After having been "self-taught" for several years now, I feel the need to learn from others. I look froward to seeing your work, having some of mine critiqued, and learning more about equipment.

I retired several years ago and sometimes marvel a little at how I arrived at being interested in photographing birds. It came from some volunteer work at a local wildlife rehabilitation center, where my job was to care for injured and orphaned (mostly baby) birds. I saw birds up close that I had never even noticed, much less knew the names of. A while later we went to Botswana, which contributed the photography part. Finally, I do enjoy the equipment and art aspects of bird photography.

For now I use a Canon 7D Mark II and Canon 100-400mm Mark II, and am looking forward to getting upgrade recommendations, at some point. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area of California and thus happily have access to a pretty wide range of bird species.

I'll be seeing you on the forums!

Ed