Eli Atack with his tried and true Cannon Rebel SL2 DSLR camera. COURTESY PHOTO

A few years ago, Eli Atack’s aunt gave him his first camera.

“Right then, I used it,” he says. “I was told I had a photographer’s eye.”

He soon upgraded his camera and then upgraded again.

He now uses a Canon Rebel SL2.

Throughout the month of July, the 14-year-old, who attends The Fletcher School (on Pine Island Road), will be a highlighted artist at Harbour View Gallery in Cape Coral.

Atack, pronounced A-tack, specializes in nature photography.

“I like being out in nature and seeing the animals,” he says, “and to get a real good picture that’s clear and crisp with good lighting is really satisfying.”

Sometimes, he’ll shoot landscapes, too.

He’s taken photos locally at Six Mile Cypress Slough and at the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia.

He says his favorite photo is one he took of burrowing owls. (Atack lives in Cape Coral, along with countless burrowing owls.)

Female burrowing owl. COUTESY PHOTOS

This year, he won an honorable mention in the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife Burrowing Owl Photo Contest.

He’d learned about the Harbour View Gallery, an artist co-op in Cape Coral, and inquired about joining it. (Artist co-ops are places where artists pay to belong and exhibit their work.) He applied, and a week later, the board accepted him.

“They have a new featured artist every month, and it’s very popular,” Atack says. “I had to wait for over a year to get my spot for this July.”

He plans to have about 30 to 40 pieces of his work for sale, which include stickers, posters, wall canvas and plaques.

As an artist at the co-op, “you get 60 percent of what you sell,” he says.

“It’s peaceful, getting out (to take photos). You won’t find the animals around a lot of people. You have to track them down or be very patient. You can’t get close, or they will run away or fly away.”

He uses a 300 mm ES telephoto zoom lens to capture his images of animals.

Baby alligator

“You can get very close-up images of the animal without getting very close to them,” he says.

He also uses a photo editor afterward to adjust the sharpness and brightness.

Atack’s also interested in sports, naming baseball, soccer, pickleball and football as his favorites.

He doesn’t have any photographers he follows or admires and doesn’t think he’ll go into it as a profession.

For now, it’s just a fun hobby. ¦

Mother duck with her babies.