I suppose I've had a bit of a photography bug ever since I was a teenager. The first camera I bought was a Polaroid that took black and white instant photos. Photographs are all about capturing moments and sights that we notice, and I have fond memories of looking at slides on the wall of my grandparents' home - in the dark when we visited. I guess you could say that my love of stories and using pictures to tell them, along with sharing memories, started there.
That's also where I attribute my interest in birds and the wide variety of species that I find interesting to watch and photograph. My grandparents watched birds and pointed out different ones to me. Maybe my interest has grown because my grandparents aren't around anymore, and photographing birds seems to really keep me in touch with their spirits. I like to think they'd like seeing some of my photographs and it's as close as I can come to either of them pointing out an interesting bird to me - or my doing that for them.
The photography/camera bug became stronger because I started seeing things and thinking they would make for an interesting photograph. My stepfather is an avid photographer, having been at it for years and he's won several awards and even sold quite a few of his photographs. He's also been very encouraging in my own photography journey.
Birds aren't my favorite animals, but there is an incredibly wide variety of species that I find interesting to photograph, and let's face it - they're pretty much everywhere. I knew I wasn't long for being without a decent camera when I started seeing more things that I wanted to capture in photographs. I started out easy - I planted Sunflowers in the hopes of drawing Goldfinches and getting good photographs of them. They're not a bird that sticks around long if people get too close, but they're beautifully colored in bright yellows and black. I basically used my living room as a blind and got some great shots right out my front window.
Next there were Mexican Sunflowers that I discovered after planting them, draw Humming Birds and Monarch Butterflies - more great photo opportunities. This year has been a bit disappointing with birds being drawn to my plants. As we're heading into Fall, I've cut back a lot of the flowers and plants - though I'm not ready to give up seeing more of flowers and hoping they draw birds. That's all fine, but I also need to get out and take pictures of birds in the wild. I'm not sure why my own plants haven't drawn much in the way of birds this year, but with 433 species of birds in Ohio - according to a Google inquiry, I'd be lucky if I've seen 50, and lucky if I've gotten decent photographs of 20.
I've got a couple of friends who started down the road to photography after I did and they're getting great photographs out in the world away from their front door. This is inspiring. My stepfather once told me that he knows people who have been taking pictures for decades that don't have photographs like some of my better shots - but I think that thought lulled me into a false sense of confidence. I do have some good shots from early on, but I got them literally from my front door. I like to say that these photographs are a combination of luck and what I pay attention to - and they are. You've gotta be noticing in the first place and thinking about photo opportunities to begin with, that much is true - but I'm beginning to realize how much more there is if I look further and learn more.
Another thing I need to learn more about, is utilizing the capabilities of my equipment and using settings to my advantage - instead of letting the plethora of settings and capabilities intimidate me into just shooting on auto mode. Getting photographs seems more like collecting - and as my buddy, Mick once said, "I take a ton of photographs, a lot of them bad, but I keep shooting."
While it's not just birds that I want to photograph, I am getting borderline obsessed with photographing more varieties of birds. I've seen Bald Eagles on my cycling runs and I think back to when these magnificent birds were endangered and how I could very easily have never had a chance to see them at all. On one ride a couple of Summers ago, I was across the river from an eagle just sitting on a branch. All I had was my iPhone to capture that opportunity - if I'd had my camera with me, I could've gotten great shots that morning. It's wonderful just to see something like this, but I like the thought of capturing a great photograph of things like this - it really will last longer.
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