I'm a birder, traveler, and amateur photographer.  Not always in that order.  

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My brother and I were raised as birders from an early age.  Our grandfather was a bander, and we spent a lot of time with him while growing up.  There were many weekend mornings that started well before dark; so we could travel to his banding sites and setup nets at sunrise.  My first travels were also with my grandfather.  In our teenage years, we set off on several cross-country trips to do some camping and birding.  Thanks to him, I developed a pretty extensive life list.  It was around this time that I'd developed an interest in photography as well.  I joined the photography club in high school.  I remember trying to shoot birds with a 35mm lens on a Pentax K-1000 and then trying to enlarge them enough to have a decent shot of the bird.  Back then, a decent shot was a House Finch on a feeder.

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In college and for a few years after, I did not do as much of the things that I loved.  Lack of money.  Too many other things going on.  I traveled a bit, and I'd try to make time to do a little bird watching.  For a number of years, I'd only make it out for a couple weekends in Spring to look for migrant warblers.  I inherited my grandfathers Canon film camera, and I'd try to get some photos with that.  I was even less successful than my high school days.  Film is hard; especially when you cannot process the photos yourself.

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Fast forward a few more years, and Canon released the D-30.  I'd been looking at an upgrade to my film camera, and I knew digital was what I wanted.  It really helped with the learning curve on photographing birds.  As someone said recently, "electrons are free."  Without the cost of film processing, the limits of what you could try were boundless.  Now, it's nothing for me to go on a trip and shoot thousands of photos.  Back in those college days, I shot 26 rolls of film on a trip to Europe, and then I could not afford to process them when I got home.

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Today, I mostly still shoot Canon.  I do own a Nikon camera, and I've recently purchased a Sony mirrorless.  They all have their own purpose.  Mostly, they serve to capture a small piece of what I see.  Whether it's just down the road or in another country, I enjoy birding and capturing some small moments of my experiences.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  Thanks for stopping by.