This site is dedicated to my best friend and only brother, Paul Casale. Paul is the handsome guy standing next to me on the left side of this photo. We lost Paul suddenly in June 2013 at the age of 50. Paul was a well known, extremely talented professional artist who was loved by all who knew him. Paul’s many beautiful oil paintings, watercolors, pastels and drawings are a treasured part of his legacy for his family and art collectors today. My brother’s realist art approach to landscapes, cityscapes, people, animals and everyday life is the inspiration for my photographic work. Although I can’t even draw a straight line, I like to think that a tiny bit of the artistic genes Paul had are also inside of me. So if just a small fraction of Paul’s immense talent can show through in some of my photographs, I would consider that a great honor and quite an accomplishment.
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and still reside in New York City in the borough of Staten Island. The region I live in provides year-round opportunities for birding and bird photography. In fact, according to New York City Audubon, “within the city’s parks and green spaces, and along portions of the 578-mile waterfront, you’ll find some of the best places in the world to watch birds. Extraordinary birding in New York City is due to a combination of geography, topography, and habitat diversity. New York City is located at a geographic nexus of the Atlantic Flyway bird migration route and nesting distribution for numbers of species. Large numbers of arctic, boreal, northern temperate, and southern temperate species follow this migration route. On an annual basis, more than 200 different species frequent the New York City metropolitan area. After a night or day in flight, birds migrating over the city alight somewhere in the metropolitan area for rest and food. Because of the numbers of migrants and the fragmented nature of open space suitable for landing, unusually dense concentrations of birds can occur during migration. Birding in New York City is an adventure. Frequently it is better in this urban area than in the wilderness”.
I’ve been married to my wife Doreen since 1987 and we love sharing time together on our birding adventures. Because of my lifelong interest in photography, it didn’t take me long to combine the art of photography with our frequent field trips. My other interests and activities include golf, cycling, music, reading, history and travel. Doreen and I love to travel the U.S. to take in regional culture, sample local cuisine, shop for antiques, attend musical & theatrical events, visit historic sites & museums and explore the great outdoors. Our children, Steven and Megan are now adults and just like all grown birds, they have left the nest. Molly, our beloved West Highland White Terrier, crossed The Rainbow Bridge in 2019 after providing our home with so much joy and love for 17 1/2 wonderful years! (A special tribute to Molly was posted to my Instagram account on April 29, 2019). God Bless!