From My Perch: Exhibit at Big Bend NP

Wow, it has been a long time since I published a story. I know there are lots of excuses that you do not want to know but two of the excuses are related to photography.

First, since last fall, all the pictures, that I was taking with my big lens, were somewhat fuzzy (as if I was shaking badly). So, I did not have any pictures about which to write. It wasn't until May that they, my husband and a friend, did some tests on my camera and on my lens. They determined that the lens was no longer taking pictures with a sharp focus. I had had this lens since 1999 and it has been carried many, many miles and it needed re-alignment. I sent the lens to a Canon repair center. It is back and I am taking wonderful pictures again.

Second, I was busy learning how to develop and print my photos.

My husband and I spent 11 days in Big Bend NP in the spring of 2008. We met Dr Rob Dean, a ranger at Big Bend NP, at Post Park in Marathon where we all were birding. In the days following, we met Dr Dean several times at his work in the park. As a result, he viewed my website and subsequently, asked me for permission to use some of my photos in some posters for the Rio Grande Valley Visitor Center.

This was quite a learning experience because it is one thing to take photos with your digital camera, it is quite another to develop your own pictures as a print. With Photoshop CS3 and 7.0, I managed to print some very nice pictures, 43 in all. These became the basis for 3 posters of Doves, Red Birds and Black Birds in the visitor center. The entire project took 5 months and was finished in December.

Below is a picture of the 3 posters.

The Rio Grande Valley Visitor Center was opened in November and at the close of the season in May, Dr Dean wrote:

...we exceeded 13,000 visitors this year. We feel that the success of this season is due to two things - our theme being birds and your images being the dominate draw. The posters highlighting black birds and doves were the dominant features over our bird book display. Adjacent to that was our digital image picture frame which rotated through your images identifying each bird by name. In the viewing room, we hung 18 of your images in black picture frames with the picture of you and your gear and a key identifying those images. These will remain as a permanent fixture in the viewing room and we have others that we will hang to augment those already on the wall.

Some of the photos on permanent display: