As a child, David Stephenson developed a nearly simultaneous love for photography and for birds. Today, a typical day includes both of his passions. He’s a professor and photography adviser at the University of Kentucky, and racing pigeons live in a loft in his backyard. Stephenson buys and sells, breeds and raises, trains and races pigeons. He also photographs them. “I was uniquely poised to take these two passions and put them together and have something that no one else in the racing pigeon hobby would have,” he said. Stephenson posts photos to his Instagram account, @pigeonphotographer. He said he likes that with photography, he can freeze the motion of pigeons’ wings. “When you can freeze it, and really see what they look like, I think they’re really quite beautiful,” he said. 

Story by Bailey Vandiver