×
×
homepage logo
STORE

Photographer Eleanor Ward’s work on display at library

By Staff | Mar 13, 2009

Eleanor Ward says the best gifts can be found in nature.

With this belief rooted in her mind she is driven to capture wildlife and other nature’s gifts with her camera.

For the past five years or so, Ward has worked on developing her photography art on the islands. Her work is on exhibit at the Sanibel Public Library during the month of March. Her pieces which include roseate spoonbills and other local birds can also be found in the Art in the Tree Tops Gallery on Sanibel and MCT’s restaurant also on Sanibel.

Her business Nature’s Gifts – Photo Art features pictures of birds, big cats such as lions and sunsets for sale. To access her web site visit naturesgifts-photoart.com.

Ward, 67, does most of her local work while visiting her sister Rosalyn McGlynn on Captiva. She finds bird subjects at the “Ding” Darling Wildlife Refuge.

Her favorite bird picture is that of a flamingo whose soft, plush pink feathers are captured in such a way as that the picture looks alive. And this is what Ward tries to create with all of her work.

“I love to freeze the moment and share,” she said.

For Margaret Mohundro, director of the Sanibel Library, sitting across from her exhibit is magical.

“What I like about her photo art is the pictures are so real,” she said. “The birds are my favorite.”

She particularly likes the fluffy flamingo.

“It’s so real looking you can almost feel the feathers,” Mohundro said.

She said the exhibit has drawn a lot of attention from the library patrons.

Sharing her work with others is the great grandmother’s biggest joy. Though she got her start later in life, capturing the ethereal beauty of nature has been a lifelong love. Ward softens her voice as she recalls learning about nature with her grandmother as a child. Her love would have to wait though.

In her mid 20s and barely out of childhood her self, she got married to a man in his early 40’s with six children.

Ward chuckles about the fact that she was only four years older than one of her step children. She became a grandmother at the age of 27. Ward said she delighted in shocking store clerks who would see with the child and coo “be good for Grandma.”

“I would watch their jaws drop,” she said.

But after losing her husband, a long work career in electronics and the children grown and with families of their own, Ward decided to rekindle her dormant passion and has been stoking it ever since.

“It’s what keeps me alive,” she said