After some 40 years in various office/accounting rolls I have retired and able to spend my time on my hobbies: photography, birding and woodturning. Not necessarily in that order.

I am drawn to timber and wooden objects and most handmade crafts etc. I started woodturning in the early 80's and love the form of bowls and boxes etc. Family and other interests put woodturning on the back burner for some 20 years or so until my retirement in December 2016. Pens seem to take up a lot of my time on the lathe since I retired and doing a little woodturning again.

Photography has been a passion of mine since late 2004 when I purchased my first digital camera, a Canon 300D. I joined the local camera club and enjoyed doing the local, state and international competitions gaining some valuable experience and a few good wins through APS (Australian Photographic Society) etc. People, mostly candid, landscapes and later bird photography are the mainstays of my photographic interests. I have always loved "playing" in Photoshop, especially doing montages and using textures to create.

Bird photography has become my passion over the last few years. Maybe combining photography with getting into the Aussie bush and away from the city has played a big part in that growing interest. The colour, behaviour and intrinsic character of different birds combine with the challenge of getting "that" image make for a great hobby. I do not call myself a "twitcher". I love to share my images and see the images of others of different birds etc. It is hard to tell where the photographic interest intersects with the interest in birds but for me, getting the photograph is the driving factor with this passion.

My Current photographic kit is all Canon, just because that is where I started.

Camera: Canon 5DIII - full frame - great for landscapes and portrait work.

Camera: Canon 7DII - cropped censor - great for birding and nature photography where that extra focal length matters.

All my lenses are Canon "L" series and a mixture of prime and zoom. Some where purchased new but most were purchases secondhand.

Lens: 50mm f/1.4 L USM - super sharp great in low light.

Lens: 16-35mm f/2.8 L USM - great for landscapes and getting into darker places.

Lens: 100mm f/2.8 L USM Macro - Great for macro work. Personally I can't handle the DOF issues macro work creates so don't do any macros. Also great for portrait work

Lens: 24-70mm f/2.4 L USM - great all purpose lens - on my 5DIII most of the time.

Lens: 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM - great for candid portraits and far away landscapes and a whole lot more.

Lens: 300mm f/2.8 L USM - Great for sports and action and birding with a 1.4 converter.

Lens: 500mm f/4.o L USM - My prime birding lens. I like to hand hold when chasing little birds and I can just get away with it most of the time.

I hope you enjoy looking at my images as much as I have in creating them. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Cheers

Andy Smylie