For most of my adult life one of my major leisure time interests has been going afield and pursuing various interests in
the natural world. For many years I carried a 35mm camera with a 70-210mm zoom lens in an effort to photograph
natural history subjects but with only limited sucess.
Just a few years ago I came across a site on the internet by Laurence Poh containing photographs of birds from
Malaysia, all taken with a Nikon Coolpix camera attached to a spotting scope. At first I was skeptical that this
method would work, but as I looked through his site the quality of his photographs was undeniable. I researched the
equipment possibilities and soon acquired my own digiscoping equipment.
At first it was slow going to even get a picture in focus, but I found one of the great things about digital photography
is the capability to take lots of photographs with no running costs, and the availability of instant feedback.
I am deeply grateful to George Garaiche and Bob Augustine for sharing their knowledge of both optics and
photography, and to my wife Sandra for her enthusiatic support.
In January 2004 my first camera, a Coolpix 995, had it's LCD go dark. It was still under service agreement and I
replaced it with the Coolpix 5400. In January 2006 I began using the Coolpix 8400.