The Begining Of Things - Photography & Birds

The most common question that people ask when they see my photographs is how this interest in wildlife photography started in a first place, so in order to start this blog in chronological order, I must answer this first...

Did you ever had that feeling that when something bad happens, it can also produce a good thing? Well, in my case it actually started with a crash! (back in summer 2005) My first beloved digital camera Canon A60 accidentally slipped from my sisters hands and broke. Oh man! I loved that little camera. Cried buckets on that day, and when I found out that it can't be repaired I was pissed at my sister big time! Next thing you know I was looking to buy a new camera.

At that time I used to hang at local message board "Zivotinjsko carstvo" - magazine for lovers of nature and animals, where I met Goran (the board owner) who was already photographing birds from time to time. Since I really liked the bird photos he used to post on the board, he send me few links to see more wildlife photo galleries of other people. Most of all he was thrilled with Daniella's gallery. Once you take a look at her photos it just takes your breath away and you can't say nothing less than "WOW!" and bow in admiration. Than I came across Jody Melanson's gallery and that was it... I was hooked! I said to myself - when I grow up I wanna make such pix as Jody! :)))

That brings us back to the camera, which of course I needed to buy first in order to photograph anything at all... yeah... sure... an easy task? Not! Why oh why cameras have to cost so much? *sigh* I read somewhere that "Hobby is something free of charge that costs a LOT!"... ain't that the truth :)))

Since I didn't had much savings, I decide to give it a try with cheep (8 x zoom) camera Konica Minolta Z10. Two months later I was climbing over the fallen tree trunk on the Danube river bank, trying to photograph some Mallards and all the time I was thinking "I am just too far away and this zoom is not providing me with enough reach ether!" next thing you know I slipped off the tree trunk and found myself in mud up to mu ankles. That was it! I decided to sell that camera a buy a better one.

I thought about getting a dslr camera and some good zoom lens, but it was very expensive. Apart from the cost of the camera there were also few other thoughts that were troubling my mind like: do I really need a dslr? I mean... I am not a pro, I won't be making any money out of it, so is it really worth it to invest that much? Would I make better photos with better camera? Would I even be able to find birds to photograph (apart from sparrows, pigeons and crows)? D'oh!?! I just felt that it still wasn't the right time to invest in dslr so I decided to give it a try again with some prosumer camera. I bought Sony DSC-H1 (12 x zoom + Olympus Tcon 1.7x ) sometime in December 2005. and started photographing like crazy.

Few months have passed... my collection of bird photos was growing every day. On my way to work I used to walk along Danube river bank and photograph ducks, coots, gulls, pygmy cormorants... etc. I admit that at that time I didn't know many of the species I photographed so that got me curious. I posted my photos at "Zivotinjsko carstvo" message board (all proud of myself that finally I have some photos to post there as well LOL), and I asked if anyone can identify those birds for me? That is how I came across Milan Ruzic who was also a board member. He was thrilled with my bird photos and started to identify all the birds I photographed, adding along interesting bits and stories about each particular species like... "Do you know that 5% of European Pygmy cormorant population is wintering here in Serbia?" he once wrote. Well.. no... I didn't had a clue. :) Milan was kind enough to ask me to join him and his fellow birdwatchers on their field trips and promised to show me some great locations for photographing birds.

At that time I never really thought that my interest in photography and birds would literally change my life but the story will continue in more posts to come. Stay tuned.... ;-)