The decision to create a website was prompted by urging from family and friends who, accurately, made the point that leaving good (and average!) bird photographs to languish in computers was a disappointing waste of the effort taken to obtain them. Having been a devotee of the enormous achievements of the master, Graeme Chapman, I was reluctant to even consider the challenge.
For Matthew and I, Birdshot is simply a celebration of the beautiful, diverse and compelling flock of Australian birdlife. Unlike Chapman’s lifelong work and that of others, it is not a scientific journal. Neither of us have the experience and background to attempt such a thing.
We hope however, that our images might motivate people to take to the outdoors, grab some binoculars (and a camera!) to engage with our feathered friends and work to conserve Australian birdlife.
Birdshot is a beginning, definitely not an end. Both of us have a long way to go and many more birds to add to the approximately 600 species shown here.
I’M MATTHEW NEWMAN
Prior to developing an interest in birds only a very few years ago, I would often think that my father had become old before his time. I mistakenly believed that birding was an old person’s hobby!
Paul told me of his birding adventures and showed me some of his photos which sparked an interest. Not long afterwards Michelle and I commenced a 12 month trip around Australia and I started to see many of the birds I had only seen in Dad’s computer.
Being a competitor in most things in life and very much so with Dad, I jokingly emailed him some bird photos I had taken with my el cheapo $200 camera. He must have been impressed with my efforts because he forwarded me a not-so offcast Nikon camera and lens and the frenzy began!
We started exchanging photos and tales and before long I was as hooked as he is. Birding has brought us closer than ever and has become one of the greatest joys of my life.
I’M PAUL NEWMAN
I’m older than Matthew so I’ll take longer…
My childhood was spent in Northern N.S.W where I spent weekend visits to my father’s mixed fruit orchard. As a 9 year-old I drove his ancient tractor while he trailed behind on foot spraying his prized trees. When I was a little older I was handed an air rifle, ordered into the orchard and instructed to kill any bird in those trees. From my father’s point of view in the 1950’s, the birds were destroying his livelihood. I can only offer the totally inadequate phrase; “I did as I was ordered”. Every boy on every orchard in the district did the same.
After those times my life and that of Australian birds did not deliberately intersect for over thirty years. Then, my wife Jean and our four children lived on a hobby farm. There, three things occurred which sparked an initial interest; Our cat (yes I know) presented us with a deceased Buff-banded Rail; our Spaniel proudly displayed a Maned Duck gathered from the river bank and we discovered Tawny Frogmouths on our property. I took my first bird photo and we purchased a bird guide.
Another interval of some years then occurred without the development of further interest – family, career and other life “pressures” prevailed. The obsessive bird-chasing bug bit me on our first trip around Australia in 2008. My partner broke her ankle on the first day of the exodus and was wheelchair-bound when we arrived at Mission Beach.
We wanted to find a Southern Cassowary but she was in no state to participate. I volunteered to find and photograph one, not believing that would happen. It did, I got some very good shots and my future was determined. We have spent over 6 years on the road seeking and photographing most of the terrestrial Australian birds (except the ones we’ve missed…)
The bird hunt will continue for both Matthew and I. Me less so because of various circumstances but I still have some ambitious plans. Matthew, burdened by the need to put food on the table will do so as time permits. Viewers of Birdshot should be aware they will not find pelagics unless they landed in front of me.
Life is too short to die of sea-sickness. I will review that position as time passes or the sea flattens. Enjoy!