Question 4

[Arthur Morris]

Denise Ippolito is working on an interview to post on her blog. This is my answer to Question 4:

#4 How has bird photography changed your life?

This question made me chuckle. Bird photography is my life. I started photographing birds in August of 1983 while I was still teaching in NYC. I got out as much as I could and always traveled to San Diego and Florida on the Christmas and Easter holidays, but I could never get enough. When I was looking to quit teaching folks said, "You're combined salaries (about $100K for Elaine and me) are huge, you have great health plans and others benefits, you can never make a living photographing birds. It's too specialized." Well, that was great inspiration for me, the best thing that I could have heard as I am a very determined person. I had a friend who was a very talented photographer, writer, and artist who gave that all up to go to med school when he was in his forties I think. He is a doctor now and I can guarantee that my bottom line is at least three to five times what his is.

So bird photography has changed my life for the better financially and in many other ways: I am blessed to be able to do what I love and what I do best, making images and teaching others to do the same. I "retired" (from teaching) in June, 1993. Since then I have been working about 14 hours a day. My days are filled with bird photography stuff--working on images, posting on BirdPhotographers.Net, writing, preparing Bulletins and Blog posts, and answering e-mail. Lord it would be hard for most folks to believe how many photography-related e-mails I answer in a week. But all those e-mail and those 14 hour days, I love them as much as I love being in the field with a big telephoto lens on a tripod and a flight lens on my shoulder.

And oh, the places I have been: Antarctica, Midway, the Galapagos, dozens of trips to Alaska, Finland, the UK, Panama and Ecuador for hummers, Brazil, Mexico, Barbados, Kenya, Tanzania, and my soul places, the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, La Jolla Cliffs in San Diego, and my beloved Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico. And Florida--Alafia Banks with James Shadle, Lake Toho and Lake Blue Cypress with Jim Neiger, DeSoto and Little Estero, and down by the lake near my home for baby Sandhill Cranes in spring. And I have big plans for the future including Japan in winter, a lake in Greece for Dalmatian Pelicans, and a return trip to the Southern Oceans. While I have been lucky and I have been blessed I make no apologies: I have worked very hard for nearly three decades and am proud of what I have accomplished.

Image courtesy Amano Samarpan