I got into bird photography because of the Wingspan boardgame and because I realized the limitations of taking pictures through binoculars, among other reasons.
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 sight and sound. All About Birds is also useful for comparing similar species.
- eBird to report bird sightings, when I get around to it. I have an eBird Profile Page.
- Canon R7 with RF 800mm F11 (1.86 kilograms total, 14 5/16 inches long retracted with filter and lens cap) or RF 100mm-400mm F5.6-8 (1.25 kilograms total). This camera appears to become ISO-invariant somewhere in the range [400, 800].
- Nikon D5600 with Nikon 70-300mm DX VR, and some rubber bands to prevent zoom creep (0.88 kilograms total). This camera appears to become almost ISO-invariant somwhere in the range [200, 800].
- 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
- 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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