Whether you keep a roll of Forever stamps in your desk just in case or believe that a handwritten thank-you note or birthday card is still de rigueur, postage stamps continue to be part of our lives. Every year, the United States Postal Service strives to highlight this country’s history, arts, and culture with stamps that are beautiful, historical, educational, and diverse.
Along those lines, this year central Virginia has scored a three-pointer: One of the newly issued stamp series for 2024 features a local species, a local photographer, and a local graphic designer.
The four-stamp series, called “Garden Delights,” shows ruby-throated hummingbirds doing what they do best—hovering next to the flowers they are feeding on like tiny jeweled helicopters. (If you have ever been close enough to a feeding hummingbird, you know the soft whirring sound those hard-working wings make, pumping in an invisible blur. No wonder these tiny birds have to feed constantly!)
The images are the work of wildlife photographer Ben King, who grew up in North Garden just south of Charlottesville and lived there until this spring. For King, photography is an avocation—“It’s a way to share things that brought me joy with other people,” he says. As a nature-lover and a recently retired professional cyclist, his online portfolio contains many stunning landscapes from here and around the country—but it’s overwhelmingly full of the wildlife that he loves to capture, from majestic raptors to humble insects.
When he was contacted about using his hummingbird photographs for a stamp series, it was “an exciting surprise,” King recalls. “Hummingbirds are common, but there’s something magical about them—a sense of wonder.” The photos all show female birds—delicate and delightful, although they lack the male’s distinctive iridescent red throat feathers. And the light has to catch a male’s throat feathers at the perfect angle, or that area merely looks dark.
Just as photographer King has to compose his shots, turning his photographs into a work of graphic art requires a designer—in this case, another North Garden resident, Greg Breeding. Breeding, who runs his own independent design firm called the Journey Group in Charlottesville, is one of four art directors who work for USPS. While the ideas for new series come from all over the country (USPS encourages public input), the chosen subjects have to work as stamps—making an impact as small graphics while still containing the necessary information.
Breeding’s challenge combines gaining familiarity with the subject, searching for the appropriate artist, and coordinating the process from design through production to launch. It’s a process that can take years. Distilling a series down to a number of images (from four to 12) can be daunting—especially when Breeding has worked on subjects as diverse as religious Christmas imagery, heritage American farm breeds, the Harlem Renaissance, espresso drinks, and Buzz Lightyear. Sometimes he’s even part of the series’ launch as well—for this year’s “Dungeons and Dragons 50th Anniversary” series kick-off at Gen Con Indy 2024, Breeding will be available for autographs.
Luckily, ruby-throated hummingbirds don’t have conventions. Every summer, they magically appear to visit at our feeders or in our back gardens.