While George Boyd was training for marathon runs, he would listen to the birds and try to identify their call. This helped him take his mind off the training. Soon listening wasn’t enough, he also wanted to know what they looked like. So, Boyd began bird watching.
With book in hand, the new student of nature would often spot the bird, only to have it fly away before he could correctly identify it. The solution: take pictures.
For more than 10 years, Boyd has been photographing the area around White Rock Lake and has been asked to display his portraits as part of the Earth Daly Celebration at the Bathhouse Cultural Center. Visitors to the Center have had a rare opportunity to see nature’s wildlife and wildflowers up close and personal. His amazing portraits are truly works of art, depicting the virtually undisturbed animal and plant life who call White Rock Lake home.
Before the 1999 show, Boyd began to make stationary note cards out of the extensive photograph collection he had accumulated over the years. So now, under the name Natures Images, one can buy them at such places as the Dallas Arboretum and Wild Birds Unlimited. For this year’s show, he added framed photos of wildflowers. The artist is also taking slide photographs during his daily excursions to develop presentations.
A retired businessman who has lived in East Dallas most of his life, Boyd has also catalogued more than 150 wildflowers during his nature walks. He began his interest in wildflowers when his mother was unable to travel to see the dog-toothed violets. Boyd would go and take pictures instead, bringing them back for her enjoyment.
He has a special interest in the smallest wildflowers, which are even considered weeds to some. “It has a spiritual side,” says Boyd, “it’s a real blessing seeing the artistry of God and photographing it big enough to really see the detail and appreciate it.” Boyd goes on to say that photography and birding go hand in hand. “It is a challenge to take a good picture, an action shot that is magazine quality. It is a fatal disease.”
Boyd can been seen most mornings at White Rock Lake with camera in hand. Many of the regular bird watchers and joggers know him by name, stopping to watch as he captures nature’s images for us all to share.
