Chaney Signature

This is the first in a series of posts to shed some light on the origins of Chaney Signature Photography. Well, actually it all started long, long ago in a far off land. Alright, fine – it didn’t really. Unlike many photographers who discovered their passion at an early age, I never really had much interest in taking photos. For a brief period in my early twenties, I decided I wanted to learn photography. My parents got me a Nikon FG film camera and an external flash for Christmas one year – I think it was 1985 or 1986. I played around with it for a little while but it seemed overwhelming, and I never could take consistently good photos so I gave it up. Why it never occurred to me to take a class, I don’t know. I never gave photography another thought until 2005.

2005 was a year of transitions in our family. My wife, Monica, lost her grandfather in the early Spring, and then in the summer, my Dad, who had been diagnosed with idiopathic cardiopulmonary fibrosis a few years earlier, succumbed to the disease. I was very blessed to be with him near the end in the hospital. We were able to share our feelings and love for each other which allowed me to accept his passing far more peacefully.  Then in the fall, my maternal grandmother passed away. You know what they say about things happening in threes.

Here’s where things began to change. Right near the time of my grandmother’s death, my son, Drew, who was five at the time, suddenly developed an interest in birds. As it turns out, my grandmother was a member of the Audubon Society, always had feeders in her yard, and loved observing birds. The timing of Drew’s interest in birds was uncanny.

Monica and I began to look for ways to further his newfound interest. The first thing that came to mind was the Audubon Society. With a little research, we learned that the local group in Tampa (where we lived at the time) offered free bird walks periodically that were open to the public. Monica took Drew on the first one, and they had a blast. Drew began to devour field guides with relentless passion. When I took him on the next bird walk, to my surprise, I became hooked myself.

I started taking regular bird hikes, finding birding festivals to attend, and planning birding vacations. Listing (keeping a list of the different bird species we had seen in the wild) became a great way to add fun and mystery to our excursions. To this day, we are all avid birders and look forward to trips to new areas where we are bound to see some lifers (the first time you see a bird of a given species, it is called a lifer). Before long, I began to think I might be able to identify some birds that were hard to see if I could take a photograph and study it carefully. At that time, I began to research photography equipment with the idea that I wanted to photograph birds.

It should also be noted that my Dad always had an interest in photography and videography, and his primary vocation was in the printing industry. Suddenly, within a year of my grandmother and my Dad’s passing, I had both the photography and birding bug – something I still marvel at. In May of 2006, while attending the First Coast Birding & Nature Festival in St. Augustine, Florida, I purchased a digital SLR camera (Canon 30D) and a telephoto lens (100-400mm). I brought my camera with me on every birding outing that we took, and almost immediately graduated from wanting to photograph birds for ID purposes only to wanting to make beautiful, artistic nature and wildlife photos. It wouldn’t be long before that took another turn…

[Stay tuned for the next entry in this series on Tuesday, January 19]