A Winter Garden woman beat out thousands of applicants to win the Audubon Institute’s annual bird photography award.
Across categories for amateurs, professionals and children, more than 8,000 photographs were entered. Robin Ulery walked away with the top prize for non-professional photogs. Ulery captured the above shot of a sandhill crane and its colt while kayaking near her home.
“For three years I’ve watched a pair of Sandhill Cranes that nest near my house, observing and photographing them from my kayak,” she told Audubon.org. “On a blustery day this spring, I took my camera and paddled out to check on them.”
Ulery said that the rough waters on the morning that this shot was captured on Johns Lake made the unlikely shot feel all the more special.
“Two colts had finally hatched. The wind, though, made for a challenging photo shoot. There was no solid land to anchor to, and I bounced up and down, sometimes missing the birds completely. So I increased my shutter speed and ISO to compensate,” she said. “Capturing this scene under those conditions felt like a once-in-a-lifetime moment.”
A glance at Ulery’s online photography portfolio shows that she’s more than experienced with wildlife photography (and photos of these cranes in particular).
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This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2021.