Backgrounds - Part 1

While culling obese folders in my Lightroom catalog, I selected a few with backgrounds I really like. The background of the last two photos is the reflection of crabapple trees on a vacant lot adjacent to Sterne Park. A house was built on the lot and the trees are no longer there.


Common Merganser - Sterne Park, Littleton, CO - April 2018

Olympus OM-D EM1X camera, 300mm f/4 lens, 1/3200 sec at f/5, ISO 1250


20180427-_EM19327-Edit.jpg

Double-crested Cormorant- Sterne Park, Littleton, CO - April 2018

Olympus OM-D EM1X camera, 300mm f/4 lens, 1/3200 sec at f/5.6, ISO 3200


Wood Duck - Sterne Park, Littleton, CO - October 2018

Olympus OM-D EM1X camera, 300mm f/4 lens, 1/2000 sec at f/4, ISO 1000


Wood Duck - Sterne Park, Littleton, CO - October 2018

Olympus OM-D EM1X camera, 300mm f/4 lens, 1/2000 sec at f/4, ISO 500

David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.