James R. Spitznas is an award-winning photographer from Reston, VA and has been taking pictures most of his life. Starting with a Brownie camera that was given to him by his grandmother, it was not long before James was borrowing his father’s Minolta SLR, and developing and enlarging photos in the basement darkroom.

James now uses professional Nikon gear and has photographed wildlife, rural landscapes, dog events, and travels but he especially enjoys the challenge of getting close to a bird, and then obtaining a capture that marries an interesting pose with “golden light” and a pleasing background.

A number of James’ bird images can also be found on the Internet's premier bird identification website www.whatbird.com and in a variety of the iBird apps for mobile devices.