Close to Home Janet Safris

from Natural Traveler Magazine Winter 2022

by naturaltravelermagazine

Far and Wide Buddy Mays

African Crowned Crane, Aberdare National Park, Kenya, East Africa

White Tern,Bird Island, Seychelle Islands, Indian Ocean

Janet Safris

“For as long as I can remember, my grandparents, father, mother and brothers have been interested and involved in photography,” Janet Safris explains. “It has always been a part of my life. When I was a little girl, I have memories of my grandfather feeding the birds, the sound of mourning doves cooing outside my window in the early mornings. My parents have always had bird feeders outside the kitchen widow. This tradition carried through to my life, as I feed the birds. The interest that came to me later in life was, I wanted to capture and show people what they couldn’t see with their naked eye. The beauty of birds.”

Des Moines, Iowa and surrounding areas provide all the geography Safris needs to capture stunning photos of a wide variety of indigenous and migratory birds.

“The majority of my photos are taken within five to ten miles of my home,” she says. “I will sit anywhere: bogs, sloughs, prairies or flooded cornfields. The visitors that fly through Iowa are pretty incredible: storks, glossy faced ibis and crested caracara, just to name a few.”

Raptors are particularly rich subject matter for Safris’s photography. “One of my favorite spots to photograph raptors is the Sax Zim Bog, about two hours north of Duluth, Minnesota,” she says. “During the winter months, It is also a gathering spot for owls looking for mates.”

In addition to birds, Safris, has photographed many other forms of wildlife, mink, to badgers, snakes to spiders, coyotes, to name just a few. “When you are sitting in the field, you never know what might walk out or fly in,” she says. “For me, it’s the anticipation of the unexpected that keeps me going out day after day.”

Safris works with a Nikon platform, her camera a D500 with a Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens.