Daniel Zdonczyk

Over the years, I worked very hard taking care of my patients, despite the bureaucracy of medicine, I still love taking care of them. Outside the practice of medicine, I enjoy the peace of the wilderness and the natural world. This is perhaps the greatest privilege of all. Engraved in my mind is the day when I was preparing my camera with my legs crossed and a hummingbird sat on my boot. I was hooked !

“When photography meets technology, photography usually wins.” My personal choice for bird photography is to spend most of the time in the field capturing great images and minimizing the editing time in front of the computer.

What you can expect from me  on this tour:

• Nikon experience, using Nikon since very young for about 25 years.
• Although I am a long-time Nikon user, sometimes I see Canon images that are just beautiful. I can show you how to use Darktable and make an image taken with a Nikon camera look like a Canon image.
• Doing multi-flash hummingbird photography. (No need to bring your own equipment except camera and lens).
• How to choose beautiful backgrounds when photographing birds.
• One-on-one assistance to the participants.
• How to be a minimalist in a hobby that requires a lot of equipment. (I will show my equipment, modifications done over the years to try to minimize weight and increase practicality)
• Fine-tune lens for bird photography. ( I believe it is distinct from traditional portrait photography).
• Back button focus vs. shutter button focusing: advantages and disadvantages.
• To those reluctant to pay the monthly fee of Photoshop: a tutorial on how to edit an image with Darktable in less than 5 minutes. ( Darktable is a free application available in Linux, Windows, and Mac.) Please download and install it on your laptop before your trip.
• Although it is a subjective matter, I will give a talk about composition. (Given in the past at the Georgia Audubon Society).
• By no means am I a “ know-it-all tour leader.” For people with experience, we can show how we do photography and exchange ideas. We are always learning.