Photographs by Robert Harrington

About this Site

This website, http://robert-harrington.com, shows my photographs taken from 2002 to present. My main interest is birds, especially in flight.

The site was neglected in 2014 and 2015 although I continued to use the camera, albeit at a slower pace. I picked it up again in December 2016 when I acquired the new 200-500mm lens. At some point I may go back and fill in some for the slow years.

The Main Gallery is a chronological compilation showing photos from various outings.

The Gallery by Species shows birds by species in taxonomic order. Most on these pages are drawn from the Main Gallery. I have many more than are included here.

I post a "Shot of the Day" (recently called "Featured Shot") on an irregular basis on my home page, usually once a week or more frequent, showing the date posted at the top and the date and place taken below the image. These are archived here.

Many of my photos have been published, including one in The New York Times, two photo essays in Outdoor California magazine,  a book and three magazine covers, and others; see list here. I usually exhibit at the annual San Diego International Exhibition of Photography, a juried show that is part of the San Diego Fair in Del Mar.

I volunteered as photographer (and board member) for several years for the Spreckels Organ Society, which programs and promotes the outdoor Spreckels Organ in San Diego. As part of my 'duties' as photographer, I maintained an online photo gallery, now managed by someone else. I also acted as graphic artist and generated three brochures, post cards, a 2007 calendar, and a 52-page history book for the Society.

I retired as a vice president at Stanford Telecommunications, Inc., a small technology company in Silicon Valley, concluding a career in engineering. I worked on the Surveyor, Voyager, and Apollo space programs, development of GPS, and numerous programs in satellite commnications.

Equipment: Since March 2005, I use a Nikon D2x digital SLR, before that a Fuji S2. My main lens for bird photography is a Nikon 200-400mm AF-S f/4 lens with TC14E II teleconverter. This combination gives me the 35mm-equivalent of 825mm (400x1.4x1.5, where the 1.5 is the so-called focal length multiplier). Other lenses I have are Nikon 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 18-70/3.5-4.5, 28-105/3.5-4.5, 70-210/4-5.6, 300/4, and Tokina 100-300mm f/4.

Equipment update (2017): Since 2008 I have changed camera bodies several times and currently use a Nikon D7200, a mid-grade DSLR with a 24-megapixel sensor. My stable of lenses (all Nikon) is now the 200-500mm f/5.6, 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6, 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6, and 50mm f/1.8. All of these are in the "moderate" price range but in my opinion very sharp, a matter viewers of this site can judge for themselves.

Robert Harrington
July 2008, updated February 2017