Recently I updated my profile on Flickr photo service and wrote this intro. I wanted to share it on my blog. It explains a little bit about why I take pictures.

My name is Jon-Mark Davey and I love to take pictures. I’ve taken hundreds of thousands of pictures since I got my first camera in high school a bunch of years ago. I worked in the broadcast industry for the first 30 years of my professional life so I had access to some amazing cameras and resources to allow me to spend a lot of time with some really good equipment and the reason to use it.

In the early years most of my pictures were centered around family life and the kids and we have stacks and boxes and albums full of personal shots. In the mid 1990’s my kids graduated and moved out so my photo subjects of so many years were now in school and gone and my Olympus cameras were sitting, gathering dust.

My wife and I took the “Empty Nest” concept to heart and we decided to feather our nest with exotic birds, parrots to be more precise. Out of the relationship of the very first bird in the house I quickly became an avian anthropologist. My first companion bird, Stanley the Quaker Parrot, began to teach me about the amazing lives parrots lead and the roles they play on our planet. As I bonded with Stanley I began studying his behavior. I read books, befriended avian authors, and learned as much as I could about the species and I watched him to see his specific behaviors.

In 1995 I found parrots in the wild about a mile from my house. These parrots were the same species of Stanley. From that day to today, over 16 years later, I’ve been an avid watcher and photographer of Quaker Parrots in the wild. In 16 years I’ve taken tens of thousands of pictures of wild Quaker Parrots as I study them and publish information about them on web sites, in books, magazines and newspapers.

In 1994 I started my first personal website called Quakerville.com. The subject was Stanley. The web site quickly grew from a couple pages of photographs of Stanley into a 1000+ page species specific site averaging over 2 million page hits per year. The site included not only my own personal pictures and stories about my Quakers but it quickly became the “social” place to become connected. Back then Facebook was not even possible, we, the parrot community, started on-line groups using group mail and “list server” technology. We had many different interest groups, some grew into the 100’s others into the 1000’s. The groups would produce amazing amounts of e-mail activity every day and each e-mail would inter-connect ideas and emotions to people around the world. Amazing technology. It helped bring and grow awareness about the lives of our parrot companions and parrots in the wild to a lot of people. Awareness brings sensitivity.

From the experience with Stanley I also co-founded 2 national avian associations, 501 c3 non-profit corporations, to help people with like interests become involved in the education and social areas of parrots in general and Quaker Parrots specifically. Both groups are active today and are influencing education as well as politics surrounding the wild and domestic parrot.

Pictures may say a thousand words but more important pictures create, arouse, intensify, or just spark a thousand emotions.

When you look at my pictures I want you to do more than talk about them, I want you to feel them.

Enjoy.