BobBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT E. MUMFORD, JR.

Bob Mumford was raised in Westfield, NJ. He became interested in photography early in life, receiving a Kodak Brownie 127 camera when he was 9 years old. He tried to photograph birds with this camera, but it was obviously inadequate for the job. His earliest (blurry) bird image was a Long-eared Owl flushing from a pine tree.

Bob graduated with a degree in history from the University of Rochester. While still in college he acquired his first 35mm camera. Most of his early work with this camera was of people and scenics from his travels with the Navy. He served 24 years in the Navy, retiring with the rank of captain.

Bob has always been drawn to the natural world. Since he was quite young he has been deeply concerned about threats to the environment and the rapid loss of critical wildlife habitat. As a young man he was a hunter, but outgrew that activity and is now happy to shoot with just a camera. The skills he learned about spotting wildlife in the field and the knowledge of wildlife behavior that he acquired while hunting have been invaluable now in photography.

He photographs with the Nikon system and now shoots with D7100 and D750 camera bodies. Almost all his work is done with just three lenses, a 600mm f4AF, a 80-400mm stabilized zoom, and a 16-85mm wide angle zoom.

Bob’s work has been published in many books and national magazines, including National Wildlife, Birding, and a four page centerfold in “Ranger Rick”. One of his images is on permanent display at the National Aquarium in Baltimore by the puffin tank. He has exhibited at Chincoteague, Bombay Hook, Blackwater, Patuxent National Wildlife Refuges as well as the Audubon Naturalist Society. His work has also appeared in Wild Bird Magazine, Rails and Trails, and the NY Times. One of his images was a winner in the prestigious National Wildlife’s annual international competition and another was honored in Nature’s Best Windland Rice contest.

Bob MumfordBob travels extensively to photograph natural scenes and wildlife. He has worked in most of the states and Canadian provinces. He also traveled to Iceland, Costa Rica, Croatia, Tanzania and Kenya. Bob has worked extensively in Churchill, Manitoba, mainly concentrating on polar bears. He visited South Georgia Island, a destination made famous by Sir Ernest Shackleton.

The focus of his most recent work has been Ecuador, where he made sixteen trips in six years. His resulting book, “The Exquisite Birds of Ecuador” can be found on the books page of this web site. He recently completed a three week photo trip to Madagascar and sixteen days in Bhutan.

As a bachelor, Bob lives alone in the deciduous woods of Maryland west of Washington and near the Potomac River. This space is shared with various deer, raccoons, possums, woodchucks, squirrels, snakes and mulitple birds (outside). Bob is delighted that he does not have to mow a single blade of grass and cannot see another home in the summer!