In southern Alaska, thousands of shorebirds arrive each spring—pausing to rest and feed along the tidal flats as they head north. To celebrate these awe-inspiring birds, I opened my first photo exhibit during the 2025 Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival in Cordova, a small fishing town that sits at the edge of this migration.

The exhibit, “In Flight,” traces bird movement through layered drone footage—revealing patterns too fast and complex to see with the eye. Sandpipers burst like waves, geese carve arcs, gulls glide. The work focuses on water birds—shorebirds, ducks, gulls, and geese—whose movements are shaped by the shifting edges of land and water. Their flight is not only visually striking but deeply connected to the habitats they rely on: wetlands, mudflats, estuaries, and sediment-built islands. Not seen in the final images was the tree-bending wind, sideways rain, and cling-on mud that made flying a drone in these places more challenging but gave an even greater appreciation for the conditions these birds fly through and the places they call home. Seeing these landscapes from above I hope inspires appreciation for such critical landscapes and the wildlife they support.

This project was also a constant experimentation in camera settings and editing approaches; I never knew how a composite would turn out—birds I hadn’t seen would appear and wing flaps would turn into waveforms. The editorial choices behind each image, including which section of time to show and at what interval, means these images are as much creative interpretations of flight as records of it.

For me, this project, while about bird flight, has also sparked questions about how we see the world: what else might be visible if we slow down or shift our view?

It feels extra meaningful to share this work in the place and with the people who shaped it. I’m very grateful to Prince William Sound Science Center for the gallery space and printing support, the Univeristy of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication for helping fund the work, the USFS for helping access the Forest, and the Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival and town of Cordova for inspiring this work and promoting this place and these birds.

Thanks as well to fellow photographer Blake Richard for helping put up the gallery and Shane Balian for the photographs during the open showing.

This work is greatly inspired by photographer Xavi Bou’s amazing Ornithographies.