Feathered friends in focus
Snapper’s incredible bird photos land prizes at Toowoomba show
YEARS ago, as Michelle Ruthenberg and her husband Andrew explored the Australian landscape and its wildlife, Mrs Ruthenberg was adamant she was “never to be one of those people who take photos of birds”.
It’s somewhat ironic then, that Mrs Ruthenberg was awarded first and third prize in the Heritage Bank Toowoomba Royal Show’s nature photography section for her photos of an eastern yellow robin and a gourdian finch.
“The irony of it is just incredible,” she said, laughing.
“Birds just seemed to be something that would pop up... so I said to my hubby a couple of years ago, why don’t we try and see as many of the Australian birds as we can?
“So that’s what we’ve been doing consciously since September 2016... and we’re now up to about 510.
“We’ll probably never see them all because some of them are rare as and hard to get to and becoming extinct even, but we’ll try see as many as we can.”
Mrs Ruthenberg said it was great to win prizes for her photography at this year’s show.
Of the 390 photos entered into the photography section this year, about 150 were printed for exhibition.
The Toowoomba resident said bird photography had grown to be something she and her husband were “really passionate about”.
“It’s something we love doing... and people don’t even know we’ve got these birds in this country.. so it’s good to get the awareness out there.”
The first prize-winning photo of the eastern yellow robin was taken in the Bunya Mountains, while the photo of the gourdian finch was taken in Wyndham, Western Australia.
Staying at a caravan park in the northern-most town in the Kimberley region, Mrs Ruthenberg said the park owners had placed water dishes in a dry creekbed for the birds to drink from.
“So I think we had maybe 20 different types of birds come down just to drink at these little watering dishes so we just sat there with our cameras and waited,” she recalled.
“It was just an amazing experience.”