Photography is definitely an art on its own merits, but one photo that appeared online yesterday only blurred the lines between the arts even further.

Maltese photographer Brian Grech took to the sister island of Gozo earlier this week to take photos of a new hotel in Xlendi, but the bad weather ended up ruining some of his plans for the day.

“I was out at around 6:30am to take photos of the hotel’s pool, but everything was wet and it was pointless,” Brian told Lovin Malta. “Then, this happened.”

Pointing his camera to the surrounding countryside instead, Brian captured a snap of a flock of birds flying over the sunrise-kissed fields. In return, the photographer captured the imagination of hundreds of people who later saw the photo on Facebook.

Titling the beautifully surreal photo Birds Of A Feather, Brian Grech cheekily added the caption “This is not a painting”. And it seemed like it was definitely merited, because many could hardly believe him.

“It really does look very surreal, and it doesn’t even look like Gozo,” Brian admitted to Lovin Malta. The trees and brushes in the photo’s background seem like one of the contributing factors to this photo looking like a painting, with many people actually mistaking them for clouds.

“I had to convince people they weren’t Photoshopped in!” Brian laughed. “I know they feel like clouds, but they are 100% fields.”

“Nature photography is not really my thing,” Brian continued. “It’s not something I usually do at least. But I’m always in the search of the ‘perfect light’. That’s what photography is mostly about after all.”

The shot also manages to capture an atmosphere that’s equal parts dramatic and calm. “There were no hunters too at the time,” Brian smiled.

Grech has been taking impressive photos for 20 years now, and regularly posts stunning shots on his Instagram account.

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).