By BILL CHAISSON
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UNITY — Peter Christoph will be at Unity Town Hall on Saturday, Dec. 29 at 1 p.m. to talk about owls. Christoph is a wildlife photographer with a particular affection for these nocturnal raptors. The photographer, who lives in South Lancaster, Massachusetts, drove up to Newport when local birdwatcher Dave Lipsy told him that a great gray owl had been seen along the rail trail. When Christoph arrived in Newport several birders were leaving, having not seen the rare northern bird. “I went to an evergreen grove and sat on a log and waited,” said Christoph, “and he came to me.”
“My brother was a birder when we were kids,” he said. “He got me interested, especially in owls. He would take along to Plum Island [near Newburyport, Massachusetts] to look for them.” Christoph started his career as a professional photographer in 1999 working in advertising. After a decade of that he began the transition to being a full-time wildlife photographer.
In addition to taking and selling photographs, Christoph also teaches the art of wildlife photography to either small groups or individuals and he also makes presentations like the one he will give in Unity on Saturday. Christoph is self-taught and is unaware of an academic program that teaches wildlife photography, so he wrote his own book, “The Art of Bird Photography.”
He spends a lot of time (“maybe more than I should”) looking for birds on his own. When he finds them, he brings other people to see them. Most birds are territorial during their breeding season, and can be reliably found in the same place on return visits. But he is also regularly involved with the larger birding and conservation community, giving a lot of presentations for the Audubon Society and setting up kestrel boxes for Mass Audubon.
Christoph generally roams through the northeastern U.S., but he has made trips to the Everglades in Florida, to Africa and Europe, and to Costa Rica in Central America, where there are 600 different species of birds to see and photograph. He found shooting in the low light beneath the rainforest canopy to be a challenge; if forced him to use lower f-stops and higher ISOs than he was accustomed to. But he also ascended into the canopy to shoot in the brighter sunshine from the catwalks that are popular in Costa Rica.
When Christoph made the transition from advertising to wildlife, he sold several pieces of equipment that he no longer needed and purchased an 800-mm telephoto lens, which is the longest one made. “I like to stay as far away as I can,” he said, “because I like to photograph behavior.” In leaving the birds as undisturbed as possible he is able to document them going about their daily lives.
“I’m an artist first. Technique is important, but I want the photograph to have impact,” he said. “I want there to be interesting lighting, not just a documentary shot that you’d find in a bird book. You need to understand bird behavior to anticipate the flight shot.”
Although he will be speaking about owls on Saturday, Christoph also likes to photograph small birds with wood warblers being a favorite. He has learned their calls so that he can listen for them and then find them. “Spring migration is a favorite time of mine,” the photographer said. “Their plumage is fresh and the colors are pretty, they are all singing, and there is no foliage yet.” He has seen as many as 100 species in a day, citing Magee Marsh on Lake Erie in Ohio as “the warbler capital.”
Christoph prints his photographs on aluminum. “It’s long lasting and the colors are vibrant,” he said. “The birds really pop, and it’s not going to fade.” He said the true color is only seen in person and doesn’t translate to the images at his website. His work is hanging at Ferry Wharf, a gallery in Newburyport, Massachusetts and at Thayer Peforming Arts in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
Christoph teaches photography by bringing people into the field. “I will put together special trips for different types of birds,” he said, “depending on the person’s interests.” He knows where and when to go in order to see interesting bird behavior. One of his favorite trips is to Damariscotta, Maine when the alewives are running. The migrating fish become concentrated at a fish ladder that is lifting them from the ocean into a fresh water lake and the ospreys congregate to feast on them.
With all this traveling you would wonder what he was like to live with. “My wife like owls,” he said, “so she’ll go out with me when I go looking for them.”
See peterchristoph.com for more information.
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