Photos by Sharmagne Leland-St.John

Victor is taking a photo editing course, so we decided to play
around with some old photos I took.


Snowy Owl at Sunset ~ Cody, Wyoming

The Snowy Owl photo was taken of a taxidermy owl in the Buffalo
Bill Cody Museum in Cody, Wyoming when I visited there in 2017
and Victor superimposed it over a sunset in Taormina, Sicily which he
shot when we vacationed there in the autumn of 2019.


A Visitor in my Tuscan Garden ~ Florence, Italy

This little fellow was very brave and visited our garden on a daily
basis. He wouldn't go near the feeders I had put out but he spent
a lot of time foraging in my compost.


Flamingos at Griffith Park Zoo ~ Los Angeles, CA


When I was in Patagonia in January 2016 I tried to capture photos of the
flamingos as they took flight over a lake but they were too far away and
too fast for me!  

The first time I met my little granddaughter Dylan, who was born a
few days after Christmas 2019 in Echo Park, we all went to the zoo
together along with her "big” brother, 3-year-old Dawson. One
of my favourite enclosures was the flamingo habitat. It also made
a perfect Ekphrastic poem prompt.



Andean Condor ~ Patagonia, Chile

I captured this photo as we were being driven by van to Remota Lodge in
the Torres del Paine.  Remota is one of the most celebrated and awarded
hotels in Chile, where the National Architecture Prize winner German
Del Sol achieved the most breathtaking views of the fjord and glaciers.


Egret ~ Swinomish Channel, La Conner, Washington

If I didn't have a wonderful lodge on the Stillaguamish River in Arlington,
Washington, I’d live in La Conner.   It is an ancient fishing village first
settled in May 1867. Its location on the Swinomish Channel was an ideal
safe harbour for ships. La Conner's Rainbow Bridge connects La Conner to
Fidalgo Island, which includes the gated Shelter Bay Community, the Swinomish
Reservation and the city of Anacortes. The center of town—roughly bounded by
2nd, Morris and Commercial streets and Swinomish Channel—is a historic
district, listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Also on
the NRHP is the Bethsaida Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church Parsonage east
of town. It houses one of my favourite quilt museums as well as a favourite
restaurant The Oyster and Thistle and favourite kitchen "gadget" shop The
Ginger Grater and Olive Shoppe. We enjoy sitting on the benches along the
wharf to watch the wildlife.


A Visitor in Christopher's Garden ~ Oxfordshire, Cotswold, UK

Here is another photo Victor and I edited. The photo was taken in my friend
Chrisopher Barry’s garden back in the late 1980s and the bird was photographed
a few years ago in the Bloedel Conservatory, which is a lush domed paradise
located in Queen Elizabeth Park atop the City of Vancouver’s highest point.
More than 120 free-flying exotic birds, as well as 500 exotic plants and flowers
thrive within its temperature-controlled environment.

I wasn't crazy about the background of the original photo and thought the little
bird might enjoy an English garden in the Cotswolds for a change!


White-tailed Eagle ~ Northern Tyne, Northumberland, UK

In 2005 I went on a fly fishing adventure in search of the illusive Atlantic
salmon. One of the pools we fished most frequently was Catherine’s Pool near
the Village of Wark where we were staying. I took this photo in between wetting
lines.

A few years before that I visited Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society, a
bird rescue sanctuary in Vancouver, BC where I captured this photo of one of
the many eagles they were rehabilitating before returning them to the wild.

I wanted to see him out in the wild again, so I asked Victor to transplant him
to an idyllic place where he could fish for salmon all day—and this was the result!

Return to: