During September 2021, Lockdown 7 or 8, the world shrunk.
One day, I was making a coffee in the kitchen when a sudden flash of colour whirred into view. An Eastern Rosella. It landed on a fencepost in the garden, as if placed there by a painters brush.
My heart raced with excitement at the sight of something new breaking through into the tiny world we’d been forced into. I grabbed my camera and got some shots of the bird before it sensed me getting too close and flew off, out of my painting and away into someone else’s. The moment sparked something.
I’d forgotten how important animals were in my life, especially wild and unexpected encounters like this one. It ignited a curiosity to pay attention to the natural world around me. Whether it be just a view out the window into the backyard or a walk through a national park or a city nature reserve.
I suddenly saw birds everywhere. Birds that had been there all along, but I’d never really noticed. Currawongs, magpies, butcher birds, crested pigeons, Gang-gangs and rainbow lorikeets all visited my backyard.
What I’ve found even more exciting is discovering that beautiful birds aren’t just confined to distant national parks or isolated locations only those who shop at BCF can get to. They’re everywhere. I’ve found pockets of sanctuary in the deepest depths of suburbia where animals have made their homes alongside ours.
Bird watching is something that snuck up on me. I never thought I’d be the guy losing his shit over a sighting of an Eastern shrike-tit or a Buff-banded rail - but here we are.
Of all the benefits of bird watching (and there are so many) the reminder to look up and down and all around might be the best one. To let your eyes linger a little longer on that grey mass that fluttered into a tree right in front of you. To be curious about the living creatures we encounter, to ask questions about them, to wonder about them, to connect with them.
Capturing these critters became an addiction. And a business was born. To make footage of Australian animals of all kinds easily accessible to companies, charities, councils and marketers. To allow them to promote their green spaces, their biodiversity, their unique wildlife through engaging video footage. Because a world that values birds and slugs and snakes as well as the cuddly stuff - is the world I love.