Talent and training are all well and good, but sometimes capturing a winning photo comes down to patience and luck. Being in the right place at the right time is how Nile Fellows describes capturing Female Oriole at Nest, his photo that took second place in the Wildlife and Nature division of our first annual Picture Saint Paul photo contest.
This is Fellows’ first award for his photography; as a hobbyist, he is less interested in accolades than in documenting Minnesota’s natural beauty “just for fun,” he says.
Fellows has been going on long nature walks near his home in the Como neighborhood for years, and one day he started taking a camera along with him. He particularly enjoys traversing Como Park, watching for wildlife and taking photos with his Nikon D5100 camera as he goes along.
“Some days, I see nothing,” Fellows says. “Some days, I get lucky.”
On the day he snapped Female Oriole at Nest, Fellows was returning to a favorite spot in Como Park where he had seen an oriole the day before; this time, he brought his camera and a telephoto zoom lens. After some waiting, he spotted the bird at her nest and got to work.
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We’ll be asking for contest submissions in August, so keep your camera handy this summer. Learn more at saintpaulmag.com.
