It started with the Booby

My photography passion started in 2007 when our dear friend Barb offered us a chance to join her and her daughter on the trip to the Galapagos Islands. She knew I loved birds, and knew the Galapagos was a special place for birders. There are 24 birds endemic to the Galapagos—they don’t live anywhere else. Famous among them are the so-called Darwin’s Finches, the birds that Darwin found on his famous trip to the Galapagos, and which figure prominently is his theory of natural selection.

But perhaps the best-known of the Galapagos birds is the blue-footed booby. I wanted to enhance my love of birding by taking pictures of them, so I bought a good DSLR camera with two interchangeable lenses for the trip. I figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, so I should get a really good camera. And the blue-footed booby was the first bird I saw there.

The boobies have no natural predators, so you can walk right up to them. A booby chick walked up to me, the way a puppy might. And if you’re really lucky, you will get to see it raining boobies. That’s what the local naturalists call it when a flock of the birds hover about 50 feet over the water, then dive straight down, hitting the water with loud “splats,” and catching fish in their open beaks as the swim to the surface.

The Galapagos will always have a special place in my heart. I hope you’re all lucky enough to go there someday.