John Tubbs won first place with his photo Albino Gila Woodpecker.
Charles Schinner took second place with his photo Alaskan Mud at Low Tide.
The photo Under the Sea, by Shari Rogers, placed third.
The Photo Club of Quail Creek continued with its quarterly member’s challenge with quarter 3 having the topic of nature. Each club member could enter up to three photos taken during the quarter. This subject was a very popular one for the members and drew 45 entries. All of the photos can be seen on our Flickr site tinyurl.com/bdcuf2tu.
John Tubbs won first place with his photo Albino Gila Woodpecker. John commented, “This image was taken at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum where my wife Trisha and I are Monday docents. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime photo given that the bird is a pure albino (pink eye, pink bill). Leucistic (partially white) birds are relatively common, but neither of the two retired ornithology professor friends I showed the picture to have ever seen a pure albino of any bird species in the wild, so they are incredibly rare. The parents were normal-plumaged birds, and there was at least one normal-colored sibling in the nest hole with this bird.
I always have a camera with me while on docent duty in case a good critter photo op presents itself. I owe this shot to a museum guest—a nature tour guide who was in the area a few days ahead of a trip she was leading. She told me about the bird and pointed out the nest hole. I staked the hole out and had to wait about 15 minutes until the youngster poked its head out and I was able to snap some shots. Unfortunately, the bird has never been seen on the grounds after it fledged. Albino and highly leucistic animals are obvious to predators and often have impaired eyesight as well, so their longevity tends to be short. My guess is that one of the resident Cooper’s Hawks at the museum made a quick meal out of this bird once it was out and flying around.” John used a Sony ILCE-1, shooting at 400mm, 1/1000 sec, f/10, and ISO 1000.
Charles Schinner took second place with his photo Alaskan Mud at Low Tide. Charles was unavailable to comment on this very fine abstract.
The photo Under the Sea, by Shari Rogers, placed third. Shari said, “Vacation in Kona, Hawaii, trying out my Olympus T-G6, which can go underwater. Visited an octopus farm, and in the tank I went. Very little after processing, as the camera performs remarkably well under the water. Amazing little camera!” Shari used her Olympus shooting at 45 mm, f/2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/320 sec.
The Photography Club of Quail Creek has a monthly photo contest for its members and schedules numerous photo field trips for members throughout the year. Meetings are held the second Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. at the Kino Conference Center, Mesquite Room. The room venue could vary each month. Consult the club’s constantly updated website www.pcqc.org as well as the weekday HOA What’s Happening for additional information.