Wildlife Near and Far
Manchester Town Hall
Manchester
Nov. 24, 2025
I’ve learned a great deal about writing over the last couple of years thanks to great editors, readers offering feedback and the simple act of writing a lot. For the most part, if you do something over and over, you have no choice but to get better at it.
For the most part.
One element of my toolbox that hasn’t improved as much is my photography. I’d consider my pictures serviceable, but after stopping by the Manchester Town Hall to see the exhibit Wildlife Near and Far, I’m not even sure serviceable is the right word by comparison.
The latest exhibit by the Manchester Art Association is dedicated to artistic representations of wildlife. The exhibit includes dozens of pieces ranging from watercolor and oil paintings to ceramics featuring animals in relief. What drew my attention in the gallery though were the photographs, which captured some wonderful moments of animals in their natural habitats.
Light is an aspect of photography that I’ve barely begun to understand, much less master. The baseline concern is too much light or too little, but it gets complicated fast. What kind of light (as in natural vs. artificial, fluorescent vs. incandescent), where the light is positioned and the color of the light all impact how well a picture comes out.
In Sophia Marler’s Hummingbird in Flight, light is as much the main character as the hummingbird. She’s captured an angle of the bird that makes it glisten in the sunlight, revealing multiple shades of the bird’s feathers as well as the intricate patterns on its throat. Shooting in daylight makes for easy point-and-click images, but it takes practice and skill to capture a shot like this without shadows or overexposure ruining it.
For all the other skills that taking good pictures requires, photography is still largely a matter of timing. Photographers have to recognize the potential for a good picture and take it in mere moments. Timing is perhaps the most difficult photography skill for me, as I’m often writing or talking to people at events and miss those moments as I fumble between my notepad and my camera.
Marler once again shows her keen eye for capturing the right moment with Whale Tail, snapping the moment right before the massive mammal slides back completely beneath the waves. The importance of timing here is not just in catching the whale before it disappears, but also in the composition of the shot itself.
Finally, color can be the most striking aspect of good photography. Contrasts in color can heighten shape and define lines, and there was no better example than Jim Oliphant’s Busy Swallowtail, where he captures a butterfly as it feeds on the nectar of the appropriately named Butterfly Bush. The sharp purple of the flowers makes the fuzzy blacks of the swallowtail look impressionistic by comparison, and in fact I thought it was a painting until I examined it more closely. Having that eye for color composition is another skill I want to develop, as this picture wouldn’t be as memorable if the swallowtail had been captured against the blue sky or a brown tree trunk. The color made the moment.
Whenever anyone asks, I tell them I’m not a photographer; I’m just a writer who takes pictures. The talent of the photographers on display in Manchester has reassured me that it’s a distinction worth making.
NEXT
Jamil goes to try his hand at some trivia at Parkville Market.
