Years ago, Stanley Kolber was a lawyer working in New York City with a wife and kids, a home in Old Lyme and a small apartment in Stamford.

One sunny fall morning, he decided to walk to the Stamford train station to catch his train to work, rather than take his bike as he usually did. He wanted a little extra time to enjoy the sunshine, the trees and the birds, even though that would make him late. His train pulled into the station just after the first plane hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and right before the second plane hit. Kolber’s office was in the World Trade Center.

“You may remember that morning was an absolutely beautiful morning. I decided to walk. I missed my normal train. I arrived late. My secretary was lost in that...” he says. “I don’t know if people call them secretaries anymore. But, yes, we lost her.”

After making an effort to absorb the enormity of the tragedy and discussing it with his wife and family, Kolber realized something.

“The door was open for me to shift,” he says.

He had already started dabbling in photography and in the more challenging subset of that skill, bird photography, and he decided he wanted to go in that direction, rather than remain a full-time New York City-based lawyer.

“The experience provided one of those ‘If not now, when?’ moments. I loved practicing law,” he says. “But we had been, my wife and I, looking at birds for years and years and years. When 9/11 happened, I decided it was time to move along. I decided to devote myself to my photography.”

Kolber’s photography is now held in corporate and private collections, and he has had a one-man show at New York’s Pleiades Gallery in Chelsea. He was one of only 14 artists selected out of 400 submitting artists nationwide to participate in a Pleiades juried show whose juror was a curator of American Art at the Guggenheim Museum. His work now extends to teaching others about photography and, in that capacity, he will teach a bird photography workshop on Sunday, Feb. 11, at the Connecticut River Museum in Essex. 

Lovingly, faithfully

Kolber says he hopes to impart some wisdom about photography basics and birding photography specifics, along with information about nature and the environment in general.

Kolber says his goal, when capturing images of birds, is to do so both lovingly and faithfully.

“I have a tremendous respect for wildlife and birds in particular. When you spend enough time watching them, you realize they have a life and a lifestyle and a dignity. Trying to capture them in the field with a camera, in a way, kind of permits them to speak, to say a little about themselves. That is what I try to do,” he says.

Kolber says he generally shoots in RAW format, rather than JPEG or another format, because the file is minimally processed.

“So it’s inevitable that I will have to do some adjustments” in a program like Photoshop, he says. “But my goal is to produce the scene in the way that I saw it. I try to shoot in wonderful light.”

The workshop at the Connecticut River Museum will start with a discussion of photography fundamentals.

“You have to. One of the handouts details the basic elements of exposure. Shooting in the field is not easy, and so one has to learn the basic elements of exposure, constantly fiddling and adjusting for light and speed,” he says. “While I don’t spend a lot of time in the weeds about it, I do urge people to learn their camera. If you learn the features of your camera, you learn photography.”

When it comes to birding photography specifically, one thing Kolber will discuss is the importance of timing.

“You have to deal with the fact that they are moving even when they appear to be standing still. There’s a need for speed,” he says.

Kolber’s class also covers the seasons of birds and migration and locations where birding photographers gather at peak migration times, along with local Audubon groups with members “who are happy to tell you where things are.” He will also talk about bird feeders and the way that birds are attracted to feeders and blinds.

“Basically, I will try to give people a rounded sense of where the birds are, how to find them, and what to do next,” he says. “I’ll also teach them how to respect them. We don’t interfere with their lives and worlds. We keep our distance.”

That brings up the issue of long lens photography, which requires an additional level of expertise and expense when it comes to equipment. But Kolber says that beginners should not be daunted.

“People are shooting with telephones,” he notes. “People are shooting with spotting scopes. And scope manufacturers have created fixtures attached to the spotting scopes that allow you to attach a phone, a point and shoot camera, or an SLR. There are options and options and options. And each has advantages and disadvantages. In photography there is a yin for every yang.” 

Where the birds are

Once someone is set up with their equipment and a little knowledge, Kolber says, a whole new world awaits them. He says there are many great places to visit in Connecticut for aspiring bird photographers.

There is Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison, which draws birders from all over the world, along with the adjacent Salt Marsh Park. There are many spots along the Connecticut River as well. He likes the Old Lyme Marina and the eagle cruises sponsored by the Connecticut River Museum. North Cove and South Cove in Old Saybrook are ideal, along with Mill Brook in Old Lyme, which can be accessed via the Hoffman-Matthiessen-DeGerenday Preserve and the George & Woodward H. Griswold Preserve, both managed by the Old Lyme Land Trust.

Other spots he enjoys are the Weekapaug district of Westerly, along with Beavertail State Park, located in Jamestown, Rhode Island, and Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown, Rhode Island.

And people who get into it don’t have to stop there, he says.

“We travel,” he says. “We’ve photographed in Texas. Belize. Costa Rica. Alaska. California. When we travel, I bring my camera and do some research and find out the local bird refuges. We’re going to Veracruz in the fall,” a town on the Gulf of Mexico renowned for raptors, along with more than 80 families of birds and about 730 species, some which occur nowhere else in the world.

IF YOU GO

What: Bird photography workshop with Stanley Kolber; registration is recommended; seating is limited. The workshop is free with museum admission.

When: Sunday, Feb. 11.

Where: Connecticut River Museum, 67 Main St., Essex.

More info and to register: Call (860) 767-8269 or send email to crm@ctrivermuseum.org to register.