Gallery Los Olivos hosts Deborah Kalas exhibition showcasing birds from Santa Ynez Valley, across country

Lying on her stomach in mud, Deborah Kalas shivered for hours as she photographed American avocets to get the right shot.

Along with trudging heavy, long lenses through fields to capture the feathered vertebrates without disturbing them, Kalas also had to maintain her patience.

“The bird might sit in a spot for quite a while and not do anything, and then, all of a sudden, it does something,” she said. “There’s a lot of work that goes into [photographing each one].”

All month long, Kalas’ Between Earth and Sky exhibit at Gallery Los Olivos will showcase the avocets she photographed as well as other birds from across the country.

“I like to include the environment, so the photo gives you ideas of who this bird might be and where it is,” she said. “[Each photo tells] the story of this little bird you might not have stopped to notice.”

Kalas said about half of her images consist of birds native to the Santa Ynez Valley.

“The rest are from all over the country,” she said. “Even though I photographed them in different places, some of those birds can be found in California.”

Kalas followed another bird photographer on tours to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah to capture different species. She said the exhibit features hummingbirds, a hooded oriole, cardinals, a black phoebe, a hooded merganser, wood ducks, American widgeon, American goldfinch, and yellow-headed and red-winged blackbirds.

“In Utah, I photographed the American avocet and the black-necked stilt,” Kalas said. “You can find those in Southern California.”

For other birds like the green jay, one of her personal favorites, Kalas said similar species can be found locally.

“The green jay’s got a rainbow of green, blue, turquoise, and yellow feathers,” she said. “It’s kind of similar in body size to the scrub-jays we get up here. The call is kind of similar. The behavior is similar. But you’re probably not going to find a green jay in California.”

After getting her start doing documentary photography for Life and People magazines and moving on to capture wild horses for her 2019 coffee table book, Kalas has been photographing birds for more than three years now.

“You do find yourself mentally, telepathically, talking to the birds as you’re observing them,” she said. “Whether they hear [me] or not, I don’t know, but you have to have fun with it.”

Fully committed to being as thorough as she can in her work, Kalas has gone as far as New York and Florida to photograph the avian creatures.

“Catching American avocets mating right in front of me with dawn light 12 feet away was pretty magnificent,” she said. “A week or two ago, I came across an abandoned sunflower field. I was looking at one and thought, ‘Wow, that one would look awesome if an American goldfinch landed on it.’ Two seconds later, an American goldfinch landed on it, and I got a great shot. 

“Unfortunately, I can’t use that power all the time, but that was one time where it was successful.”

As someone who also had a successful portrait photography business in the Hamptons, New York, for more than four decades, Kalas said she likes faces and looks for expressions in birds in almost the same way she did with people.

“All my life, I’ve looked for the relationship between people and animals,” Kalas said. “[Birds are] these little creatures to explore and find their expression. I find the movements of their bodies and wings pretty interesting.”

Unlike people, birds can be a little more difficult to photograph, she said.

“Birds are hard to find,” Kalas said. “They move quickly. If they’re in bad lighting, on a perch that’s not pretty, or in front of a background that doesn’t work, you [can’t] photograph them.”

Kalas said bird’s songs and colors elevate ordinary walks in the park into magical, movie-like moments. She said she hopes people start to listen and look for birds when they’re out in nature after visiting her exhibit.

“Every morning, I walk my dog on a path, and I notice the different birds that are there in the morning and the afternoon, and how they change, and which ones come in at which times of year, and which ones have bright feathers, and which ones are so teeny you can barely see them,” she said. “There’s a lot of variety out there.”

Reach Staff Writer Reece Coren at rcoren@santamariasun.com.

This article appears in Jul 17-27, 2025.