An Unfolding Flame

About this piece

Brilliant orange plumage fills the foreground as a flamingo opens its wings, revealing a sharply contrasting band of black flight feathers. Behind it, upright necks and slender pink legs form a quieter rhythm against shaded foliage, while the pool catches fragments of their reflections.

The story

I framed the flock where the bright ground met the dark foliage, drawn first to the long, upright lines of their necks. Then the foreground bird opened its wings, turning those lines into a broad sweep of orange and black. I caught it with its neck lowered toward the water, its feathers briefly filling the space between the other birds. For that instant, the whole composition belonged to the unfolding wings.