IRISH EXAMINER, THE JOURNAL and many more....
In the dusk hours of a November evening in 2020, James Crombie
set out for the shore of Lough Ennell, Co. Westmeath with
no goal except to find a brief reprieve from the chaos of modern
life. One of Ireland’s most lauded sports photographers, Crombie
had spent months each year travelling the globe, snapping
glimpses of sporting glory amid roaring crowds. Once the pandemic
arrived however, he found himself suspended in an unfamiliar
moment of stillness, where his focus could roam beyond
the pitch. When a close friend came to him in a moment of grief,
the pair made for the lake.
What Crombie found on the shore that evening - an undulating
murmuration of starlings, dancing above the surface of the water
- would change his life forever.
Desperate to capture the beauty of the murmurations, and to
better understand this phenomenon and the surroundings of
the lake itself, Crombie began a four year journey, travelling to
lake shore for over 100 days per year. In his efforts to capture the
formations of the magical birds, Crombie managed to chart the
stunning natural cycles of the lake and the surrounding countryside.
An incredible combination of narrative and photography, this is
a book about one man’s quest to capture the beauty of an Irish
natural phenomenon, and about how our local environments
harbour a wealth of beauty and complexity, if only we’re able to
look closely enough.
The book also features an introduction by pioneering ornithologist
Seán Ronayne