21st Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Birds kissed by the morning light

This one was shot in the early morning at a retirement home for horses. The herd just woke up and were taken from their stables and were warming up in the paddock in the morning sun. I was relaxing between the horses and trying to capture the sense of their wisdom and connecting between eachother in the confined space of the paddock. I was just looking around to see if the horses would move more into the light when I saw these birds. They were not the subject I was going for but this image I just had to take with me.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 04.2023
Date Uploaded: 11.2023
Photo Location: Soest, Netherlands
Copyright: © Nannie van Berkel-Hijlkema