Teri Tynes is an experienced writer, editor, and web content strategist with a background in print and digital publishing, the arts, and nonprofit communications.
That Was Then and This is Now – Walking Off the Big Apple and Birds of Inwood
After I moved to New York in 2006, I wandered all over the city, making sketches and exploring new places. An artist friend suggested I put these rambles on the Internet, and I followed his advice. I decided to call my blog Walking Off the Big Apple.
Walking Off the Big Apple enjoyed a successful run, especially in its early years. I found that taking pictures was much faster than sketching and drawing, so I ended up taking thousands of pictures of the city. Photography wasn’t new for me, as I always enjoyed taking photos of friends and places. In addition, I took drawing classes and participated in life drawing sessions.
In 2013, my life situation changed, and I moved to Northern Manhattan to start an independent life. Largely because of Walking Off the Big Apple, I was offered work as a web content strategist. For a few years years, the art and the website took a back seat to full-time work in digital communications.
When the pandemic shut down the city in March 2020, I fled to Inwood Hill Park to spend time with the birds. This website reflects some of the many images I captured on my rambles. As a basic personality trait, I have always enjoyed making things and sharing them – words, photographs, drawings, and websites. It finally dawned on me that my professional life as a web content person and my life as an amateur birder didn’t have to be mutually exclusive.
“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” —
Like the poet Emily Dickinson who spent her life close to home, I draw inspiration from walking in the local woods. Inwood is my Amherst. I like to think of the bird images as poems. The bird themselves are wonderful creatures to behold. – Teri Tynes
On Instagram as @ttynes
Birds of Inwood 