Hello!

Hi everyone,
New member, relatively new birder, thought I’d introduce myself here.
Introduced to birding by my 14 year old son of all people! We started homeschooling last year which has afforded him time and bandwidth to explore his loves and passions. Biology and Conservation being a major driver for him with a particular love for birds… unconsciously I’ve gone along for the journey learning as I go and loving it.
I remember as a school kid loving the Gould League and Eric McCrum’s passionate talks. Diving into David Attenborough documentaries with wild plans to see the world’s natural wonders. This birding adventure is a little like the beginning of that natural world adventure… shame it’s taken me til 45 to begin but hey, it’s happening!
I’m not new to photography, it has been my whole working life. I have worked freelance as a young bloke for the surfing media having work published domestically and in US, UK, Japan and Sth Africa. It was a real blast but now in the distant past. I’ve spent the last ten years building Perth Pro Lab, a professional print lab for photographers and artists here in WA. Something I enjoy and seem to be pretty good at.
The last year having brought me back to photography has made for some serious technological steps building up a modern capable camera system. I’m a Nikon guy to the bone but I have a bunch of nice Fuji bits too. My main camera is the Nikon Z9 and my glass of choice the Nikkor Z400mm f4.5 and Z800mm f6.3. I’ve just moved to those lenses from the older F mount 300mm f2.8 and 500mm f4 as I’ve found the weight just doesn’t pay off in image quality for me as I like to walk. Those heavy lenses just aren’t made to be carried and held for long periods of time. Really enjoying the new light Z gear and pretty happy with the images.
Always happy to share knowledge and learn from others.
Thanks for having me.
PJ

Welcome Paul. You have a great background and excellent gear to rocket into your bird (and nature) photography journey. There's lots of resources on our website for members so please have a look through and read. And don't hesitate to post any questions you have or make direct contact with our members - most have contact enabled and you can send a message using the 'Contact photographer' button that will display for those members once you open one of their photos. Feel free to contact any of the committee members too. Details are on the 'About us' tab of our site. Look forward to seeing your photos.

Cheers Glenn, I’ve been just posting to Instagram so it’ll be interesting to get some feedback from proper bird nerds!

Hi Paul, and welcome to BLP.

That camera & lens combo will very much hold you in good stead for a long time to come. I'm a Canon devotee, however, a couple of my friends that I go out with have that same combo, and their results are nothing short of fantastic.
I also did in fact have a quick glance of your Instagram profile (jarvis_nature), and I very much like your work. That Carnaby's shot you have taken of the bird flying in from right to left is a cracker!
Have fun. I very much look forward to seeing more of your work.

Cheers,
Rob.

Thanks Rob! It’s a big change from shooting surfers from a water housed F100 or 600mm from the beach burning Velvia at 8fps lol!
Having a tonne of fun and enjoying the challenges.
Really appreciate you dropping by the gram and thanks for the positive feedback.
PJ