I had a 40+ year career as a librarian but after hours my camera has always been close by. In the 1980s I started out with cameras such as the Praktica MTL3 and the Pentax Spotmatic. I upgraded to a Canon EOS650 when it was released and followed that with several other EOS models.
At that time my main interest was motorsport. Until 1995 I was track photographer for two local speedway tracks in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. My first digital camera was a Canon EOS350D, followed by a number of other models over the years. I currently have a 700D and a 90D. My most used lenses are Canon 100-400mm and Sigma 18-300mm. In 2007 I started going to workshops and field trips run by Kim Westerskov which gave me a whole new perspective on photography. Then, when doing a course with Kim and Bob Tulloch, I discovered the pleasure of simply going "walking with camera" every weekend and have continued to do so as often as possible. Over time, my walks saw me build a large collection of photos that included many birds. I became more interested in the lives and activities of the birds I was watching which led me to the idea of utilising my large collection of photos to illustrate books about these birds. The result is the New Zealand Bird Views series of books and the concept will continue as I broaden out into books on other subjects in future. Perfect portraits are ideal, but the reality of experiencing nature is the luck of being there when things happen. My satisfaction comes from capturing the action. |