Emma Turner, pioneer bird photographer
It’s an iconic image, this shot of a juvenile bittern. Its throat is extended, as if it’s about to loose its distinctive booming call. The bird is clearly visible but the effective camouflage of its striped plumage as it stands among reeds is apparent too.
Emma Turner photographed the bittern at Hickling Broad, Norfolk, in 1911. She waded out into the reed bed where this bittern was about to fledge, removed it, kept it overnight then returned it and took this photograph. Her intrusive approach would be heavily condemned today but in 1911 attitudes and photography itself were rather different. Wildlife photography was a late arrival in photography’s history. Unwieldy, fragile equipment, primitive lenses and relatively long exposure times made the task of photographing living creatures in the wild well-nigh impossible for most of the 19th Century. Until the 1880s, nature photography consisted of landscapes, botanical subjects, and trophy shots of wild animals killed by hunters.
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Litopia is the winner
