TC prof finds peace and calm in nature photography
TEXARKANA, Texas — In March 2020, everything seemed to stop in its place when initial information about the coronavirus pandemic broke.
“We were here, we let students out for spring break the spring semester of 2020, and we didn’t come back to campus,” said Mark Storey, Texarkana College professor of biology.
What didn’t stop was all of nature’s critters going about living their lives: eating, taking care of their young, flitting about without knowledge of what literally plagued their human counterparts.
“I started noticing that there were a lot of things that I did not take the time to notice and started seeing all this beauty around me,” Storey said. “It was kind of a therapeutic thing for me to be able to just stop and notice nature.”
Storey said his nature photography helped calm him and bring him peace.
“When you’re taking a photograph, you’re capturing a moment in time that’s never going to happen again,” he said. “It’s you, it’s that animal, it’s that bird doing something in a particular situation, and it’s never going to happen again. And you’re the one person to witness this.”
Early on in his photography venture, Storey came across a hummingbird with a distinct look that amazed him.
“I had contacted an ornithologist that used to work for Texas Parks and Wildlife, and he said, ‘That’s a ruby-throated hummingbird,’”
Storey said. “But it’s leucistic (lacking pigmentation), and it’s all white, and all of the feathers are white, except there was a dark eye.”
Storey named the fluttering creature Tinkerbell, or Tink for short, and spent five days photographing his new muse.
“I just wanted to make sure that everybody that wants to see something like this gets a chance to see it,” Storey said. “I just want everybody to see her because she’s so beautiful.”
The hummingbird eventually moved on, but Storey remembers her impact on him.
“Somebody commented and said, ‘That is the luckiest photograph, you’ll never see that again,’” he said. “I may not, but I did have that one opportunity, and I was just glad to get some pictures.”
In recent days, the biology professor has come across a family of bald eagles with a newly hatched eaglet that he has gotten to watch grow up.
“In the span of 17 days, this eaglet that’s all fluffy and a little tiny baby is already looking like a full grown bird. It’s amazing. They will fledge, leaving the parents and the nest and will be able to fly in about 65 days,” Storey said. “They go from the egg to a full-sized bird with a 7-foot wingspan.”
Storey is part of the Tex-ark Audubon Society and keeps his photography practices ethical for his subjects’ safety.
“I want to be very respectful, conscientious and … I do not want to get any closer to disturb them, to change their behavior, to change their ability to forage for food or anything else,” he said.
Storey said his photography hobby is purely for enjoyment and his motivation is just to look at what is around him.
“Photography is painting with light, and so you have to have the right subject and have the right location. You have to have the right light,” he said. “It’s sort of like fishing. You don’t know what’s going to happen when you cast that lure out there. Are you going to get a hit or not? That always kind of keeps you going.”