About

Joseph F. Keating likes birds. And nature. And taking pictures of birds and nature.

I began birding in earnest after a trip to Chicago and becoming mesmerized by the nesting black crowned night herons in Grant Park. Over time the hobby grew from just walking around the park with a pair of binoculars to eventually upgrading to using a bridge camera before eventually going all out with a DSLR and telephoto lens. Mark Obmascik gave the best description of birding in his book The Big Year :

Birding is hunting without killing, preying without punishing, and collecting without clogging your home. Take a field guide into the woods and you’re more than a hiker. You’re a detective on a backcountry beat, tracking the latest suspect from Mexico, Antarctica, or even the Bronx. Spend enough time sloshing through swamps or scaling summits or shuffling through beach sand and inevitably face a tough question: Am I a grown up birder or just another kid on a treasure hunt?

As my birding progressed I eventually started paying closer attention to nature in general and have started to catalog odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), butterflies, and all other creatures. I hope to expand my knowledge and “collection” of photographs and observations in that realm.

Lastly as I became more and more adept with my digital camera and photography I ended up purchasing a few vintage film cameras to help me develop better photography skills. My film cameras (Nikon F3 and Yashica Mat 124-G) force me to pay closer attention to composition and exposure and in turn have helped me learn to take better photos of birds with my digital cameras. For me film photography is more about the process as opposed to the art. In addition to shooting film I develop, scan, and convert and edit the negatives for all the film images on this website.

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JFK@theotherjfk.com