Birding 101 article added to my web site

As part of my effort to make useful information available to the widest audience I've just added a new article to my web site intended to help photographers new to birding get past the initial hurdle of bird identification.

Birding 101

Here's the introductory section:

I believe strongly that in order to be a good bird photographer you need expertise in both photography and in birds. You'd expect a photographer specializing in sports to have a lot of basic knowledge about the games, the teams, the players, and the schedules wouldn't you? So I'm always a bit surprised when I see someone interested enough in photographing birds to have invested thousands of dollars in specialized gear (big lenses, tripods, special heads and custom mounting plates) that knows so little about their chosen subjects and how to identify them.

This tutorial will provide some guidance to help remedy this problem. I won't bother with the mechanics of photography as that information is readily available elsewhere; instead I'll address the basics of birds and birding that I think any bird photographer ought to know to the same extent as they know how to determine exposure or change lenses. Those basics include fundamental bird identification, knowledge of distribution and habitat preferences, birding tools (field guides and binoculars), and useful sources of information.

Once I've had sufficient feedback on it to judge if it needs more work I'll try to make it available in a better format for downloading.

Hi Rich,

Your article is timely, good, and covers most points.

There is some repetition but as long as your audience is slated to be those of us with no or limited experience, I think that's fine. A little repetition can help hammer home salient points.

I have no idea how you expect to interact with your readers, but I think it would be wonderful if you had a question and answer section.

Carol

May I thank you for such a well researched and well written source for bird photography. You obviously spent many hours outlining and composing the tract which I enjoy. I have it book marked and will use it as a reference in the future. It doesn't matter how many times something is written - as in many other sources for bird photography - but, by reading the many sources one may finally learn how to improve their technique and capture a "WOW" keeper.

Happy birding! I appreciated especially your coverage on which lens to use.

I've been through your new site Richard. Several times. Two years ago I would have killed for such a comprehensive source for a beginning bird photographer like I was. Maybe they were out there but I never found one quite like yours. Today, I consider myself on the early intermediate level and I still find the advice you give to be invaluable. I like your forthrightness. Not everyone will agree with everything you have to say but that doesn't matter - you provide a thought provoking beginning for issues that face every nature photographer. I have your site bookmarked.