Lockdown Life: Sunbird Series
Updated: Feb 28, 2024
Southern double-collared sunbird perched on a strelitzia flower
Sunbirds in the city!
Renowned for his captivating underwater imagery of South Africa’s marine animals, wildlife enthusiast and owner of Animal Ocean Steven Benjamin has had to pivot his focus to his Cape Town garden during lockdown, where he has been taking incredible shots of Cape Town’s resident birdlife as part of his Sunbird Series Project. Located near the iconic Table Mountain, Steve has embraced the challenge of photographing these feathered beauties as a way to bring joy during these uncertain times, and he’s had some incredible results. "The lockdown has made me relax and take the time to do things I would never have gotten around to doing. I settled on this project which I work on every day. I’m always adding something new to the scene and there are always new birds and interactions happening. It’s made the days fly by!"
Steve at home on his balcony next to the feeder that the sunbirds visit
Cape Times Cover
Steve started sharing his experimental imagery on his personal Facebook page at the beginning of the lockdown period in South Africa, showing friends and family the beauty of the endemic sunbirds visiting his garden. "Sharing this on social media helped inspire others and prompted me to keep adding to the project – bringing digital joy to those watching."
Interest soon took off, with his stunning image of a malachite sunbird facing off an orange-breasted being picked up by a local newspaper. It featured on the cover of the Cape Times in South Africa on the 21st April - a little bit of light in the turbulent times of lockdown!
Cape Times cover page 21st April 2020
Good News Daily
Good News Daily then published a local article later in April, when Steve's sunbird images had started garnering interest around Cape Town after the Cape Times cover. We continued sharing the images on our social media pages, sharing these beautiful birds with our Seal Snorkeling audience!
Orange-breasted sunbird atop a wild dagga flower
Forbes Africa
With Steve continuing with his daily morning ritual of observing and photographing the birds visiting his feeder, and sharing recent images online, Forbes Africa published an article online in May - sharing his project with a wider, international readership. The images started taking flight!
Steve has been using his lounge as a makeshift bird hide!
PetaPixel
His images have now recently been shared on PetaPixel, a leading photography blog - which has helped these photos spread their wings!
"I wanted to use this project as a way to be creative and escape the confines of the lockdown by enjoying the freedom of the birds." Creating and sharing these images has allowed Steve to spread a little wildlife cheer during the lockdown period, and opened the eyes of locals and visitors alike to the beauty of the birds that flit around the Cape Peninsula.
Sunbird phone and desktop wallpapers available for purchase
Future Plans?
"I’m working toward an exhibition in Cape Town after all of the restrictions are lifted. In the meantime the prints are available for purchase".
For more information about Steven Benjamin’s work contact Steve at:
stevenbenjamin1@gmail.com on Instagram @animal_ocean visit www.stevenbenjamin.co.za
Wallpapers for phone and desktop use can be purchased directly here.
YouTube Video
Watch the Lockdown Sunbird Project video made by Steve below, and have a look at the Animal Ocean YouTube page for more videos!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAXnJhqV0U4
Behind the scenes of these incredible images :)
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Just used https://paysafecardcanada.com to prepay for a month of photography tutorials, and then this post about Steve's sunbird series came up—his lounge-as-a-bird-hide idea is exactly the kind of creative lockdown problem-solving I needed to remember. It’s a good reminder that you don’t need a safari to see extraordinary beauty; sometimes it’s just outside your window, waiting for you to pay attention.
The sunbird series captures such fleeting backyard moments. If you ever want to turn one of those bird photos into something playful, an Image to Sticker tool can handle the crop and export for you. Handy for sharing lockdown garden sightings with family.
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Love how Steve turned lockdown into an art project-his sunbird shots on the Cape Times cover were stunning. By the way, I was just browsing a phone fps test site to check my tablet's performance, and it's wild how both photography and tech help us stay creative during tough times.