A year later, and I’m actually using the same camera body I started out with, the Nikon D3200, and a super-telephoto zoom lens from Sigma, the now-discontinued 120-400mm f\/4.5-5.6. Those of you familiar with Nikon DSLRs will know that the D3200 is the most entry-level DSLR they sell. Or sold, rather: you can find the newer (though nearly identical) D3300 with a kit lens on deals for less than $400 as of this writing.<\/p>\n
So what’s changed?<\/p>\n
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- The way I listen and watch when I’m outside. Doesn’t matter if I’m birding or not: I notice every chirp, squawk, or song. My eyes catch every small, quick movement in trees and bushes, and I look at birds flying overhead long enough to attempt to identify them.\u00a0Hiking is no longer just following a trail to get to the end, it’s a constant search for birds while I walk (and to be honest, any wildlife at all). I\u00a0feel<\/em> more aware of my surroundings.<\/li>\n
- The things I look for when I travel. Whether a camping trip to the Yakima River Canyon or a week in Paris, now I’m looking up all the best places to look for birds–trails, parks, wildlife areas–before I go, looking up the species I can expect to find, and even doing research on those species I find most interesting and would like to find (to give me a better chance at finding them when I get there).<\/li>\n
- My travel goals often are created\u00a0primarily<\/em> because of access to areas with birds. In fact, the way I decide on where I’d like to go has\u00a0completely changed. A few years ago when I thought of where I wanted to travel I’d think of various big cities in Europe and South America. Now I’m looking at places I can go hiking in the rainforest, wetlands, or other places where I can spend time looking for and taking pictures of birds. It should also come as no surprise that plenty of my travel plans are centered around sailing, but even then I’m looking at what sort of avian life there is to find in the area.<\/li>\n
- I’ve even combined my interests of birding and sailing, keeping lists of remote islands with endemic species. I may not get to these places in the next few years, but someday I’d really love to be able to sail to these remote places\u00a0and get photos of some of those rare and endangered species; species for whom photographs (especially sharp, high resolution photographs using modern equipment) are lacking or nonexistent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In my case, birding is inexorably entwined with photography. I don’t currently even own binoculars or a spotting scope (though I’m looking into purchasing some good binoculars soon), using instead the telephoto lens I lug around attached to my camera as my only optics. This isn’t the case for most of the birders I’ve met at all–usually even the ones who are doing photography are carrying around binoculars, with their camera and lens sitting on a tripod. I don’t like dealing with tripods, or even monopods: I’m running around handholding nearly all of my shots. I have to deal with muscle fatigue in my arms, but it also gives me a lot more freedom and speed to react to what is happening around me.<\/p>\n
I could say that birding has also changed how I do photography, but I think it would be more accurate to say that it has evolved my photography–this entire past year has been a learning experience on multiple fronts: sailing, birding, and photography. I’ve spent a significant amount of time shooting, editing, and even researching the type equipment I’m looking at purchasing to help up my game. I’ll explore that\u00a0topic at a later date but for now the best way to put it is this:\u00a0a\u00a0year ago when I would get good shots it was as much on accident as anything else. Now when I get good shots it’s because I understand the equipment, understand the lighting around me, and have put myself in the right place at the right time.<\/p>\n
It’s often said that the only way to really learn something is to do it over and over and over again. When it’s something you love, doing it over and over again is\u00a0fun<\/em>. I’ve had more fun in the past year than any other time in my life.<\/p>\n
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