Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

TAKING part in the Expats Eye Shenzhen Photo Contest for the very first time and winning a second prize in the nature category was something that pleasantly surprised John Roger Speakman, a professor from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Speakman is the world’s leading expert in animal energy expenditure. He was elected to the U.K. Royal Society in 2018, to the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a foreign academician in 2019, and to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as an international member in 2020. His unique distinction places him among the select few research fellows acknowledged by elite science institutions in the U.K., China, and the U.S.

Beyond academic accolades, Speakman has been honored with Friendship Awards from both the Chinese Government and the Guangdong Provincial Government.

In his personal life, Speakman has a love for bird photography, a passion he has cultivated since his early teenage years.

“It was a big honor for me to win a prize. I didn’t really expect I would win a prize, let alone the second prize. So it was fantastic. I’m very, very happy,” Speakman told Shenzhen Daily at the awards ceremony of the Fifth Expats Eye Shenzhen Photo Contest held in Nanshan District on Saturday.

Speakman admitted that before the contest, he didn’t realize how many expats there are in Shenzhen and how many countries they come from.

“A total of 110 people from 33 countries entered the competition. So I think it is a showcase for how international Shenzhen is. It’s a place where lots of people come and lots of people make their homes. I think that’s great,” Speakman said.

Speakman has been living in Shenzhen for three years and previously he spent nine years in Beijing. Living near the Dasha River Ecological Corridor in Nanshan, the British scientist finds the area a nice place to live in and take pictures of the birds in Shenzhen Bay.

“But the birds are quite shy so to do that you need a sort of special technique. What I do is to go down when the tide is out and I hide in the rocks and wait for the tide to slowly push the birds closer,” Speakman shared in a speech at the awards ceremony.

“Because I’ve been sitting there a long time, the birds don’t realize I’m there, so I can get really close pictures of them,” he added.

But it is not without occasional challenges taking pictures in the bay, according to Speakman. He shared an entertaining anecdote that was greeted with a burst of laughter at the ceremony.

More than once he has hidden himself in the rocks waiting for the birds to come closer, then after an hour or so, just as they are in reach, they all fly off. “I look around to see if a hawk or something has scared them away. But no! Behind me is a guy who has walked across the rocks just to ask how much my camera cost.”

When asked if he will take part in the photo contest next year, Speakman responded with a smile: “It’s difficult to beat coming second, but I’m pretty sure I will. But maybe in the other category, maybe in the humanistic category rather than nature.”