by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt
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| Just too fun: a backyard hummingbird photographed by Debra Hummer (her real birth name!) |
Photographer Hummer didn’t develop an interest in birds until she moved to San Diego in 1987.
“I came here from
Wisconsin,” she said, when we talked about her background at the October 19th
opening of her exhibit. “It was California Dreaming! I had 35 dollars in my
pocket, I’d never been on a plane before, I was in the snow that morning and on
the beach that afternoon. We didn’t really have hummingbirds in Wisconsin and
there were so many of them here! So I started photographing birds in my
Carlsbad backyard on my smart phone.”
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| Nigel. |
In the beginning, she was just “snapping pictures,” but her daughter had a good camera, so she started using that.
“You need patience to
photograph birds, but I have plenty of patience,” she said. “Over the years,
I’ve created a habitat they like and give them what they want to eat. I want
people to know that we have these birds in our backyards and they’re beautiful
and tenacious and amazing.”
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| Tea for Two. |
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| Violetear. |
She began showing her work
at the Sedona Hummingbird Festival, the Carlsbad Artwalk, and other festivals,
and in 2009, when she stepped into what remains her current position as Office
Manager at Pendleton Eye Center, Dr. Robert Pendleton began encouraging her to
go even further with her photography.
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| Rob Pendleton and Debra Hummer with Fledglings. |
Rob Pendleton opened his medical practice in 1997, and it’s definitely a practice with a difference: a built-in art gallery appropriately called Twenty 20 Gallery.
When he was a resident in Chicago, he would go to art galleries whenever admission was free, and he decided that once he had his own medical practice, he’d design the space to include a gallery that would feature local artists. He opened the gallery in 2009… and the first exhibition was bird photography!
He has now given Debra
Hummer her first solo show, and even when he retires, he plans to continue the
quarterly art exhibits at Twenty 20 Gallery.
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| Hummer with her photograph Serenity and her book: Birds by Hummer. |
“I dedicated it to Rob, because he spurred me on,” she said.
To order a copy: birdsbyhummer@gmail.com
Birds by Hummer
Twenty 20 Gallery
Oct 20, 2024 to Jan 17, 2025
Pendleton Eye Center
3637 Vista Way
Oceanside, CA 92056
760.212.4077 (Call to
arrange a time to see the whole Birds by Hummer exhibition.)
Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning
author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in
San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net
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