Welcome to the World of Birds web-site

This web-site has been built so that I can indulge my passion for bird photography. I've always been keenly interested in natural history and I have always tried to photograph birds and animals when I've been on holiday or just in my back garden. In the past I used very inadequate photographic equipment and although I've still not got all of the gear that I'd really like to have, I have made some progress and I have enjoyed watching and photographing the birds that you'll find on this site. I hope to keep updating the site and, of course, adding more pictures. I also hope to continue developing my own photography skills as I go.

I started off a few years ago trying to take simple pictures with a bottom of the range Canon EOS 5000N SLR camera with an EF80-200 F4.5-F5.6 zoom lens. I didn't really understand photography and the pictures I obtained were almost always disappointing. I took up bird photography with more passion when I acquired a digital SLR camera in January 2005. Although at first I found it difficult to get good pictures I was inspired by the excellent work of other photographers whose work appeared on the internet. Photographers such as Steve Round were amongst the earliest to post their digital bird images on the web and the quality of his work and that of others shows what can be achieved with a little time, experience and reasonable equipment.

These days I do have some fairly nice kit. I describe it on the 'Cameras' pages for those who are interested. Of course, I'm now totally digital since with this format, with a little help from some clever software, I've been able to produce pictures that I'm really pleased with and I hope that you'll enjoy them too.

So where do I take my photographs? Well I live in the North West of England (West Manchester to be precise) and I consider anywhere within a couple of hours drive, or so, to be my 'local patch'. So Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside, most of Yorkshire, Cumbria, North Wales, Staffordshire and Derbyshire, as well as Greater Manchester. Occasionally I'll go a bit further a field and when I go away on holiday I always try to do a little bird watching and photography, although I don't get to do too much as my wife and kids don't share this passion.

Anyhow, I hope that you enjoy the web-site. If you have any comments, constructive criticism or good locations for bird photography in the North West or elsewhere, then please use the 'Contact me' tab to let me know or you can add an entry to the web-site guest book.