Caught you off guard with that title, right?
I’ve always loved wild animals. There’s this rush of adrenaline every time I come close to some wild beast – predator or prey – that I just can’t explain. It happens when I’m in a tree stand hunting or just riding by a lake and seeing hundreds of ducks. Even when I see an eagle for the hundred-thousandth time my heart jumps out of my chest. It’s exciting. Every three o’clock in the morning alarm is totally worth it for that one image.
I woke up early one fall morning in 2023 to try and find something with a new camera I had just unpackaged, the Nikon Z8. There aren’t a whole lot of opportunities in south Alabama for pretty landscapes and nature so we have to make due with what we’ve got. The river was low so the sandbar at the Claiborne Lock and Dam had become kind of like a beach with a little creek running through it. So that’s where I went for a birding sunrise.
It was foggy, though, as all sunrises on the river in the fall are. Ducks were flying overhead but I couldn’t see them. I could only hear them. I was definitely bummed about that but stayed the course and went to the sandbar anyway. I sat there for about a half hour before something happened.
A heron flew into the scene and I stalked him. He didn’t seem to mind, either; he gave me several poses over the course of about an hour. I’ll skip the details of a douchebag “man” that threw a rock at it for no reason at all and tell you that I captured him flying into the sun and it was gorgeous. I had to paint it!
Then there’s “The Bull.” This one, I’ll be honest, took me two years to figure out what to do with. It was already a little too late in the day to get anything with good light. The sun was probably at 11:00 so it was bright and ugly. The shadows were dark and harsh, especially from his antlers, and there just wasn’t a whole lot I was particularly proud of except for the fact that I photographed a huge bull elk and his harem.
The funny part of the story is that I was with a group of other photographers and enthusiasts. One of them, Jory, was a hunting guide and knew as much as I do about deer and their cousins’ rut behaviors.
“Oh my gosh, you guys, look at his neck!” one of the women breathed in awe. “It’s so wet! He must’ve went swimming.”
I turned to Jory and said, “Should we tell them?” He laughed and just shook his head.
It was the bull’s own urine.
Late last year I decided to take the image to the next level and envisioned a graphite-style digital painting. I think I achieved that! It scored really well in the ASP Images of Distinction this year, winning 3rd place in the Wildlife Category in Round 1, a Judge’s Choice, and won the Southeast District Award – which I’m probably not supposed to say yet but I don’t care.
This is hanging in my house, now. It’s one of my all-time favorites.
There are so many stories behind so many of my images, especially the wildlife, that I would love to tell you about. But I think I’d rather keep them to myself until you have one of them printed for your home, office, or camp house.
I love what I do for a living when I’m making portraits with clients. It’s fun and always a new adventure. All of that feeds my desire to create works of art in wildlife, though. I don’t care if I never sell any of them, I’ll continue to work harder and harder to create something I love creating, whether it’s a digital painting or a traditional image.
In addition to the art being something that I am always working on, it's fantastic therapy. It focuses all of my attention away from my problems and turns it around. When I'm working, I'm smiling.
I hope you love them as much as I do.
Visit the Wildlife & Landscape Store and find something you love for yourself or someone as a gift.
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