Daytona Speedway

When he left the Navy and returned to the United States, Browning carried his worldly experiences with him to Central Missouri University. While majoring in business administration, he continued to study photography as well formally. It was also while attending college that he met his future wife, Leslie; the couple has been married for 40 years now. Leslie and her daughter Jennifer are both pottery artists. Son-in-law Chris, eight-year-old granddaughter Katherine, and Sailor, a 5-year-old Golden retriever, round out the present family. 
Business opportunities and the love of the water drew Browning to the Baltimore and Chesapeake Bay area in 1971. “I always felt comfortable on the water,” says the sportsman, who was at different times an avid golfer and tennis player. “One of the first things I did was buy a sailboat, and soon I was into competitive racing.”  Later racing would involve Don’s Mazda Race Car, currently campaigned under the Old Dogs Racing banner. 

But as a self-described “high-adventure guy,” Browning was soon looking for new opportunities and a new place to live. The choices were narrowed down to Florida and Alaska, two places that offered vastly different adventure choices. 

“I made one visit to Florida and immediately connected,” recalls Browning, who would later visit runner-up Alaska. “We moved to the Orlando area in 1972, founded my medical business forms and systems company, and stayed there until 1998. That’s when I discovered Lake Weir.”
In addition to the water, Browning also had a long-time affinity for the sky. Of course, he had to learn to fly. And just plain ol’ flying wouldn’t do for him. Once armed with a pilot’s license, he bought and began flying open-cockpit bi-planes. He was not just flying, either, but taking part in precision aerobatics competitions as he barnstormed around the country. And to his ever-growing skills as a photographer, add sports aviation photography to the list.

It is only fitting that Browning discovered Lake Weir via air and water. “I owned property in Leeward Air Ranch and had flying buddies who lived there,” he recounts. “So I’d do a lot of flying back and forth between Orlando and Ocala. I always liked Ocala, with its lakes, forests, and horse farms. One day, I flew over Lake Weir, and it just grabbed my attention. First chance I got, I rented a boat and went around the lake, writing down numbers on the real estate signs in front of the property for sale.”

As he made his way around the lake, Browning used his cell phone to call the realtors listed on the signs. By the time he docked the boat, he had property lined up to see. Shortly thereafter, the family was moving into a lakefront home within yards of Treasure Island.
“I didn’t even know about the rookery when we bought the house,” says Browning. “But soon, I began observing the comings and goings of the birds. Then I was appalled to see the havoc being caused by the jet skis and the power boaters. They would go right up over the island, scattering the birds every which way. I don’t think they realized what damage they were doing to the birds’ environment.”

The disruption was destroying the birds’ habitat and life cycle. Startled birds would take flight again and again, damaging their eggs and becoming dangerously exhausted. Unable to sit and watch the destruction passively, Browning picked up his camera and thus began the successful grassroots conservation mission. It also led to Browning being invited by President George Bush to the White House for the 2004 Earth Day. The Marion County Chamber of Commerce presented Browning with the 2005 Walt Driggers Environmentalist of the Year Award. All that aside, Browning is still mesmerized by the birds.

His current Lake Weir home is a little farther away from Treasure Island than his first, but still, only a 10-minute pontoon boat ride away. On his boat deck, Browning mounts an eight-inch Celestron spotting telescope, rests his camera atop that, and clicks away. He uses a tripod if he wants to shoot the birds looking up and a ladder if he wants to shoot down. 
“Because of the large format size I shoot, long lenses are the key,” says Browning, whose first major photo exhibit in 1999 was entitled Lakes and Rivers of Florida. “I use Nikon digital cameras and lenses. Although I do still have my old box cameras and a new Wisner box camera, which I will sometimes use.”
It was the birds that made Browning switch from mainly shooting in black and white to color. And it was environmental concerns that had him abandon processing his own film and embrace the digital camera. “I couldn’t resist all the beautiful colors of nature. I had to shoot in color,” he says. “And I didn’t want to pollute the water system with processing chemicals. When I do shoot in film, I use a commercial processing lab.”
When Browning heads over to the island, he says he feels like he should “have a passport because it’s like going to another country.” The birds and the season dictate the shooting schedule. Once he picks out his spot, Browning will just relax and “let the birds tell their story.” He uses notes to complement his photos showing every aspect of the birds’ life, from mating to nest building to hatching to raising the young.

“One of the best things to watch is the young birds learning to fly,” says Browning, then adding with a laugh, “or I should say learning to land. They pick up the flying part pretty easy, but there are a lot of crash landings before they get the hang of that part of it.”

Browning also incorporates many other elements of the birds’ environment into his photos. Not far from a heron fishing from the bank is a lurking alligator. Or perfectly camouflaged in the underbrush behind an egret are several different varieties of snakes. And a turtle can be seen peeking out from the very same hollow log that two birds have landed on. His photo collection also includes many other birds that are residents of the Lake Weir habitat: osprey, hawks, eagles, and wood ducks.

Reviling in all of it, Browning never fails to find new joy in nature. And feel a tremendous sense of responsibility. “We are on watch, and we must do our part to preserve and protect the nature we have been blessed with here in Florida,” he says. “This is our time to preserve these treasures and pass them on to future generations. All life survives one generation at a time.”

Discover Marion County and Marion County CC are linked to The Villages of Marion County and Villages Lake, as well as Villages of Sumter.  Drilling down into neighborhood communication via print, web, and political/environmental meetings is critical in modern social media credibility ranking.  Lecturing on the subject of Florida’s Birds is an important connection for Don in The Village’s world-class multi-neighborhood venue.