Crossbill Extravaganza!

Calgary photographer Tim Hopwood has joined the ranks of Bird Canada authors, and I asked him for a short introduction to go with these stunning photos of both red and white-winged crossbills. Watch for more of Tim’s photos in the coming months!

My dad was always passionate about nature and engendered in me at an early age a love of all creatures great & small. He was also a photography hobbyist & as such I have enjoyed nature & photography ever since I can remember. That said, I trace the ignition point of my serious interest in photography back to 2006 when I was backpacking through east Africa and was quite pleased with my Serengeti photos taken with my point & shoot’s 3x zoom….right up until the point a fellow traveller showed me their shots taken on the same trip with their then massive & market-leading 15x zoom. It was then & there I decided I needed a ‘better camera’ & the know-how to properly use it!

Whilst I enjoy shooting all manner of subjects, nature photography is far & away my favourite. However, I’ve been ‘focusing’ primarily on birds since March 2012 (triggered by a winter vacation to Phoenix, Arizona where I was fascinated by the numerous Costa’s Hummingbirds humming about the flowering shrubs next to our condo complex), hence my posting on this blog.

For gear, I use Canon DSLR equipment. My birding lens until Dec 2012 had been my trusty & sharp 100-400mm telephoto zoom, but has recently been replaced by the superlative 600mm f4 II prime lens which I feel has taken my shots to another level. For post-processing, I find myself part of the somewhat rarer breed who use Corel Paintshop Pro.

An Aussie by birth, I recently became a proud Canadian citizen & reside in Calgary, Alberta.

I’m very much looking forward to contributing to this blog & I hope you enjoy these introductory images of Crossbills that I’ve taken over the past month in local parks around Calgary.

Cheers, Tim.