Things that got me interested in bird photography include the Wingspan boardgame and taking pictures through binoculars.

The photos hosted here are all of wild birds, and were all taken by me or Julie.

Here is a list of species I've photographed but not yet added to this website.

Some tools I use:

• eBird hotspots to explore locations. And in the US, local Audubon chapters often list and describe birding sites. Here they are for Marin, SF/East Bay, San Mateo, and Santa Clara. The National Audubon Society has highlights for each state.
• Merlin to identify birds by sound and view a list of likely birds at a given time and place. The app also runs on Apple silicon Macs, where I use it to identify birds from photos (you first need to add a given photo to Apple Photos to be able to select it).
• All About Birds is useful for comparing similar species.
• eBird to report bird sightings, when I get around to it. I have an eBird Profile Page.
• Canon R7. This camera appears to become ISO-invariant somewhere in the range [400, 800]. Lenses:
  • RF 800mm F11 (1.86 kilograms total, 14 5/16 inches long retracted with filter and lens cap). For extended use and carrying, I usually attach a handle which weighs 110g.
  • RF 100mm-400mm F5.6-8 (1.25 kilograms total). The Digital Picture says that it becomes f/6.3 at 123mm, f/7.1 at 156mm, and f/8 at 259mm, while Photos to Photons claims it becomes f/6.29 at 124mm, f/7.13 at 188mm, and f/8.03 at 258mm while being 388mm f/8.24 at its longest.
• Nikon D5600 with Nikon 70-300mm DX VR, and some rubber bands to prevent zoom creep (0.88 kilograms total, 7 7/8 inches long retracted with filter and lens cap). This camera appears to become almost ISO-invariant somwhere in the range [200, 800]. Photos to Photons claims it starts at 72mm f/4.71, becomes f/5.00 at 106mm, f/5.59 at 186mm, f/6.28 at 255mm, and ends at f/6.56 at 292mm.
• Sony HX99 (0.25 kilograms)
• Lens hoods, clear filters, and a circular polarizer filter
• GPS Logger app (Android)
• Custom Python scripts to import photos
• FastRawViewer for culling
• For processing raw photos: Canon Digital Photo Professional, Nikon NX Studio, or Capture One Express for Sony
• DxO PhotoLab 8
• DaVinci Resolve (free version) for video editing.
  • For working with HDR video shot on an iPhone, it's helpful to add a Color Space Transform with "Input color space" set to "Rec 2020", "Input Gamma" set to "Rec.2100 HLG (Scene)", and to check the box for "HDR 203 Nits Diffuse White." Then adjust the "Adaptation" to taste. (Thanks for the tip, Creative Video Tips.)
• Topaz DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI. I append these to the filename when I use them.
• ImageMagick CLI to convert TIFF to JPEG
• ExifTool CLI to manipulate metadata and add GPS data
• git-annex thinly wrapped by custom Python scripts for image file management
• Google Photos "Storage saver" re-compression to minimize file size for photos smaller than 16 megapixels, and ImageOptim for photos larger than 16 megapixels. Google Photos "Storage saver" is not good for photos larger than 16 megapixels because it resizes them down to 16 megapixels.
• Custom Python scripts to generate this static website

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