Behind the scenes with our bird photo calendar

By Ilana DeBare

One of my favorite parts of working at Golden Gate Bird Alliance is helping curate our annual Birds of the San Francisco Bay photo calendar.

Our 2016 calendar was just released this month, with stunning photos by over 30 of the Bay Area’s best bird photographers. Because I love working on it so much, I thought it might be fun to share the process behind it.

This is our fourth annual calendar. Former GGBA Development Director Lisa Owens Viani came up with the idea – a calendar that, like Golden Gate Bird Alliance, would focus on local Bay Area birds. Lisa also set very high production standards, envisioning a calendar that people would be proud to own or gift, not one of those cheap throw-away ones that come in the mail for free.

We typically put out a call for photos in late spring, and choose them in early July. This year we received over 200 submissions from more than 70 photographers. We had many, many fabulous photos — shorebirds in flight, owls on branches, nestlings being fed, songbirds with their beaks open in song… the full variety of Bay Area avian life.

We want the calendars to have broad appeal – both to experienced birders and to people who simply love nature – so we typically seek a range of birding experience in our curators. This year, our judging team was made up of me (Communications Director for GGBA, so I use a LOT of bird photos all the time!), our office manager Monica Moore (a non-birder), and GGBA member Krista Jordan (a communications professional who is taking our year-long Master Birder class).

What do we look for? There’s no simple formula. The main thing is the “wow” factor – photos that you look at and say “wow.” Photos that will bring joy and inspiration hanging on your wall.

Of course we look for technical quality (not blurry, appealing composition, good detail on feathers and eyes etc.), interesting behaviors, and a variety of species and types of birds. We seek a mix of close-up and wide-angle shots. We try to feature birds that weren’t highlighted the previous year.

But above all, it’s that intangible “wow” feeling.

Did we succeed? Now it’s your turn to be the judge!

Here are a few of the images in the calendar. Honestly, it was hard to choose. There were many wonderful photos that we had to leave out for reasons of space. We sat there wishing the year had 24 months instead of 12, so we could include more images. The winners include both well-known bird photographers like Jerry Ting and Bob Lewis, as well as less-experienced photographers who had never previously won a contest or been published. We are so appreciative to all of them for sharing their work.

We’re also grateful to calendar designer Bobbi Sloan, and to GGBA member Alan Hopkins, who each year furnishes a list of Bay Area rare bird sightings that we add to the calendar! That’s a feature I haven’t seen on any other nature calendars.

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Want to order a calendar for yourself, or for friends as holiday gifts? They are available from our online store for $20 plus tax/shipping, at the Golden Gate Bird Alliance office in Berkeley, or at the Santa Clara Valley Audubon nature shop in Cupertino. Quantities are limited, so don’t wait too long.

And if the calendar inspires you to try bird photography yourself, that’s great! Start a file of your favorite photos for next spring… when we put out a call for the 2017 calendar.