Here is a thread I've wanted to start in order to offer encouragement to people who are just starting out in their bird photography addiction. I hope others can dig through their files and find some examples of their earlier work to compare with more current images to illustrate how far they've progressed over time.
Secondly, I wanted to use my 2000th post to offer my gratitude to those of you who have helped me develop as a bird photographer. Whether you've ever commented on my threads or not, your images have inspired me to improve my bird photography and I thank you. For those of you who have commented on my threads I thank you too for the encouragement you've offered. It might surprise some of you that my "history" as a more serious bird photographer only goes back to about February of 2011. I feel like I have learned a great deal from everyone here, and would express to the newly "addicted" bird photographers that the most important aspect of being able to improve is the desire to do so.
"THEN"
Here is one of the first bird images I ever captured....a male Downy Woodpecker.
and "NOW"
"THEN"
My first image with my EOS 7D....a White-breasted Nuthatch
and "NOW"
"THEN"
My first image with my EOS 5D MkII......a Mourning Dove
and "NOW"
I believe you can see some improvement in the images I capture now over those of the past year or 2.....I hope! For the newly addicted, it has been a combination of improvement in equipment, technique, and tactics which has helped me improve my captures. Most importantly I think a desire to learn and improve has helped me the most.
I "blame" all of you for helping me become even more addicted!
I hope others can find the time to add to this thread and show the people just starting out that it's not that hard to apply yourself, learn, and improve. Thanks for looking!
Can you believe your "Then" is still 1000x much better my "Then"? hahahaha....
