A personal selection of photographs with their stories.
DECEMBER 2007: Cormorant couple
December 2007. Dozens of large yellow barrels floated around a huge Christmas tree in Lake Pampulha, Belo Horizonte. These barrels were tied to supporting cables that kept the Christmas tree in balance; in this way, the cables didn’t sink in the water. The yellow barrels didn’t contribute much to the beauty of the Pampulha landscape, but cormorants didn’t care. They considered the yellow barrels as their fishing bases, a kind of launch base for cormorant torpedoes. The cormorants frequently dived from the barrels, into the deep water, and only appeared above the surface again about thirty seconds later. Occasionally, they had little success and managed to hold a tiny fish in the strong beaks. The cormorants often took their siesta and took the time to clean and polish their feather suit. This lover’s couple only had full attention for each other and wasn’t disturbed when I took a picture of them.
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2007, 2015