When I was about twelve years old, I built my first bird blind for the purpose of doing wild bird photography. This, of course, was back in the days of film. I was never very good at bird photography, but I sure spent a lot of money on Kodak Kodachrome film and developing. To this day, I still have hundreds of my slides from over fifty years ago!
Somewhere along the way, my interest in wild bird photography waned. Nowadays, I just focus on bird watching and don’t do any photography. However, I think there is actually more interest in wild bird photography now than there ever was in the past.
Cell phones are certainly a factor in the growing popularity of photography. Almost everyone has a cell phone, which doubles as a camera, making it very easy to snap pictures wherever you are. There are even products on the market allowing you to attach your cell phone to either a pair of binoculars or to a spotting scope to take pictures.
The rise of using digital camera equipment in conjunction with optical equipment—either binoculars or spotting scopes—lead to the hobby of what is now referred to as “digiscoping”. Digiscoping is simply combining the technology of a single-lens reflex camera—or cell phone camera—with a spotting scope.
As you can imagine, there is a learning curve when migrating from using telephoto lenses to using a spotting scope as your lens. I have to say, though, this concept has really taken off with both birders and hunters. Photographers are taking advantage of the higher magnification offered by spotting scopes!
Next week, as part of our twentieth anniversary celebration, we are offering several opportunities for individuals to learn about wild bird and nature digiscoping photography. On Thursday, October 26th, we are hosting a free digiscoping workshop at the store, taught by Clay Taylor of Swarovski Optik.
Clay grew up in Connecticut, spending a lot of time in the woods fishing, collecting butterflies, rocks and as he says “stuff”—just being a kid. He took up photography while in high school, and while in college he got hooked on bird photography and, subsequently, birding. Many, many, many rolls of slide film later, in 1999, he was hired by Swarovski Optik to “be their birder”.
A few years later came the introduction of digital photography, and Clay happily abandoned film cameras for megapixels and gigabytes. This coming week, Clay will give customers the first look at the new Variable Phone Adapter, allowing almost any smartphone to easily be attached to most Swarovski binoculars and spotting scopes.
The workshop will be followed by two free digiscoping photography field trips (one in the morning, and one in the afternoon) on Friday, the 27th. Clay will also be in the store on Saturday, the 28th, to answer questions about digiscoping. To sign up for the workshop and field trips, call the store at 928-443-5900.
Please join us next week for our week-long anniversary celebration. Our theme is “Giving Back to the Community”. We will be hosting a different community organization each day, and we will donate a portion of our sales that day to the respective organizations.
Our schedule is as follows: Monday, 10/23 – Habitat for Humanity; Tuesday, 10/24 – Central Arizona Land Trust; Wednesday, 10/25 – The Highlands Center for Natural History; Thursday, 10/26 – Yavapai Exceptional Industries; Friday, 10/27 – Save the Dells; and Saturday, 10/28 – Prescott Audubon Society Chapter.
Wednesday the 25th is the last day to vote in our annual wild bird photography contest. Come and cast your vote for your favorite pictures!
Until next week, Happy Birding!
Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Vortex and Swarovski optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.
