling like I want to devote some energy and resources to helping out the people and conservation activities that I care deeply about in Indonesia, where things have been especially tough. The best way I can come up with to do that, is to raise funds by selling my art, so I want to let you know that for all bird-of-paradise and orangutan print purchases during my Holliday Sale, which is now live, I will donate 50% of profits to the two charities that I have been supporting the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program, and Papua Konservasi dan Komunitas.
Please visit my online gallery through the link below, and consider a purchase for yourself or as a gift. You can read more about the two organizations in the links below as well.
Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise Performing is now available for purchase in my fine art store HERE.
Collecting Square Bird-of-Paradise Prints
Many of my Bird-of-Paradise images crop very nicely to a square format, and we have been offering a growing selection of square prints starting at 12x12 inches. These very affordable prints ($150 discounted to $105 each during the Holiday Sale), are striking when displayed in a grouping of 2, 3, or 4. They make a great conversation piece, brighten up any space, and proceeds help to support bird-of-paradise conservation. And if you already have one or two, you can add more and display them in various groupings which I have enjoyed doing around my house.
See the “Birds-of-Paradise Square Prints Collection” HERE, and help support Bird-of-Paradise conservation.
Thanks for tuning in and considering joining my fundraiser. If you’d like to learn more about the conservation groups I’m supporting and what they are doing, here are their individual websites.
I will follow up soon with another newsletter sharing more about the Gunung Palung Orangutan Project and their work that I am supporting.
Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy!
Warmest regards,
Tim Laman
PS. We have added Greeting Cards to our store this holiday season especially featuring my birds in the snow images. You can customize the inside, and get discounts for boxes of 10 or 25. Check them out HERE.
Revealing the Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise Display
One of the most exciting things about what I do is having a chance to reveal aspects of animal behavior that haven’t been seen before. A couple years ago, my long time bird-of-paradise collaborator Ed Scholes of the Cornell Lab and I made another expedition to the Arfak Mountains in West Papua, with the aim of documenting the Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise display from the female perspective - in other words, from above looking down at the displaying male. We succeeded, and it’s been some time in coming out, but I’m thrilled to share that our footage now features in a brand new documentary on Netflix “LIFE IN COLOR with David Attenborough”. Please check it out. In the images and short video below, I share the “reveal” of what the female sees - a perspective that we think is a first for natural history filmmaking on this species.
When viewed from the side, like this shot I made from my blind nearby on the ground, you can see that the male’s breast shield just appears dark instead of bright green. The bright green color that the female sees from her position is created by the structure of the feathers, and is thus a directional signal the male can focus on her. As you can see here, the female really comes right in and gives the male a very careful looking over.
The male Magnificent BoP is a colorful bird even when not displaying, with bright yellow wings, maroon back feathers, and bright blue feet among others. His two central tail feathers are elongated and wire like, and iridescent blue on the top.
To learn how I shot the Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise, view my video on YouTube by clicking the picture above.
This is the poster for the new documentary, now out on Netflix. My BoP sequence is in Episode 1.
Thanks for tuning in to my adventures. Please feel free to share this newsletter with anyone who you think might enjoy it. Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy (as well as that covid vaccine)!
Wildlife Diaries 13
My passion for photographing birds-of-paradise first grew from a desire to document some amazing birds that few people have had a chance to see in the wild, and share them with the world in the pages of National Geographic. As I have made 30 expeditions to the region where they occur (Papua Indonesia, PNG, and N. Australia) over the past 15 years, I came to realize that they are the best ambassadors for conserving the rain forests of the New Guinea region, the third largest remaining block of rain forest in the world (after the Amazon and Congo).
The local people of Papua realize that protecting their forest for the birds, and hosting visiting birders and other tourists to see them, is a way for them to receive a livelihood from the forest. So my hope is that my photography and films of these birds can contribute to greater appreciation and thus conservation of Papua’s forest. But at the moment, international travel to Papua is on hold. The local guest house owners and birding guides that we work with there have no income.
I know you’d like to help, and so would I. So if you’d like to help and also own a Tim Laman print to brighten your home or workplace, please visit my online store at www.timlamanfineart.com. You will find prices and sizes for all budgets and spaces.
Details: Labor Day Print Sale to Benefit Papua through Wednesday September 16th
Some of you may recall that last spring I ran a print sale to raise funds for the local people in Papua (the land of birds-of-paradise) who lost their income due to covid and the lack of birders and photographers like me visiting. Thanks to you, we distributed over $3000 in aid directly to over a dozen village families we work with in the form of unemployment compensation and food care packages of rice and other staples. We work with a small local NGO run by volunteers that takes no overhead at all. Of course we all hoped the pandemic would be under control by now and international visitors would be traveling to Papua again by now, but this obviously hasn’t happened. So we would really like to be able to continue to give these folks some more support.
Once again, I’ll donate 50% of Bird-of-Paradise print proceeds to the local people in Papua who look after their forests as a way to have a livelihood from guiding birding trips. By helping these people, your purchase will also help safeguard the forests of Papua for the birds. Please order by Wednesday September 16th. Thanks for your support!
I have a wide selection of both full frame images, and my popular square-cropped Bird-of-Paradise series. Here are just a couple examples. Please visit the online gallery to see the full selection at www.timlamanfineart.com.
Thanks for your support, and stay safe everyone!
Tim
Lets Celebrate the Birds-of-Paradise #4: Blue Bird-of-Paradise
Dear Friends,
I hope you are all well, and staying safe wherever you are. I’m continuing to dig into my archive to share some favorites and some unpublished Bird-of-Paradise images. I’ve chosen the Blue Bird-of-Paradise to feature this week.
Blue Bird-of-Paradise in Fruiting Tree
The Blue Bird-of-Paradise is one of the most legendary of the Birds-of-Paradise because of its phenomenal coloration and relative rarity. I journeyed to the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea to photograph this species, and it turned out to be one of the most challenging I have encountered. This was not because the bird was hard to find, but due to the fact that I wanted to photograph the male performing his courtship display. Displays, I found, were extremely unpredictable. It turned out that unlike some Birds-of-Paradise that are quite reliable once you find a display site (like the Western Parotia I shared in the last Wildlife Diaries), the Blue bird has not one, but many different display perches in the forest. It was almost impossible to be at the right one that he would choose to display at on a given day.
After many days of failure at display sites, I decided to concentrate on photographing at a feeding tree where we had seen the male visiting regularly. Indeed, he came to this tree several times a day, and by waiting him out, I captured a number of interesting feeding shots. This image is my favorite, because he was on a low branch with a clean background, posed at a beautiful angle across the frame, and the light was such that his blue plumage seems to glow from within.
As you can perhaps imagine, as I have traveled around the New Guinea region photographing and filming the many species of Birds-of-Paradise, there have been times when things didn’t work out the way I hoped. My goal is always to capture the courtship behavior, but sometimes that just doesn’t work out in the time I have in the field. The Blue Bird-of-Paradise was one such case. Although my collaborator Ed Scholes succeeded in filming some of the crazy upside down courtship behavior of the male at the sites he monitored on this trip, every time I set up in a blind where Ed or one of our local guides had seen the male display the day before, the bird would display somewhere else that day. I resigned myself to possibly only being able to capture some shots of the bird feeding, but at least wanted to do that well, so I put my time into sitting on a hill overlooking a fruiting tree. This was successful, but I also was in for a surprise one afternoon. I don’t know if it was because he saw a female nearby, or just felt an urge, but the male flew to a nearby tree to my right, and suddenly flipped upside down and started buzzing and shaking his plumes and performing a practice display. I slowly spun my unwieldy 600 mm lens around on my tripod, trying to get the bird framed quickly without making any sudden movements that would alarm him. Fortunately he stayed upside down long enough for me to capture the image below!
I was very pleased to have captured at least a documentary shot of the male in his display pose. At the same time, there is a lot of room for improvement in making an image of this upside-down display. I’d love to have a cleaner background, better light, and a female present, watching him! So while I had to be satisfied with what I got on that trip, I do hope to get back one of these days to have another crack at photographing this incredible species. I think this is one of the most interesting things about pursuing wildlife photography. There is no such thing as a perfect shot. Every image I make, I can always think of ways it could be better. It’s a perpetual quest.
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Lets Celebrate the Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise
Dear Friends,
I’m continuing my celebration of the Birds-of-Paradise this week since it doesn’t look like any of us are going to the field any time soon. I have chosen Wilson’s BoP as the next species to feature from my archive.
Print Giveaway: Like this past week, I’m going to have a drawing at the end of this week to give away a print, this time it will be the first Wilson’s BoP image featured below. If you have received this newsletter, then you are automatically entered. On Friday, we will randomly select one of my newsletter subscribers, and the winner will get an email as well as be announced on my Facebook page.
Wilson’s Bird-of-Paradise, like the Red Bird-of-Paradise featured last week, is a species that is endemic to the Raja Ampat Islands in West Papua off the far western end of New Guinea. Just getting to the island of Batanta, where I first photographed this species in 2004, is quite an adventure in itself. After flying around the world and across Indonesia to the town of Sorong, we still had to make a boat journey to a coastal village, and then find a crew to help carry our gear several hours up a mountainside into the forest. Then we established a camp, and started scouting for the birds.
Wilson’s BoP is one of the smallest, but also most colorful of the BoP’s. One if its most unusual features is its bare blue head skin, but that is only a little more bizarre then its curled central tail feathers, and its amazing color scheme. The key to photographing this remarkable bird was to find an active display court, where a male had cleared the ground of debris, and had chosen a small sapling in the center that he used as his display pole. My goal with this species in particular, was to tell the story of its courtship display, so I really wanted to get images of the male displaying to a female. To do this, I set up a blind near the most promising court we found, and started waiting there each morning at dawn.
Due to the low light early in the morning, and the fact that this was 2004 and I was using early generation DSLR’s, I couldn’t shoot at higher than ISO 400 to maintain the image quality. So I rigged a couple strobes to give me a little fill light. This worked out well, and although the male was a very fast moving little bird, he paused long enough on his perch for me to capture the image above at 1/15 sec, giving me a nice background exposure balanced with a little flash to make his colors pop. In this pose, the male is presenting his bright red back, along with yellow neck and blue head, to a female who is looking down from up in a tree.
The second shot I was after, which I thought would tell the story of the bird’s courtship, was the female perched right above the male looking down at him while he displayed. After a few of these predawn hikes up the mountain to my blind, and moving between a couple different display courts, I succeeded in capturing the image below. I thought it showed the interaction nicely, and you could even see the male shaking his tail. Feeling like I’d accomplished my goal, I switched focus to the Red Bird-of-Paradise for the remainder of that trip. Though satisfied with my shots, little did I know what I was missing by not having a way to shoot from above and capture the female’s point-of-view.
It wasn’t until over ten years later, in 2015, when I had a chance to go back to Raja Ampat to photograph Wilson’s BoP again. Camera technology had improved a lot since 2004, and not only could I shoot in lower light without strobes, but also, I had the ability to control remotely positioned cameras over wifi. This led Ed Scholes and I to come up with a plan to hide a camera on a tree right above the male’s display position, to shoot looking straight down, over the females shoulder. Well, I think the image below that Ed and I made pretty much says it all and it’s fair to say it blew our socks off when we first saw it. We expected green, from the glint off the male’s breast shield, but we had no idea it would be so bright. I think it is very exciting that in 2015 (and even 2020), it is still possible to find subjects in nature to photograph in ways that have never been seen before.
Behind the Scenes Shots:
I may be the one with the camera, but it takes a team for me to get these shots. I have worked closely with ornithologist Ed Scholes since the beginning of our Birds-of-Paradise project, and while I’m sitting in one blind, he is usually out searching for other display sites, or watching and filming other individuals. And of course without our Indonesian support crew and local landowners, we couldn’t find the locations or camp comfortably when we got there. Here are a couple behind the scenes shots from our camp on Batanta Island back in 2004 when I made the featured images above. The late Kris Tindege, a pioneer birding guide in Papua, was our local guide and fixer.
Our camp on Batanta Island. Kris Tindege and local guides cooking dinner over fires. This is a pretty typical setup for how we still camp in the rain forest on our more remote locations.
It was 2004, and actually the first trip where I shot mostly digitally. Being able to download and review images at night, even in our rustic field camp, was a revelation, compared with carrying loads of film back for processing and not knowing what you had. Ed Scholes and Kris Tindege look on while I review some Wilson’s BoP shots.
Lets Celebrate the Red Bird-of-Paradise
Dear Friends,
I hope you are all well, and staying safe wherever you are hunkering down during these unprecedented times. I’m at home and won’t likely be making my usual field trips any time soon, but I find myself thinking about the amazing Birds-of-Paradise that I enjoy photographing and sharing with you so much. They are still out there in the forests of New Guinea doing their thing, and while I can’t be creating fresh images right now, I have an archive with a wealth of imagery and associated stories that might help brighten your day just a little during these crazy times.
So for the coming weeks, I’m going to share a favorite Bird-of-Paradise image each week, and to make it more fun, I’m also going to have a drawing to give away a print of that image each week.
Print Giveaway: If you have received this newsletter, then you are automatically signed up for my weekly Bird-of-Paradise print giveaway. Each Friday, we will randomly select one of my newsletter subscribers to receive a print of that weeks featured image, and announce the winner on my Facebook page.
The Red Bird-of-Paradise is definitely not one of the easiest birds-of-paradise to photograph. It only inhabits a handful of islands off the western tip of New Guinea, in the Indonesian region called the Raja Ampat Islands.
All that my collaborator Ed Scholes and I had to do was to fly half way around the world to Jakarta, then east, hopping islands across Indonesia. Then we travelled by boat with local guides to the island of Batanta, hired porters in a village, hiked up into the mountains and set up a camp. Then we had to find the birds. After a few days, we found where the birds were displaying, but there was just one catch. The display site appeared to be the tallest tree in this whole area. There was plenty of activity, and the location seemed very promising. But the tree climb was going to be a problem. I was going to have to climb this tree in stages.
I was back the next morning after the birds had left. After a few tries shooting a fishing line with my bow and arrow, I got my arrow over one of the large branches that looked like it wasn’t even half way up the tree. It was a start. I pulled up my rope and climbed to that point. Then I used a weight bag on the end of a throw line to toss over higher and higher branches, pulling my rope over and climbing up each time until I was finally up to the level where the birds had been displaying.
As I rose above the crowns of the surrounding trees, an amazing view opened out over the rain forest of Batanta Island. After taking in this view, I kept climbing. I built a blind 50 meters (165 feet) above the ground, the highest I had ever constructed, perched among branches in the opposite side of this giant tree to where the birds display branches were.
Then for several days, rising well before dawn, I hiked to the site and climbed my rope in the dark, hauling my camera and lenses in a pack dangling below me. I distinctly remember one morning, breaking out into the more open upper canopy and seeing an incredible starry sky as I inched up the rope in the blackness with my headlamp off. It was a surreal feeling, like I was climbing a rope into outer space.
The real excitement came though, once I got set up in the blind and it started to get light. The moment came when one male became excited by a nearby female and went to the broken off branch that appeared to be his prime display spot. He turned to face the sunrise and I got this shot. I knew I had seen something special from a viewpoint perhaps never recorded before.
Behind the Scenes Shots: Here are a couple images from that memorable tree climb in Batanta.
Gallery Update: We regularly add new images to my galleries at www.timlamanfineart.com. Recent additions include hummingbirds from Sunnylands added to the open edition paper prints category, and also a collection of favorite East Africa images from my recent trips. Please have a look!
Hope you enjoy these birds and stories, and can also get outside and enjoy the beauty of birds in your own area, wherever you are.
Stay safe everyone!
Tim
The Story of my Sunrise Bird-of-Paradise shot
Dear Friends,
One of the things I’m asked about most often is what went into creating some of my unique images, especially those made at the top of rain forest canopy. So I thought I would share the story behind one of my most iconic images – The Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise – an image that has been used to champion the conservation of rain forests of the New Guinea region.
Making this image required over a week of preparation and lots of tree rigging and climbing. It was made with a remote camera attached to the tree where the birds displayed. I climbed the tree in the dark every morning, and hid the camera by wrapping it in leaves. I controlled the camera from a neighboring tree, where I had constructed a blind with the help of Aru Islanders out of poles and palm fronds, and run a cable from the camera in the display tree over to the blind tree. After rigging the camera I descended to the ground, and then climbed the blind tree (all in the pre-dawn darkness), carrying my laptop up into the canopy, where I connected it to the cable, and used it to remotely control the camera. A wide-angle view of a bird-of-paradise displaying in the canopy like this had been a dream shot of mine for years. On the particular morning when I got this shot, the sun cracked the horizon and lit up the mist just as the Greater Bird-of-Paradise spread his wings overlooking the canopy. I clicked the shutter, and I knew I had something magical. At moments like this, all the effort is forgotten.
The remote camera in position, facing the display branches.
The remote camera hidden in leaves, with my blind in the tree behind.
Blind under construction in the canopy.
In the blind with my laptop set up, ready to shoot.
The view from the blind with a 400 mm lens allowed me to also capture images such as this – two males displaying in unison!
If you have read this far, I hope you got a bit of a sense of how much work can go into creating one special image. To me, it's worth it.
Gallery Update:
33% Off Holiday Sale Ends Dec 8! The Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise and many other Tim Laman images are available in our gallery, and there is still time for printing and shipping before the Christmas. Just saying!
Thanks for reading, and best wishes to all.
Tim
Inaugural Birds-of-Paradise Flash Sale
Dear Friends,
To celebrate Earth Day and the addition of my Birds-of-Paradise to our print store, we are offering a special selection of square 12 x 12 inch prints for only $100 each.
Each print will be hand-signed by Tim Laman in the one-inch white border. Normally priced at $150, this special $100 sale lasts for just four days, from April 19-22.
Square Prints on Sale for $100!
As with all my prints, you have the option to have the print mounted to Gatorboard with mount blocks and ready to hang. No framing needed.
I have selected a variety of my favorite Birds-of-Paradise for this initial set of six collectable prints. Red, Blue, Wilson’s, and Western Parotia options will look great in any combination. So think about purchasing a set of two, three, or four, and making a nice arrangement on your wall.
See my Instagram feed and stories @TimLaman for shots of the samples we ordered. I think they look great!
Red Bird-of-Paradise Heart Display
A male Red Bird-of-Paradise performs an inverted display at the top of the rain forest canopy, his extraordinary tail wires forming a heart-shaped arc around his outstretched wings. Top choice for the romantic bird lover.
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Western Parotia Bird-of-Paradise Ballerina Dance
A male Western Parotia flares his special chest feathers into a "tutu" and shakes his head wires in the courtship display commonly known as the "ballerina dance". This extraordinary bird is always a conversation starter.
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Blue Bird-of-Paradise in Fruiting Tree
A male Blue Bird-of-Paradise perches on the slender branch of his favorite fruit tree. This photograph will bring color and beauty to any room.
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Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise Head-down Display
A male Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise attempts to lure a female to his display court by presenting his bright red back towards her. One of Tim's classic Birds-of-Paradise shots, this image will match with any other BOP picture in this group.
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Blue Bird-of-Paradise Inverted Display
A male Blue Bird-of-Paradise hangs upside down and flares out his plumes as he performs a practice display. One of the most extraordinary bird displays ever.
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Red Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise Display
A male Red Bird-of-Paradise spreads his wings in display at the top of the rain forest canopy and catches the first rays of the morning sun. Even if you're not an early bird, you can always admire this one!
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Thanks for reading and all the best,
Tim
Spring Greetings from the Tim Laman Studio!
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.
Netflix has already released our Bird-of-Paradise sequence as a “Digital Exclusive” which you can check out on YouTube. But be sure to catch the full film on Netflix if you can after Friday. It was all filmed in 4K, so if you have suitable TV you will really be able to enjoy all the detail.
Gallery Update:
We are continuing to develop our Tim Laman Fine Art online gallery. Our big plan for April is to launch a collection of my favorite Bird-of-Paradise images, made available as signed prints for the first time. We will be offering a series of affordable 12 inch square prints (sneak preview above), as well as traditional large format prints for those with a little more wall space. So please stay tuned for that announcement.
Birds of Sunnylands:
For any of you in Southern California this spring, please note that my exhibition commissioned by the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands is ongoing in their visitor center until June. After making eight trips over two years to complete this project to document the diverse birdlife of their sanctuary in the Coachella Valley, it was very exciting to finally have a chance to visit earlier this year and see the gallery in person (photo below). The positive reaction it was generating with guests was also very satisfying to see. I hope you will have a chance to check it out in person, but if not, you can always view the images in my online gallery.
Thanks for reading and all the best, Tim
Birds of Paradise on BBC Planet Earth 2
Tim shot for the BBC's Planet Earth 2: Jungles episode which premiered in the UK last night. It included two species Tim is very familiar with, the Wilson's Bird of Paradise and the Red Bird of Paradise.
Not only did they capture the beautiful behavior they also discovered something new. For the first time they recorded the Wilson's Bird of Paradise from the top down which is the point of view of the female. They were able to see the beautiful display the male preforms in the way it was intended. To view behind-the-scenes footage of their discovery, visit the BBC Planet Earth II website.
Stay tuned for the premier of the Jungles episode in the US at the end of January.
RED Digital Cinema Interview
Tim was on assignment for the BBC filming birds of paradise for Planet Earth II and he shot mostly with the RED Epic. RED Digital Cinema interviewed Tim about the RED Epic video camera which you can read via the link below. The camera has such a large sensor he was able to get some amazing stills pulled from the video. Read the interview to see how this amazing camera helped in filming the Red Bird of Paradise.
Wild Planet Interview
While in London, Tim was interviewed by Wild Planet about winning the portfolio award in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The article features 14 questions and all 6 winning images.
2014 – It’s Been Quite a Year!
Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, Explorer’s Club membership, and a Canon exhibit and ad campaign make for a banner year.
Fieldwork is what I am all about…. Field research and exploration, and spending many months in the wild corners of the planet seeking those elusive, story-telling images of rare species and wild landscapes. This year was no exception, with a lot of field time on my “Documenting Orangutan Diversity” project in Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as shooting in some other locations such as the Maldives, the Sierra Nevada range, and China.
But as the year wraps up, I also realize that it has been a very special year for me. It’s very rewarding when all the hard work in the field yields not only published photos and articles, but also other types of exposure and recognition. These were some of the special highlights of 2014:
Canon’s 100 Million lenses campaign: As Canon reached the major landmark of producing their 100 Millionth lens, they created a print ad campaign in Japan that featured my Greater Bird-of-Paradise image and a shot of me with my camera up in the canopy in the New Guinea rain forest. I have been an enthusiastic user of Canon equipment for over three decades, so it was a great feeling to be selected to represent all the Canon photographers out there and the Canon brand for this ad.
The Explorer’s Club: As I combine video shooting on Canon DSLR’s more and more with my still photography, it was a milestone for me to receive my first filmmaking award at a film festival in January. We won the “Best Exploration Film” at the New York Wild Film Festival. The Festival was held at the famous Explorer’s Club in New York, and led to opportunities to meet many members and see the club. Subsequently, I was nominated and accepted for membership in the Explorer’s Club, which I am very excited about. I look forward to opportunities to meet more of the renowned explorer’s who are involved with this club, and to continue to make expeditions in the spirit of exploration the club represents.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year Portfolio Award: I’ve been entering photos in this granddaddy of all wildlife photography competitions for nearly twenty years. It is without a doubt the premier competition of its kind in the world. While at least ten of my images have received honors over the years, I had never one a major category or award. So it was a real career high point when my portfolio of six Birds-of-Paradise images won the new Portfolio Award category.
Canon Gallery Exhibit: In January, my year started out with a real milestone. Something I had dreamed about since I was a kid visiting Canon photo galleries in Tokyo. I had my own exhibit of my Birds-of-Paradise work shown in the Canon S Gallery at Canon Marketing Japan headquarters in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It was a thrill to see this childhood fantasy come true, and to spend time in Tokyo, giving a lecture to accompany the exhibit.
Meeting Sir David Attenborough: It’s pretty exciting when you get to meet a long-time hero and inspirational figure like Sir David. It was a real pleasure and an honor for Ed Scholes and me to meet Sir David in Bristol, UK this past April to work on a film project together. With our common interest in Birds-of-Paradise, we hit it off immediately. The film will be out in early 2015, so stay tuned!
2014 is going to be hard to beat, but here’s to 2015!
Tim Interviewed on Talk Radio
When Tim and Edwin Scholes were in Philadelphia for the opening of their Birds of Paradise exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University they did a radio interview. You can listen to the podcast of Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane as they discuss the behavior of the birds of paradise and how they captured all 39 species. As part of the interview they broadcast some of the birds of paradise mating calls and explain how they do it.
Highly Honored Winner in Nature's Best Competition
Tim has been highly honored in the Birds Category of Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards 2013. His picture of the displaying lesser bird-of-paradise captured the attention of the judges. This picture was taken in the Vogelkop Peninsula in West Papua, Indonesia. The winning images will be on display at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. this fall.
Birds of Paradise Move to Philly
Tim's exhibit, Birds of Paradise: Amazing Avian Evolution, is now open at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. The exhibit developed by National Geographic and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is open from May 3 to September 1, 2014. Check out The Academy's website to plan your visit.