When 13 year-old Sammy Parra entered the galla hall of the Wings Over the Rockies Nature Festival in Invermere, B.C., and saw his photograph, an intimate portrait of two House Finches perched peacefully on the branches of a bush near his home in Cochrane, he thought the same as any teenager would think seeing their work so proudly displayed among the other contest winners.
“Wow, this is sick,” he said.
Parra, an enthusiastic young photographer who has quickly developed a passion for capturing birds in their natural element, was named the winner of the 15 and Under category of the "Wings Over the Rockies Nature Festival" photo contest on May 10.
The Wings Over the Rockies festival was founded in 1997 and it holds its photography contest every year. The festival's mission is to inspire a deep connection to nature through education, exploration, and conservation. The organization says the photo contest is a key part of fulfilling this mission by encouraging photographers of all ages to capture and share powerful stories of the natural world.
Parra’s passion for photography comes from his father, and his interest in photographing birds is a subject that he approaches as studiously as any serious artist would. “I love it,” he said of his passion for photography. “I go pretty much every day, multiple times a day, because it’s fun.”
Parra’s contest winning photograph received high praise from the contest judges, but when he captured it, he didn’t think it was good at all. The picture of the two finches, a red male casting a glance to its right, and a female looking directly at the camera, has a noticeable blur at its centre. It’s a leaf that got caught in the middle of the frame as Parra took the picture, causing an effect that he believed had ruined the photo.
But, when he showed the picture to his father and uncle, who praised Parra for capturing a natural detail that could put his photo in the running to win the contest, his opinion changed. Parra said he believed the blurry leaf added a very cool effect to the photo, and the contest judges agreed.
“They said it added an emotional effect and it added a super cool texture to the photo,” Parra said. “At first I thought, ‘dang, that sucks, I wish it wasn’t there.’ But after my father and my uncle told me, I never would have thought the blur in the middle added an effect that the judges loved.”
Birds make for tricky photographic subjects. They’re skittish and susceptible to fly away at the first sign of disturbance, especially smaller birds like House Finches. In his three years of photographing birds Parra has learned more about the technical aspects of photography.
Parra will continue to work on his skills to prepare for next year’s contest. One of the contest judges, an Invermere-based professional wildlife photographer named Jayden Daniels, told Parra that he was so impressed with his shots, that he thinks Parra should move up to an older age bracket next year.
“There is truly nothing like it,” Parra said of taking a photo you like. “I hunger and strive for that feeling, it’s the best. I want to get that feeling every day, there is nothing like it.”
