Community Corner

Penguins Help Retired Mt. Carmel High Teacher Show His Photo Chops

Robert Bjorkquist said he took about 100 shots of the inquisitive birds with a Canon G12 digital camera.

Story and video by Ken Stone

Before Robert Bjorkquist retired five years ago as a photography teacher at Mt. Carmel High School, he encouraged his students to enter the San Diego County Fair. 

But it wasn’t until this year that he entered a shot himself.

Titled “Pablo,” his ground-level photo of a group of penguins was chosen for display in the Color Nature category.

“I was sitting on the ground for about an hour,” he said Thursday at the exhibitors’ reception.

Bjorkquist, 64, said he took about 100 shots with a Canon G12 digital camera—about as far south as you can get in this hemisphere.

The photo was taken in mid-February on Martillo, one of the islands of Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego.

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