Hi there, and thanks for visiting my website & blog. I’ve always been fascinated with birds… they’re a visible jewel of nature – beautiful to behold, and often rare to witness. I don’t often go out of my way to see new species of birds, but, I see them… we all do. And my natural curiosity compels me to learn more about them. In addition to that, my love of photography & birds often intersect. so, I hope you find something interesting within these pages.
This site is primarily organized by species of bird. If I’ve seen a bird, I’ll have a post about it. If I have a photo of the bird available, I’ll post that too. If I have a new sighting of note, I’ll update the post. Generally, the newer posts will be at the top of the list on the home page. But, for now, I’m still adding new content, and there isn’t much order to the listings. Feel free to search and browse through the listings. I also have a spot for postings about more general topics related to birds.
A little about me… while my formal education is in technology, photography has become more and more my focus in life. I’m happy to have found a creative outlet that I enjoy sharing. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. After college, I got a job in the heart of silicon valley. After a few years of that I was looking for a more relaxed place to live, and transferred to the Seattle area. Soon, I fell in love with the mountains and wilderness that is so close to Seattle. This led to quitting my “career”, and embarking on a couple long-distance hikes; both across the United States from border to border. First I hiked the length of the Pacific Crest Trail, through the mountains of California, Oregon and Washington. It was an incredible experience. I kept a journal, which you can read here. One long hike wasn’t enough though, and a couple years later, I took a similar trip along the length of the Continental Divide Trail. This trail closely follows the crest of the Rocky Mountains in the US, through the states of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.You can learn all about this trip here. Both of these trips were extremely rewarding on a number of levels. Among other things, being surrounded by the beauty of nature for 5 months at a time helped me hone my photography skills. I feel that it was these long hikes that helped me develop a vision for what works in nature photography; something I’ve been able to bring to other photographic subjects as well.
After the second hike, I had to get back to working (5 month long wilderness adventures might be a blast, but they don’t pay very well). Now, I do a mix of technical work and photography, based in the Portland, OR area. The advance of digital photography has proven this to be a complementary mix. I have a site all about my “people photography” here. I also offer a specialized product photography service – creating interactive photos. You can learn more about this here. I do still try to get outside for both short and long wilderness adventures from time to time. One of these was a hike across Iceland, which you can learn about here.
Thanks again for visiting!