“I didn't know you liked birds!” – How a Lincoln couple discovered their love of wildlife photography.A Nebraska Life Magazine web-only feature. |
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Six years after discovering their passion for wildlife photography, Thane Kirchhoff and Carol Swigart are making their first-ever magazine appearance in the March/April 2006 issue of Nebraska Life. Both the cover and “Last Look” photos are theirs. Recently, we talked with Thane and Carol about their photography.
Perhaps most surprising is that neither one is formally trained as a photographer. Their business is corporate aircraft refurbishment. But Thane, a native of Deshler, and Carol, of North Platte, share another common interest in things that fly. They love to watch birds.
Several years ago, while vacationing at a wildlife refuge in Delaware, “Carol just jumped out of the car and got within 20 feet of a great egret with a point-and-shoot camera,” Thane said.
“I didn't know you liked birds!” Thane told Carol. Then, in 1999, Thane bought her a spotting telescope for her camera. Their passion for wildlife photography had begun.
As photographers, they are mostly self-taught – lots of reading, lots of trial and error. In the past few years, digital photography has helped speed the learning process by being able to view their photos on a laptop while still in the field.
In Nebraska and western U.S. states, the Gulf Coast and Newfoundland , the couple have hauled their camera bags in search of adventure and the perfect photograph.
“We've done some crazy stuff,” Carol said. “One night we put on waders and tracked out to a sandbar on the Platte .” The couple spent a cold March night in sleeping bags in a blind. To see the cranes in the morning, they knew they'd have to arrive early so as not to frighten the birds.
“So we spent the night freezing our tails off, but the birds pulled a fast one and didn't land there in the morning,” Carol said. “You can study animals, but every time you think you know them, they can fool you.”
| About Sandhill Cranes The annual sandhill crane migration is one of nature's greatest spectacles. From late February to early April, something like 50,000 human visitors come to the Platte River to see 350,000 to 500,000 sandhill cranes and about 10 million (give or take a few) migrating ducks and geese. Though the name “sandhill crane” refers to sandhills of the arctic tundra and not to Nebraska 's famous grass-covered dunes, the birds are associated with Nebraska in a unique way. Every spring, 80 percent of the species passes through the state. Coming from Texas and Mexico and bound for the arctic, their broad migratory path narrows in the central Plains as they converge on the Platte valley between Grand Island and Lexington , and between North Platte and Sutherland. The vicinity has long been a favored staging area, a place for the cranes to rest, eat, and wait for spring to arrive at their arctic nesting grounds. Sandhill cranes are wading birds with long, thin legs, a six-foot wingspan, and a habit of dancing – bowing and leaping rhythmically – during courtship or whenever the spirit moves them. When traveling, they can fly 300 miles a day. Some go as far as Siberia , making a round trip of 14,000 miles.
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Thane remembers the first time they got close to sandhill cranes. Again they waited in a blind, hoping the birds would come to that spot. And this time they did, though it was too dark for photography. Even so, “we could hear them nearby,” and Thane and Carol were thrilled by the experience.
“We never have any luck the first time,” Thane said of their photo excursions. “It's always the fifth, sixth, seventh time.”
And that's something about photography that non-photographers don't always appreciate. “If you give up easily, wildlife photography is definitely not something to pursue,” Carol said. “If you get one good shot out of 300, you're really excited.”
What keeps the couple going is that they enjoy the search for great photos as much as the photos themselves. “We get a tremendous amount of enjoyment from being out there,” Carol said. “If we get good photographs, that's just icing on the cake.”
You can see more of Thane and Carol's photography at their website, www.fireskyimages.com