Birding is one of those genres of photography that has been greatly facilitated by developments in technology. In contrast to say, conceptual work, which, should you ever feel so inclined, could be carried out with whatever shit camera happens to be lying around. To be honest, I never felt a burning desire to try photographing birds before the arrival of digital cameras, having a strong gut-level intuition that my main accomplishment would be to waste a lot of expensive film. These days, however, why not? After all, I'm no photo-snob. So, yeah, I've tried it a few times, mainly with owls, which are inherently interesting and thankfully sit still for long periods of time, and the vultures that circle overhead looking for dead things to eat. Once I even chased a woodpecker around the yard and got a few decent shots. In future, if any cool birds turn up around here, I'll know what to do. In the meantime, I've got a conceptual series in mind involving a murmuration of starlings...
