Nature photos do more than make us “ooh” and “ahh.” They often provide a glimpse into a world that few humans will ever see.
It does us good to remember that the world doesn’t belong to humans alone (even if we’re responsible for the overwhelming majority of its destruction) and the men and women who sit for hours or days with their cameras at the ready in territory the rest of us rarely enter allow us to see and appreciate our fellow inhabitants.
Three photos taken by Tobias Baumgaertner, a photographer from Melbourne, Australia captured on St. Kilda beach in early 2019 are going viral for not only their beauty but for the story they tell. Ironically, it’s one we would think of as rather human.
On March 25th, Baumgaertner posted two of the photos with a simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking caption.
He began:
“These two Fairy penguins poised upon a rock overlooking the Melbourne skyline were standing there for hours, flipper in flipper, watching the sparkling lights of the skyline and ocean.”
Already the fact that wildlife would look out at the manmade skyline flips our idea of the world on its head. It’s usually us staring out at nature.
The photographer said that a volunteer told him more of the story of these two sweet creatures.
“…the white one was an elderly lady who had lost her partner and apparently so did the younger male to the left. Since then they meet regularly comforting each other and standing together for hours watching the dancing lights of the nearby city.”
Of course, we know nothing about the internal life of penguins. Putting words that describe human emotions on animals doesn’t seem right, but at the same time we have no better way to describe what’s going on here other than “empathy.”
Baumgaertner said he spent three full nights in the penguin colony before he was able to get the perfect shot.
“Between not being able or allowed to use any lights and the tiny penguins continuously moving, rubbing their flippers on each other’s backs and cleaning one another, it was really hard to get a shot but I got lucky during one beautiful moment.”
Nature photography is a blend of skill and luck. It takes more than just a person with a camera to frame a shot and make it tell a story. Equally, you can’t force the story — you have to wait patiently until it unfolds for you. This kind of art takes amazing patience.
The tools matter as well. This isn’t an iPhone photo. It was shot on Nikon Z6 camera with a Nikkor 50mm 1.4 lens. The aperture was set at f/1.4 with a shutter speed of 1/60 sec.
Photography is both an art and a technical ability, requiring not just a good eye but a knowledge of the equipment and how to best utilize it.
On April 13, Baumgaertner shared an “outtake” from the shoot that was equally beautiful.
Of it, he said:
“The way that these two lovebirds were caring for one another stood out from the entire colony. While all the other penguins were sleeping or running around, those two seemed to just stand there and enjoy every second they had together, holding each other in their flippers and talking about penguin stuff.”
It’s hard not to give your heart to these two lovebirds.
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