Dan Falloon
Local photographer Shannon Curtis has taken a picture that leaves those who walk by taken aback.
Curtis, of Curtis Denture Clinic here, snapped a shot of a buck staring straight ahead at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park near Thunder Bay last summer, and is donating it to Ducks Unlimited to auction off at its annual banquet this Friday night (April 23).
But the photo isn’t your average wildlife shot.
While online, Curtis came across a printing company called Image Wizards, based in Lexington, N.C., which specializes in printing photos on aluminum.
The company’s pitch to make photos look like high-definition television caught Curtis’ eye.
“Because of the quality of the material, a two-dimensional picture looks 3D,” he enthused.
“It’s called AlimunArte and it was done by Image Wizards, which is a really neat company, a cutting-edge technology company for 3D photography.
“It’s pretty impressive technology,” he added.
Curtis, who has been taking nature photographs for more than a decade, was thrilled when the photograph arrived from North Carolina, noting the intricate detail that became vivid on the aluminum surface.
“You’ve still got actual felt [on the antlers] and even the tissue on the end of his nose, like a dog,” he observed.
“I’ve never seen tissue on the nose of a deer before.”
Curtis was especially surprised about the felt on the antlers, considering he took the photo in August.
“[He has] a full rack of felt on him and it’s untouched. He hasn’t even started scraping it yet, and it’s late,” he explained.
“This was on Aug. 2 of last year. Normally they’re itchy and they start scraping it on the edge of trees.”
Curtis attributes many of his shots to good luck and being in the right place at the right time—“It’s just like rolling dice,” he said—and felt this photo was no different.
In his experience, finding a buck had been much more difficult than finding a fawn.
“There’s a load of females out there and it was nice to catch a male, without a doubt,” he reminisced.
He also pointed out part of it was just making his own luck, listening to a gut feeling that a special shot might be around the corner.
“Basically, we just finished diving and we were going down the road,” Curtis recalled. “I basically told one of my dive buddies, one of my best dive buddies, to just go slow around the corner.
“As I got on the roof of the car, when we came around the corner this guy [the deer] was standing there in a clearing, and I couldn’t believe it.
“I had a telephoto lens on, and here’s what we got.”
Curtis also has taken underwater photos all over the world—just off the shores of the island of Guadeloupe, the Kona Islands of Hawaii, and the Galapagos Islands.
He’s photographed various species of sharks, whales, seals, and turtles, and sometimes the dives are for more than just his own hobby.
For instance, some of his dives have helped the California-based Imaging Foundation, which uses photographs, among other mediums, to “inspire curiosity, impart understanding, and encourage stewardship for marine and freshwater ecosystem,” according to its mission statement.
“It’s about bringing knowledge to people who don’t normally see a whole lot of animal life in the ocean,” explained Curtis.
“[Imaging Foundation executive director Georgienne Bradley’s] philosophy is that if you don’t love something, you don’t want to protect it.
“It’s to bring knowledge to people that all animals in the oceanic environment are imperative for our survival,” he stressed.
Curtis explained that oceans affect humans in several ways, and an ocean rife with pollution and overfishing eventually would start to impact the human race, as well.
“As soon as it’s done, we’re done,” he warned. “It controls the weather on this planet, it controls our food source.
“Let’s face it. No fish out of the ocean—what do you and I get to eat? That has to be replaced.
“It’s not going to sustain us.”
Curtis stressed conservation also is crucial here in Northwestern Ontario, pointing out that if one species struggles to survive, the chain reaction will be felt all the way along the food chain—right up to humans.
“You can’t get rid of the marshlands,” he argued. “It all works together as one, and same with the ocean.”
