Leominster nature photographer enjoys the 'treasure hunt'

Source: Sentinel and Enterprise
Author: Danielle Ray

LEOMINSTER - Nature photographer Carol Marini likens the patient method of getting a coveted shot of a beautiful wild creature to a "treasure hunt."

"It is very much about solitude, unplugging from the ever-present hum of life and just sitting quietly with Mother Nature," the longtime city resident said of her process. "You see a lot of very cool things when you do that and it settles you, quiets those nagging voices in your head telling you to hurry up, you must do this or that, keep moving, keep up, move ahead. Or at least it does for me, anyway."

Marini has long been a lover of animals. She was a pet groomer for a long time and was drawn to nature photography five years ago. In that time, she has captured stunning images of all kinds of different kinds of animals, deer and squirrels and a wide variety of what is undoubtedly her passion, birds such as owls and hawks and more.

While she often goes solo out into nature in search of the perfect photo, sometimes she brings along her dog Maggie as her "co-pilot." In the case of recently capturing a picture of an Eastern Morph Screech-Owl, Marini ventured out "with like-minded friends who enjoy the dual passions of birding and photography."

"You look for certain unusual birds, or birds you have never seen before, and you try to capture them through photography," she said. "If you are lucky enough you might click the shutter just as they are doing something exciting, like aerial battles, or unusual, like little birds hounding or even riding on the backs of great big predator birds. Or maybe mundane habits that are customary to their species but kind of cute or endearing, like male birds feeding females during courtship, or the giant male birds, like great blue herons or Osprey offering sticks to their ladies for nest building or mama plovers and terns sheltering their babies under their wings."

During one recent outing she told a fellow "birder friend" as they were hunkered down in a bunch of swamp reeds "'If you had told me I would love being a bird nerd and hanging out in swamps 20 years ago I probably would have laughed at you.' Now it lights me up."