I've Finally Found my Niche

For several months I've floundered around the photographic wasteland trying to decide what kind of photographer I'd like to be when I grow up. Prior to moving from Georgia to South Carolina the answer was simple: Sports Photographer. I was shooting pictures for the local high school and loving it. I even managed to sell some prints without really trying which made things even better. After moving to South Carolina I lost my connection with a local high school (having a kid at the school helped a great deal with getting free access to all sporting events) so I started exploring other types of photography. I dabbled a bit in landscapes, a little bit of macro, bought a flash and tried some strobist stuff none of which really fulfilled me as a photographer.

After we sold our house in Georgia and Donna moved out here with me we started spending our weekends exploring Charleston and the surrounding area and we almost always had at least one camera with us. One of our favorite places to visit is the Cypress Gardens swamp. This swamp was used in the filming of the Patriot and at least one scene from The Notebook, which, even though it's a chic flick I love that movie, but I digress. While visiting Cypress Gardens we began migrating towards subjects that interest us. For Donna it's wildflowers and for me it's alligators and birds. As time marched on I continued to get more and more interested in shooting these subjects. I think having at least three alligators that live in neighborhood ponds helps. We also have a bird feeder and house in our little back yard so I've taken up watching the feeder for visitors so I can photograph them. We've bought a couple of guides to help us identify the birds we see and I hopefully get a picture of and so far it's been a blast trying to find birds to shoot.

So what's the point of all of this babbling? Well I'm going to start sharing my bird photos here on the blog. Whenever I shoot a new species I plan to post at least one picture of it along with some additional information about the shot. One of my goals from earlier this year was to blog more and now I think I've finally found something I'd like to talk about :).