Birds: Poetry in the Sky, a picture album by Christian Spencer captures the whole range of sunlight's rainbow colors penetrating through a hummingbird's wings. The detail in every photo is truly remarkable and will make you appreciate nature and animals much more.
Christian Spencer Captures Hummingbird Wings in Full Color
The book featuring the beautiful photographs of Australian photographer Christian Spencer compiles almost two decades' worth of images of birds that he encountered while traveling to Australia and Brazil's Atlantic Forest, including hummingbirds, macaws, and emus.
The magic of his photographs lies in Spencer's natural ability to capture birds flying around in the spectrum of the full sun, letting viewers appreciate every single color and extreme detail in his takes. His stunning images catch the sunlight as it filters through the creatures' feathers, emitting a broad span of rainbow colors.
The pictures were taken while the birds were in mid-flight and flapping their wings at extraordinary speeds. The opalescent effect, which is brought on by diffraction, turns their limbs into brief rainbows. The pictures are true natural gems that are extremely hard to take but Christian Spencer has surely achieved his greatest photography dream with this book.
Wildlife Australia Magazine commented on this book:
“…This is photographic art of birds ‘where they live’ and where humans must watch in awe.”
Birds: Poetry in the Sky by Christian Spencer
Birds in their environment, magnificently displayed in their natural settings, are examples of nature as art. Those who enjoy birds and those seeking an illustrated book that goes beyond photojournalism and styled studio images might consider actually buying 'Poetry in the Sky' by Christian Spencer.
The artist still finds birds to be incredibly fascinating every single day of his life he gets the chance to observe them closely. Christian Spencer, an Australian photographer is an artist who has been residing near the Brazilian Amazon since 2001 and has devoted his life to capturing life's greatest moments involving the movement and journey of birds.
Capturing Nature's Greatest Moments
He describes his camera as his eternal brush, the one that has allowed him to pursue a career in what he loves most. Christian Spencer's photographs truly capture the poetry of nature, letting its beauty speak for itself — which is why he forgoes any image editing. He was the first to capture the breathtakingly fast beating of hummingbirds' wings in the sunlight, which forms a rainbow in the air. The world of birds unfolds before his lens in all its colorful glory and elegance: in reflections on the water, between blossoms and trees, and high above the treetops.
More About the Photographer
Since a young age, Christian Spencer has always been interested in Nature and indigenous cultures. He started painting professionally in 1996 in Adelaide. In 1998 he moved to a sheep station on an isolated farm in the heart of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia to work and paint.
It was there that Christian Spencer developed his own style, mixing Islamic geometry, Meso-American motifs, and tribal art with the harsh beauty of the Australian Outback. In the year 2000 he moved to Brazil and since 2001 has lived and worked in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro state, among the rich biodiversity of the Atlantic Rainforest. The rich natural and cultural history of Brazil played an important part in the development of his paintings, enriching even more his unique style. He has shown his works in many exhibitions around Brazil, Australia, and Europe.
Christian Spencer has been awarded many prizes in international photo competitions. Winning best overall photo in 2014 and 2015 in the Ecological Society of Australia Photo Competition; winner in World Meteorological Organization photography awards and finalist in Head On Awards in Sydney Australia and Travel Photographer of the Year. Recently he was awarded the prize “Fundação Casa da Cultura Macedo Miranda” at the 44º Art Salon of the Museum of Modern Art of Resende - RJ.
Christian Spencer has used canvas, video, music, and photography during the course of his 18-year career to support his distinctive art, which he describes as 'the invisible orchestrated cosmos' which is a portrayal of the abstraction he observes in nature.
Nature as a Work of Art
Nature as a work of art: birds in their habitat, spectacularly presented in their natural surroundings The award-winning photo series in a coffee table book for the first time For bird lovers and all those looking for an illustrated book that ventures beyond photojournalism and stylized studio shots.
- Winner Tokyo Foto Awards 2023 Bronze Book category
- Winner PX3 Photo Awards Paris 2023 Bronze book category
- Highly commended International Photos Awards 2023 book category
If you want to acquire Christian's book 'Birds: Poetry in the Sky' (224 pages), get ready to be surprised by flying birds and a spectacular color palette while they swift through the air.
Photos by Christian Spencer.
