Editorial Reviews
Review
ELBA -- In the next few years, you'll be able to sit in your recliner, sip a cup of coffee, and enjoy crisp, startling images of bald eagles raising their young, mosquitoes feeding on the blood of a frog and wildflowers in the heart of the Whitewater Valley. Savor them, enjoy the work of Lisa Loucks Christenson of Rochester. But know that she went through more than a year of mud and mosquitoes, cold and fog, snow and heat to get them. You should also know that she loved it, enjoyed the daily trip to the valley in snowstorm and fog, relished slithering through muck to sneak up on a frog, and waiting for hours to get a shot of an eagle. She has fallen in love with the area around the former town of Beaver in the heart of the Whitewater Wildlife Management Area, the largest block of public land in southern Minnesota. To get the images, she has gone to the same two marshes near Beaver for more than a year. It's a form of time-lapse photography, only she shoots the same tree (and on the same trip, the same cornfield and barn) and other details daily, along with anything else that catches her eye. In the past two years, Christenson has also followed two eagles as they raise their young. To do all of it has required several digital cameras and a lot of clothing. Last week, she wore faded camouflage pants and shirt, and her hair was wrapped in a red bandana. It's not fashionable, but when you're slopping through a marsh and plowing through nettles taller than you are, fashion fades, and reality rules. She gladly wears that gear in summer, and dresses for minus-30 ("I literally felt like a walking marshmallow") in winter to get pictures for two books on eagles and a third book on a year in the life of two marshes. The one eagle book is due out in October, while the marsh book is due in April 2007, she said. The second eagle book will come out later. . . . --Post-Bulletin / June 12, 2006 / Credit: John Weiss Post-Bulletin Outdoor Writer
kttc.com/Global/story.asp?S=8350286 By Meghan Sparks Life in the nest Posted: May 19, 2008 10:35 PM Life in the nest Whitewater Valley, MN (KTTC-TV) -- It's another day on Lisa Christenson's journey. A journey she captures through the lens of her camera. Nature photographer Lisa Christenson started down this path four years ago. She was studying the sandhill cranes in the Whitewater Valley, but the small white heads of the bald eagle caught her attention. Lisa Christenson says, "I heard that faint cry of an eaglet and I said this is cool and I will be back here every day until he flies and i was." But soon Lisa realized something more was happening in the eagle nest. "I kept seeing babies coming back into the nest which is unheard of but the babies weren't leaving." Lisa says these birds aren't only fierce hunters, as most of us have come to believe, but also peaceful loving creatures. Lisa began her current project in January and has been out to see the eagles nearly every day since then. She documents her stories with the eagle families through pictures and words, even giving them names. "Dancer's watching me in the tree as I type." Lisa's been out here for 100 days. The eaglet or eaglets have hatched and now it's time to watch the family grow. "Every day is a new story for me, " Lisa says, "and I don't go home until I get my story." --KTTC-Television
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Work always comes from Lisa Loucks Christenson, May 5, 2006 By Jennifoo "Jen" - See all my reviews Though I have not read the actual book, I have seen many of the unprocessed photos L.L.C. has taken during this project. It goes to say a lot when even unmeddled photographs are beautiful, gripping, and poignant images of natural life. --Amazon review
kttc.com/Global/story.asp?S=8350286 By Meghan Sparks Life in the nest Posted: May 19, 2008 10:35 PM Life in the nest Whitewater Valley, MN (KTTC-TV) -- It's another day on Lisa Christenson's journey. A journey she captures through the lens of her camera. Nature photographer Lisa Christenson started down this path four years ago. She was studying the sandhill cranes in the Whitewater Valley, but the small white heads of the bald eagle caught her attention. Lisa Christenson says, "I heard that faint cry of an eaglet and I said this is cool and I will be back here every day until he flies and i was." But soon Lisa realized something more was happening in the eagle nest. "I kept seeing babies coming back into the nest which is unheard of but the babies weren't leaving." Lisa says these birds aren't only fierce hunters, as most of us have come to believe, but also peaceful loving creatures. Lisa began her current project in January and has been out to see the eagles nearly every day since then. She documents her stories with the eagle families through pictures and words, even giving them names. "Dancer's watching me in the tree as I type." Lisa's been out here for 100 days. The eaglet or eaglets have hatched and now it's time to watch the family grow. "Every day is a new story for me, " Lisa says, "and I don't go home until I get my story." --KTTC-Television
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Work always comes from Lisa Loucks Christenson, May 5, 2006 By Jennifoo "Jen" - See all my reviews Though I have not read the actual book, I have seen many of the unprocessed photos L.L.C. has taken during this project. It goes to say a lot when even unmeddled photographs are beautiful, gripping, and poignant images of natural life. --Amazon review
From the Author
"May there always be room for each season's eaglets to spread their wings, both in the sky and in our hearts.: --Lisa Loucks Christenson