Professional nature photographer David Akoubian has been teaching photography since 1994 in the classroom and in workshops around the United States. He presents and leads workshops at many of the country’s top photographic conferences, such as the Photographic Society of America Annual Conference, as well as many camera clubs across the United States. Akoubian’s work has been featured in galleries, calendars, magazines, and textbooks, and he is a Tamron Image Master.
In the video below, Akoubian shares the story of creating his backyard bird studio.
He and his wife live on a few acres in the North Georgia mountains. “When we bought the property, we were excited to see all the birds that would migrate through in spring and fall,” he says. “We were very disappointed when the first year I only photographed five different warbler species in the yard. We decided that year to begin work on a project to make the yard more friendly to birds. It took us a couple years to get our yard to the standards to be certified as a Wildlife Sanctuary by the Atlanta Audubon Society.
“In doing work to prepare it, I decided that as a photographer I would build an a ‘backyard studio’ that would allow me to sit on my porch, drink coffee, and photograph our bird visitors. I placed perches in strategic areas that the birds naturally landed on, waiting to feed at a single feeder. The warblers would come in to see what was going on and land on the perches as well. Long story short, we got certified two years ago, and that year, from my back porch, I photographed 26 species of warbler!”
We hope you enjoy this exclusive video from David Akoubian, which is sponsored by Tamron.
