JeremiahTolbert.com: SF Writer Web Designer Photographer

Five Things I Have Learned About Wildlife Photography

Filed Under: How-to, Photography, Tutorial

For a little over a month, I have spent every weekend morning and some afternoons after work out pursuing local wildlife to photograph.  I’m not inexperienced when it comes to spotting and observing wildlife, but throwing photography into the mix has forced me to relearn a lot of old skills and add new ones to my toolkit.

1. You will never have enough reach.

I thought that buying my 70-300mm lens (equivalent to a 600mm on a standard  crop camera) would finally give me that power that I had always wanted.  I daydreamed about sitting comfortably in a lawn chair on a hill and taking portraits of animals hundreds of yards away.  Without having looked through a lens and seen just how much magnification I could get, i had no idea what to expect until I put the lens on the camera.  At first, I was disappointed.  To take the kinds of animal shots I wanted, I still had to get much closer than I imagined.  But slowly, I realized, I still had to get close, but not as close. I had more distance between me and my subject, which meant I had an even better chance of getting my shots before my subject became uncomfortable and fled.

I could buy a teleconverter and double that at the cost of a full f-stop, and I might, some day.  But if you’re like me and can’t afford the ten thousand dollar fast zoom lenses, then you will probably never be satisfied with your reach.  There will always be a perfect shot you just can’t get close enough to get.  You learn to make do, and how to get the shots you <em>can</em> get.

2. Good things happen when you have patience.

It’s been a struggle for me, because I have that hunter’s instinct.  I don’t feel like I’m working if I’m not moving around, trying to come into contact with birds and animals.  But when I can calm myself down and settle into one spot, be in the moment and take in the sights, the scene around you comes to life.  A moving human is much more threatening and visible than one who is relatively motionless.  So far, my best shots have been taken while I was relaxing in the grass on the banks of ponds, just soaking in the sunlight.  Its almost like the animals can sense your desperation and they taunt you by running away.  When you relax, they do too.  I know that’s a bit of an anthropomorphization, but there’s some truth to it too.

3. You are not a silent ninja.

I am fairly good at keeping quiet in the wild.  I’ve spent good chunks of my life tracking game for fun and working on my skills at moving quietly in underbrush.  I may be quiet by average human standards (and when I go out with others, I am constantly reminded of how much quieter I am by the stomping and tromping others do).  However, I am not a silent ninja that can sneak up on, well, anything but the most pre-occupied animals.  In the wild, most animals are on the look out for predators.  They’re constantly in danger, and their attention is focused because of that.  You may think you can slowly, slowly sneak up on that beaver, but he knows you’re there already.  He knew you were there before you were aware of him.  He simply hasn’t decided if you are a threat or not.  Nine times out of ten,  threat distance is the same as how close you need to be to get your shot.  Funny how that works.

4. Get up early.  Really early. No, earlier than that.

Most animals are active at dawn and dusk.  I think it’s a matter of safety.  A lot of animals are active at night, but there isn’t an ISO high enough to take those pictures, so we’re stuck using at least some form of sunlight most of the time.   I find that I have very little luck at dusk, and that’s because the areas I frequent are frequented by other humans as well.  By the end of the day, countless people with dogs have been through the area, traumatizing my subjects.  They flee the area to much more inaccessible locales.

But at dawn, or just before it, things are quieter.  Sane people stay in bed.  I find it’s a good idea to get up well before sunrise, get to your location, settle into a good spot, and then wait.  The area will come alive and surprise you.  And plus, the light will look much cooler at a low angle, improving your shots considerably.  When the sun is high and bright overhead, you get much deeper, less interesting shadows.

5. Know your camera and lens.

All of the above will be for naught if you do not know your lens and camera’s capabilities and limitations.  At full extension, my lens is only capable of f5.6.  This is not a very fast lens.  Dialed to this, you’re not getting a whole hell of a lot of light.  And remember the rule of thumb that your shutter speed should at least be equal to that of your mm, and take your crop factor into consideration.  So when I am shooting at 300mm, my shutter speed needs to be 1/600th of a second to minimize camera shake when not using a tripod.  I didn’t believe this rule of thumb until I took a couple of days worth of slightly blurry photos.  I carry a tripod with me, but you don’t always have a chance to set it up, so you should know how to take an in-focus, properly exposed shot with your lens without one.

Now, at the time of day we’ve discussed, getting a 1/600th or faster shutter speed isn’t easy if want a properly exposed shot.  This means you have to change your sensor’s light sensitivity, the ISO.  The higher the ISO, the more noise, but also, the less light you need to get an exposed shot.

I have learned that with my lens and camera, I have to shoot at ISO 400 to get the shutter speeds I need to shoot fully zoomed in in the light I am usually dealing with.  If it’s overcast, I am basically screwed, because the noise above ISO 400 on my Olympus is unacceptable, and I really, really hate shooting with tripods when your subject can run or fly away any second.

I’ve learned to be much more aware of my camera’s settings. I don’t always shoot in manual, but I do more so now than I ever have before.  I generally shoot in aperture priority mode, bringing my aperture down until I get the shutter speed I need.  Most of the time, I want the bokeh that comes with having a narrow aperture anyway, unless I am shooting macro work.  But that’s the subject for another post.

Concluding Thoughts

The more you’re out there shooting, the more you learn about your subjects.  I shoot wildlife photography because I find nature the most beautiful thing there is, and I want to share the beauty I see out there with others. My camera is a kind of Noah’s ark.  I want to get two of everything inside it.   With this tips, hopefully, you can come closer to nature too.

TAGS: Photography, Tutorial, wildlife

POSTED: 9:36 am Fri May 23 2008 |