Fergus photographer Alex Mowatt is having a show of his animal wildlife photos until May 30 at Cafe Creperie at 40 Mill Street here.
Mowatt first started in photography in the 1970s with a Minolta camera. His first photograph was of three baby raccoons peeking over a dead stump along the river by what is now Portage, just outside Salem.
Being an outdoors person, hiking, camping and canoeing, interest in wildlife came naturally to him.
It was not until Mowatt retired from operating the high school cafeteria in Fergus that he found time to travel and indulge in his passion (or obsession, as his wife calls it). But he is a totally self-taught photographer.
Mowatt is primarily interested in bird and flight photography as it provides a challenge. Birds are fast moving, don’t sit still for long, don’t really pose, and are usually in the wrong light.
“Patience is needed to get that great shot,” says Mowatt.
Lately he has expanded his interest into landscape and macro photography.
Mowatt has travelled to most of the southwestern states in the US, as well as northern Ontario, most Canadian provinces, Australia, Cuba, Scotland, France and Costa Rica. His website is www.alexmowattphotography.ca.
