Thanks for dropping by. I hope you find something of interest on my site.
About birdimages.co.uk
I created my birdimages site in 2005, when in the final year of a part-time degree in IT. I built the site from scratch using a popular web-development package and uploaded it to a cheap Internet Service Provider (ISP). It was hard work to create and maintain, but I remember being quite proud of my first website (first if I exclude the pretend websites I created at uni).
Back in those days, it was considered sufficient by most to have a simple website with a few pages of text and some galleries to show-off one's photos. At the time, I don't think I was really aware of blogging, and the Facebooks and Twitters of this world had only just been created and were still considered by many to be mere fads that would soon pass us by.
Things are different now. Many have abandoned the idea of a Website in favour of a blog, and integration / communication with social media sites is considered the norm. Because I was starting to feel left behind, and because I found the idea of building and adding these features into my own website daunting, I decided to move my site to a Content Management System (CMS).
This site is now hosted with levelhorizon.co.uk. It allows me to have a website incorporating a blog (the best of both worlds) and allows me to add Facebook and lots of other widgets / features. Designing and populating the site still required a bit of effort, but maintenance is much easier. Now someone else can feel responsible for keeping the features up-to-date!
About My Photography
I think bird photographers sit somewhere between two extremes.
- Photographer first, birder second. At one end of the scale there is the artist who has an interest in birds. For this individual the art of photography is more important than the subject matter. For example, this photographer will be happy taking pictures of Robins and Blackbirds if the result is a beautiful image that any viewer will appreciate, whether interested in birds or not. This photographer is unlikely to jump in the car, travel hundreds of miles, and join a throng of people trying to get an image of that blown-of-course Glossy Ibis (or similar).
- Birder first, photographer second. At the other end of the scale is the 'twitcher' with a camera. In this case the camera is a means of recording a sighting; a method of proving to others that a sighting has been made. The word twitcher is a British invention I think, used to describe a serious birder / bird-lister who is prepared to travel hundreds of miles to record a sighting.
If you are a photographer and you don't think you relate to either of these definitions, like most, you probably fit somewhere in-between the two extremes. You're a photographer who likes to produce artistic images, but also likes the challenge of capturing difficult to photograph / rarer species, or you're a serious birder who likes to produce beautiful images whenever possible, but is equally happy simply to record any sightings on camera.
Myself, I lean towards the first definition, so if you've arrived here in the hope of seeing images of rarities, you might be disappointed. I've been interested in birds since childhood, but I think I'd rather produce a beautiful image of a Robin than a distant and / or poorer quality image of a Lapland Bunting, for example (not that I wouldn't very much enjoy seeing one).
Having said this, it is my intention to challenge myself more and attempt to capture the less common British birds. I'll update the blog with my progress.
Paul Weston