I got back very late on Saturday night, actually at 1:50 am Sunday morning, from the whirlwind familiarization tour that Denise Ippolito<\/a> and I attended with eight others last week. One of those attending was a young Indian photographer, National Geographic videographer Sandesh Kadur<\/a>. Sandesh (say “sun-DAYSH”) asked if I would do an interview article with eight images for a relatively new magazine in India. Saevus Magazine is India\u2019s first premium wildlife and natural history magazine. It is about compelling storytelling, stunning visuals and in depth natural history for readers across all ages and groups. The first draft of the text for the interview appears below. If you spot any typos or have any questions on any of the topics below that might help me flash out the interview it would be greatly appreciated if you left a comment below. <\/p>\n I will be doing a blog post on Sandesh soon. Those who cannot wait can learn more about him here<\/a>. <\/p>\n I had birded for seven years and had seen the work of two local photographers, the late and very tall Thomas H. Davis Jr. and an older eastern European man named Tony Manzoni. At a slide program that Tony did he showed an image of a Least Bittern that got me thinking: \u201cI would like to do that.\u201d And the rest as they say, is history.<\/p>\n Zero. Well, actually one course: two hours for eight Tuesday nights, a basic course set up by New York City Audubon Society. Taught by a guy who turned out to be a lifelong friend, Milton Heiberg, who now lives in central Florida about 90 minutes from me. He has long been very proud of my success. <\/p>\n Not at all. It is far more important to have a good background in birding and natural history. Though I birded for only seven years I did so with great passion heading out most mornings before going to work as an elementary school teacher in New York City and then heading back out most days after work. That and both days on weekends. So by the time I bought my first telephoto lens in August 1983 I knew a lot about the birds and how they acted. <\/p>\n I don\u2019t know as I know little about other forms of photography; I am quite narrowly focused on birds and wildlife photography\u2026..<\/p>\n Shorebirds were my first love. That goes back to my days at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, New York, where I learned birding and then photography. The refuge butts right up to Kennedy Airport. Today I love photographing all types of birds, even the most common ones, but shorebirds, raptors, owls, and colorful songbirds are all right up there for me.<\/p>\n Well, I am not sure that I ever said exactly that. Once I see a situation I can visualize where I need to be and what I need to do to create the image that I realized instantly is there. Most often the process involves seeing the light and combining that with the best possible background; a great deal of my work is as much about the backgrounds as it is about the bird. <\/p>\n Beginners are advised to look at as many great images as possible: in books; on calendars; on photographers’ web sites; and on educational web sites like Bird Photographers.Net (http:\/\/www.birdphotographers.net). In the field it is a good plan\u2014if possible\u2014for beginning photographers to move left or right, or up or down without their gear<\/em> to learn how the light will affect the subject and how their choice of perspective will affect both the image and particularly the background. <\/p>\n My target audience comprises everyone who loves photographing birds and wants to learn how to do just that only better. We reach most people via a huge web presence specifically via the blog (www.BIRDSASART-blog.com) and our free educational Bulletins. Subscribe at our website here: www.BIRDSASART.com. I average about four to five blog posts a week and each almost always includes 1-5 images with our legendary BIRDS AS ART educational captions; there is always tons of learning going on. I am not very skilled at promoting the business via the customary social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Not sure if I will ever have the time to partake there\u2026. Everyone can learn a ton by visiting or subscribing to the blog at www.BIRDSASART-blog.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n I swim every day. And I enjoy a variety of sports on TV including professional football (our NFL football, not your soccer), golf, and professional basketball. I used to participate in all three of them on a pretty much informal level; now I enjoy them vicariously. And for whatever reason I enjoy watching No Limit Texas Hold-em poker tournaments on the tube even though I have never played a single hand. <\/p>\n I enjoy cooking and eating good, healthy food. As I travel a lot I am always in search of tasty Indian or Thai food; finding a great curry dish with chicken or pork as protein is always a treat. And best of all the curry dishes do not raise my blood sugar much at all. I am a type II diabetic who has opted to go on insulin for tight control of my blood sugar levels. <\/p>\n I enjoy being in the field with groups of photographers who are serious about improving. We attract folks with a wide range of skills, from those who are just starting to established pros. I have been blessed to have met dozens, even hundreds, of sweet and happy campers on my IPTs over the years. Many of them have become highly skilled photographers and several have gone on to careers as professional photographers. Best of all I have met many wonderful friends. <\/p>\n We try to teach folks to learn to analyze conditions and situations so that when they get back on their home turf they are much better equipped to make great images. And we always get in some Photoshop instruction so that they do not ruin their images after capture. Far too many out there over-process their images with too much saturation and too much sharpening. It pains me to see good images transformed into poor images. Our Digital Basics File has gone a long way to help folks improve their after-capture skills just as \u201cThe Art of Bird Photography\u201d and \u201cThe Art of Bird Photography II\u201d (the latter on CD only) has helped them perfect their in-the-field skills. <\/p>\n We have had people from the world over join us. Most recently I had the pleasure of meeting and working with a fine young Indian photographer on the Morro Bay IPT. Gaurav Mittal traveled all the way from India to join the group and will be returning with me to one of my soul places late next fall, Bosque del Apache NWR in San Antonio, New Mexico. He is quite skilled so watch out for him!<\/p>\n It is the same advice that I would give to upcoming photographers the world over. Number one and most important is for them to make sure that they are photographing what they love and are passionate about doing so. The industry has changed dramatically over the past decade. It is the rare photographer today who can succeed just by selling still images. Learning to write, learning to teach, and establishing a web presence is almost paramount to success. I always advise young pros to find their own niche and to develop markets for their work. Most pros today will counsel them to consider another career. Not me; they should not be discouraged. A life in photography is too wonderful a dream to give up on because of a few naysayers. <\/p>\n I would like to thank my new friend Indian photographer and videographer Sandesh Kadur for setting up this interview article. We met in June 2012 on a much too short familiarization tour of Trinidad and Tobago. Thanks also to Sandesh for opening my eyes to dSLR video. He is a kind, sweet, and very skilled young man. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No Images Today… <\/p>\n I got back very late on Saturday night, actually at 1:50 am Sunday morning, from the whirlwind familiarization tour that Denise Ippolito and I attended with eight others last week. One of those attending was a young Indian photographer, National Geographic videographer Sandesh Kadur. Sandesh (say “sun-DAYSH”) asked if I would do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-147","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Text for the interview article for Saevus Magazine<\/h3>\n
1.\tWhat inspired you to take up bird photography?<\/h2>\n
2.\tDid you have formal training in photography?<\/h2>\n
3.\tDo you think it is important to have any such training to become a natural history photographer?<\/h2>\n
4.\tHow is bird photography as a genre different from other forms of photography?<\/h2>\n
5.\tWhat are your favorite birds to photograph and why?<\/h2>\n
6.\tYou often suggest \u2018Visualizing the photograph in your mind before you have even taken it’. Can you please elaborate on this and explain to our readers how to learn to excel in visualization. <\/h2>\n
7.\tWho are your target audience or clients and how do you reach them?<\/h2>\n
8.\tWhat do you do apart from photography in your free time?<\/h2>\n
9.\tPlease share with us your experiences with \u2018BIRDS AS ART\u2019 Instructional Photo-Tours.<\/h2>\n
10.\tWhat would be your advice to upcoming Indian photographers who are seriously planning to take up a career on bird photography? <\/h2>\n