What can't be unseen

"Land of the eagle" - Audun Rikardsen - Norway

This is a photograph.

It was obtained through the effort, endurance, and patience of three years.

The photographer set up a branch on a ledge, attached a camera to it, built himself a hide nearby, and made the branch more attractive to eagles by hanging meat on it. After three years (three years), an eagle got accustomed to the set-up, and visited regularly.

This photo was the winner in the "Behaviour: Birds" category of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019. It was one of my personal favourites. I had several other favourites, like this one,

"Summer Cornfield" - Joël Brunet - France

which was "Highly Commended" in the "Plants and Fungi" category.

Every year, the Royal British Columbia Museum is one of the few hosts of the display resulting from the competition. (I think there are only three venues in Canada.) Demeter has been going for years, and younger daughter and I have attended for the past three exhibitions. Younger daughter insists on carefully reading the description on each photo, including the camera settings. I've found the best way to accommodate this is by going about five times, which is enough time for younger daughter to carefully examine each of the hundred photos.

It's a little nerve-wracking, because her strategy is to stand sideways by the corner of each photo, and read the captions aloud, going back and repeating if she is deciphering a new word, or distracted by someone approaching to view the image, as they tend to do in an exhibition.

A pair of elderly ladies came up behind her, and asked her to move. I quickly pointed out that there was an excellent vantage point from where I was standing, leaning in to quietly say: "She reads out loud to process..."

They hastily backed off, and actually apologized to younger daughter, while I cringed inwardly.

Last year, the exhibit ended before younger daughter had had a chance to "process" all the images, so this year, I carefully noted the ending date of March 29th.

Of course the museum shut down on March 17th, but luckily, we had got in our five visits, with all the photos thoroughly viewed.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year is a collection of jaw-dropping photos, illustrating the fragility of our eco-system, and how an image is a result of days, months, or years of patient waiting - or simply being in the right place with an adequate camera. Way too few women amongst the photographers, and a couple of photos I can't un-see.

So I won't show them to you. You can google "Wildlife Photographer 2019", and guess.