Travel …
Travelling WITHOUT MOVING Two photographers bring us visions of nature under lockdown – images of what we’ve missed, and of what we normally don’t look at at home.
W
the iconic Table Mountain, Steven
always been a passion. Birding
has embraced the challenge of
trains me to observe nature’s
photographing these feathered
sounds and pay attention to
beauties as a way to bring joy
the smaller things. Birds are all
during these uncertain times, and
around us doing something in
he’s had some incredible results.
huge diversity. All you have to do is
hile we were under lockdown, two
stop, look and listen and they tell
local photographers brought us two
WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND?
you who they are and what they
very different visions of nature. For a
I’m a wildlife enthusiast with
are doing – whether it’s marking
picture of what we’ve been missing, Dr Ryan Daly
a background in Zoology and
a territory, nesting or feeding…
of the Oceanographic Research Institute shares
have worked as an underwater
they are always busy. They are so
unique underwater images of the bumper 2020
photographer, focusing on sharks,
beautiful but incredibly difficult to
sardine run on the KZN South Coast. And for a
whales and dolphins. During
photograph because they are shy
vision of the incredible wildlife right under our
the lockdown, I’m focusing on
and extremely fast. Photographing
noses, nature photographer Steven Benjamin
the birds in my garden and the
birds is a challenge but it creates
has been taking incredible shots of the resident
surrounding suburban gardens.
a mental space to observe and
birdlife in his Kalk Bay garden.
BRINGING NATURE INTO THE HOME THROUGH THE LENS OF PHOTOGRAPHER STEVEN BENJAMIN
admire nature.
HAVE YOU ALWAYS ENJOYED BIRD WATCHING? interested in birds. I was dyslexic
WHAT MADE YOU START PHOTOGRAPHING BIRDS IN YOUR GARDEN?
as a young child and I still have
I’ve always wanted to try
From the age of 5 or 6 I was
my first bird book where I ‘ticked’ backwards!
Renowned for his captivating underwater imagery of South Africa’s marine animals,
I was trying to identify the birds
photographing birds but just never had the time. We have always had a bird feeder but never filled it regularly, so, when we started the
that flew into my
lockdown, I put white sugar in the
wildlife enthusiast Steven
pre-school class
feeder every morning and enjoyed
Benjamin has had to pivot
and begged
seeing the local bird community
his focus to his Kalk Bay
my mom to let
visit us. I took a few GoPro
garden during lockdown,
me mark off
video clips and posted them on
where he has been taking incredible shots of Cape Town’s resident birdlife. Located near 12
SILVER DIGEST // WINTER 2020
what I’d seen, so birding has
Instagram, which garnered quite a bit of attention.
