Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Ranthambhore National Park, Rajasthan, late afternoon, on one of the small lakes inside the park. The water had gone a flat dark grey, and an Oriental darter was up on a stump at the edge of it with its wings held fully open — around 3½ feet (1.1 m) across — drying. It's an attitude the bird holds for many minutes at a time, and one that gives an almost symmetrical shape against an empty background.
Most waterbirds float high and stay dry. The darter does neither. Its outer feathers are structured to let water in rather than shed it, so the plumage soaks through on every dive; the bird loses buoyancy and hangs low in the water, often with nothing but the neck and head showing — which is where the name snakebird comes from. That wettability is what makes it an underwater hunter rather than a surface one, and the cost is that it cannot fly efficiently until it has dried out, hence the spread wings. It hunts by spearing rather than seizing, and the neck carries a hinge at the eighth vertebra that folds back and releases like a trigger to drive the bill through a fish.
Gallery Metal — The next generation of the metal print: printed with Canon LUCIA PRO pigment inks and bonded to a rigid aluminium panel beneath a protective laminate, resolving finer detail and holding colour longer than dye-sublimation can. The modern process for images that reward close viewing. Here that is what makes the scale work: the individual primaries, the shafts on the coverts and the fine texture of the neck all stay distinct, while the spread shape reads clearly from across a room. Glossy adds a hard coat for scratch resistance along with the fuller colour and depth; matte is anti-glare and holds sharp detail without softening it. Both are UV-protected for long-term display.
Also available in: Standard Acrylic version · TruLife Acrylic version · ChromaLuxe Metal version · Fine Art Paper version
Made to order · Allow 2–3 weeks for production and delivery · Shipping charged at cost, never marked up · Shipping & Returns
The watermark shown here protects the online image only. Your print arrives clean.
Ranthambhore National Park, Rajasthan, late afternoon, on one of the small lakes inside the park. The water had gone a flat dark grey, and an Oriental darter was up on a stump at the edge of it with its wings held fully open — around 3½ feet (1.1 m) across — drying. It's an attitude the bird holds for many minutes at a time, and one that gives an almost symmetrical shape against an empty background.
Most waterbirds float high and stay dry. The darter does neither. Its outer feathers are structured to let water in rather than shed it, so the plumage soaks through on every dive; the bird loses buoyancy and hangs low in the water, often with nothing but the neck and head showing — which is where the name snakebird comes from. That wettability is what makes it an underwater hunter rather than a surface one, and the cost is that it cannot fly efficiently until it has dried out, hence the spread wings. It hunts by spearing rather than seizing, and the neck carries a hinge at the eighth vertebra that folds back and releases like a trigger to drive the bill through a fish.
Gallery Metal — The next generation of the metal print: printed with Canon LUCIA PRO pigment inks and bonded to a rigid aluminium panel beneath a protective laminate, resolving finer detail and holding colour longer than dye-sublimation can. The modern process for images that reward close viewing. Here that is what makes the scale work: the individual primaries, the shafts on the coverts and the fine texture of the neck all stay distinct, while the spread shape reads clearly from across a room. Glossy adds a hard coat for scratch resistance along with the fuller colour and depth; matte is anti-glare and holds sharp detail without softening it. Both are UV-protected for long-term display.
Also available in: Standard Acrylic version · TruLife Acrylic version · ChromaLuxe Metal version · Fine Art Paper version
Made to order · Allow 2–3 weeks for production and delivery · Shipping charged at cost, never marked up · Shipping & Returns
The watermark shown here protects the online image only. Your print arrives clean.