AABirdpix.com

In the beginning was film, well when I started birding anyway. I've never considered myself a photographer, but always a birder with a camera. That way I never get the perfect shot, so there's always something to photograph again. As many will know, back in the 80's and 90's, buying and selling rarity photos became popular, and a number of people became well known for providing such photos. Bird photography then was relatively expensive, because not only did you need a "big lens" to get a reasonable size image, but the cost of film and processing meant that every individual photo had a cost to the photographer, including the ones that "didn't come out". It wasn't excessive, but selling rarity photos was a way to recoup some of the costs.


 I was twitching a lot then, and saw some major rarities, some of which may never be repeated, but I didn't sell photos at first. Then one day, in 1994, ten years after we started twitching we got a record shot of a Song Sparrow at Seaforth, and it seems it was the only decent one. There was a really good one which came to light months later, taken probably by an employee at the docks, but by then I'd had numerous requests for copies, including a batch of 50 for the local bird club to sell. So Ann and I sort of drifted in to it, I took photos and sent them to magazines, Ann dealt with orders. (If it continued nowadays the cost of a print would be far more due to the ridiculous cost of postage). We rarely sold from the back of the car, because when we went out it was to go birding, not selling. Similarly we never got involved with selling on Scilly, although we were often there. To me it wasn't a good way to make money, I had a good job, and if I drove to Scotland to see a bird it mattered not a jot if I didn't sell any photos.  I could see others making mistakes, such as using six rolls of (36) film on a bird which was only seen by about 100 people but photographed by several-you do the math!

 

However, we enjoyed the thought of helping people to have photos of what they'd seen, so when I eventually ventured in to digital photography I decided to start a website, to let people know what we had available. I began by learning HTML coding, I'm still no computer genius, but I actually enjoy doing it and am still learning. The site is quite simple, no bells and whistles, because it's just to display photos I've taken, and as some will know, we've travelled a lot and taken a lot of photos. The site has become another hobby, as now I've retired I have more time to fill. I'm selling a few books and bits of equipment, and will still sell photos if wanted, but it's largely non-commercial, it's just for people to look at, and hopefully enjoy. From my point of view, I am learning all the time about wildlife, something I started when I was about ten, but it's a big subject.

Initial expansion of the site was in to older rarities, we became very interested in gulls and then other seabirds, and it grew from there. I have galleries of seabirds, raptors and owls, wildfowl, herons, kingfishers, migrant American songbirds and moths and butterflies, which I am updating currently. I have a number of illustrated tour reports, which are written to be readable and give an idea of what going there will be like, rather than just a list of species. There are some links which some may find interesting, I sometimes "link" people I've stayed with, or been guided by, as well as the more expected ones. I intend a section of general photographs from each country I've visited, but I've had the groundwork there for years, and it seems to be slow progress.


 

I do update every so often, some galleries, such as waders, more frequently as I get new or better photos. Each time I travel I'll have some new photos to put on, so it's worth a visit every so often. I've recently updated some seabirds, and recent wildlife of interest, I'm currently updating moths, and will soon be adding butterflies.

I'm quite happy for people to download photos for personal use, but the quality isn't brilliant, if you want something better e-mail.

Lastly, a bit of bragging, although it wasn't done intentionally. If you put Alan Tate bird in Google, the first site is AABirdpix. You have to put bird, there are more well-known Alan Tates. One was a footballer, I've seen him on TV, but the only thing I remember was him getting sent off!


 

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