Ophthalmologist’s award-winning photo captures ‘one of the great stories of nature’
Professor Colin Chan says the patience and observational skills he uses in medicine have helped him capture wildlife behind the lens.
The whimbrel is a bird, a curlew. In Professor Colin Chan’s award-winning photograph it has two simple goals: keeping a freshly caught crab and dodging an incoming wave.
But for the Sydney ophthalmologist, capturing the moment took weeks – tracking the animal, learning its behaviour and attempting to predict what it would do next.
The efforts proved worthwhile. The photograph, called Just in Time and taken at Sydney’s Long Reef Aquatic Reserve, was a winner in the 2026 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year awards.
“The photograph I took was about the 10th time I saw it eat a crab,” he tells AusDoc.
