Pete Myers: Bird Life on the Beach

Feeding, Fighting, Flocking and Frolicking: Photographic Insights into Shorebird Natural History

Artist reception: November 13, 3:00-5:00 pm

Georgia O’Keefe taught us not just to look, but to see the beauty of nature in its intimate details. She worked with subjects, often flowers, that at best move very slowly, but mostly not at all.

Birds, in contrast, move rapidly, often faster than our eyes can track.  With modern photographic equipment, I aspire to emulate O’Keefe: to capture intimate moments in birds’ lives that reveal details not evident to casual observers, and with these prints to share those moments with you.  Each one has a rich story behind it. And each depicts a part of the natural history of northern California’s sandy beaches.

These photographs capture vibrant details of the life of birds living, fighting, feeding and dying on the beaches of Point Reyes and Bodega Bay. They reveal aspects of the life of birds few casual observers will ever see.

Capturing these images only starts with modern photographic equipment.  Much more important are stealth, guile, and patience. And most important of all is that I have worked with many of these species for decades, here on Point Reyes, so I can often anticipate what they are about to do, and thus be prepared to catch their exquisite moments.

I am so pleased to bring these photographs home to Point Reyes, to Commonweal.

Almost all these photographs were taken using a Sony α1 with either a 100-400 or 200-600 zoom and natural light.