We bird photographers enjoy our searches for birds to photograph, and our attempts to get quality photographs of interesting birds. It eventually drives some of us. Formerly, and today, we enjoy printing our best or favorite photographs as standard prints and enlargements. We enlarge and frame the best of the best and share them in our home, office and, maybe, at a social gathering – at a bird club meeting, an Audubon event, or even a flea market or street fair.
During this century, the internet and social media has become a preferred option for sharing photographs. I’m noted for attaching a bird photo to most emails I send; it’s my way of making my communications more personal – and the photos are much appreciated I’m told. I have extended that practice to many of my text messages too, or I attach a photo to at least one text in a series with the same person. Sharing my photos in this way is fun and rewarding and it adds a personal touch.
I also have a couple large groups of friends and associates who I periodically share photos with stories from the field. However, these days my communications of this kind tend to make their way directly to the pages of The Birding Wire, which extends my photo sharing to a much larger birding community of tens of thousands. During the 1990s, I shared my bird photography and travel experiences with about half a million readers each month in the largest birding magazine ever – now that’s mega-sharing.
Many bird photographers share their photos on Facebook, which is a good option for sharing your interests and images via social media. Some photographers have a separate Facebook account to share their images and show their stuff and, in some cases, promote selling images. That’s undoubtedly a fine way of sharing and marketing. Although I have not been a Facebook fan, that’s probably not been a good decision professionally.
Flickr is another photo sharing and storage option that many photographers like, and to a lesser extent, you can share photos via Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and some other social media groups including podcasts. Some of these options seem to come and go, or vary in popularity over the years, but that’s true for many communications platforms and businesses.
Personally, I have preferred to operate my own website that offers many more design opportunities and options, which I find important as I share a small portion of my many favorite photographs. I initiated my website – www.WilldifeAdventures.biz– almost 20 years ago, so you can actually see my steady improvement as a wildlife photographer during that extended period. Today I emphasize action photographs over portraits and, if you visit the website, you will also see a more extended collection of wildlife photos that includes mostly birds, but many mammals, a few reptiles, and even a page of diverse people of the world.
There’s an assortment of website hosting companies you can check out and learn more about starting your own website, including Yahoo, GoDaddy, HostGator, SiteBuilder, BlueHost, iPage, JustHost and many more. I can only speak first-hand about Yahoo’s small business website hosting services, and aside from paying $9 per month (ha-ha, that’s only 30 cents per day), that includes my email service and it’s been a pretty smooth partnership over the decades. I think a personal website is the best option for sharing photos with a large media audience, and it helps to give me a presence I can also refer professional contacts to review.
There is one more way you can share your bird photos with a larger birding community: You can send your best or favorite photos to the The Birding Wire. We would be interested in seeing your fine photos as your bird photography progresses, and when you have an interesting photo experience to share. Overall, be proud of your bird photography accomplishments, keep up the good work, and share your favorite photos in all the ways that bring you a little more joy through your birding experiences.
Article and photographs by Paul Konrad
Share your bird photographs and birding photo experiences at editorstbw2@gmail.com