Tag: photography techniques

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Wildlife Photography: Photographing Osprey in West Texas

Ospreys are magnificent birds of prey that are loads of fun to photograph. Their manner of fishing by diving feet first is exhilarating to watch and a challenge to photograph. Living in West Texas you may think your chances of photographing an Osprey might be slim but even though Ospreys are not common in West Texas they can be found more often than you think. During their migration, they can be found near any body of water such as freshwater lakes and playas as long as there are good fish populations. The best time to spot them is during the fall migration, late September through mid-November. Believe it or not, all of the photographs posted in this blog were taken in Midland Texas. Let’s explore some things about Ospreys that will help you improve your chances of photographing one next fall.

Adult Osprey have average wingspans of 5 1/2 feet or more
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Nikon Monarch M5 8×42 versus Vortex Viper 10×50, two great binoculars.

Like a lot of wildlife photographers, I carry binoculars with me when I go out to photograph. I recently found that my Nikon Monarch 3 binoculars were not focusing correctly. Because of their age, I decided to replace them with a new pair from Vortex Optical, the Viper HD. After my new purchase, I had nothing to lose, so I decided to test the lifetime warranty from Nikon. I sent the old pair in for repair. Somewhat to my surprise, two weeks late,r I received a new pair of Monarch M5 binoculars in their place along with a letter stating that the others were unrepairable and would be replaced at no charge. Kudos to Nikon for honoring their lifetime warranty. I now have two great binoculars, and what follows is a review of both.

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Wildlife Photography, learning to keep your photographic ducks in a row.

Keeping your ducks in a row is an old expression for sure but some expressions remain useful and are timeless. Photographing wildlife is complex and involves a process with many individual steps or “ducks” to keep in sequence if you want to achieve the best outcome. Most people who haven’t tried wildlife photography before think you just walk out the front door, take a photo of an animal, and put it online, perhaps because these days with smartphones that’s exactly how most photographs are taken. Those of us who photograph wildlife regularly for business or pleasure know it’s a bit more complicated than that. To produce your average random wildlife photo you could just depend on getting lucky once in a while but to produce good quality wildlife photos consistently, they have to be preceded by a significant amount of study and preparation, as well as a multistep post-processing routine. Photographing Ducks is fun and is a good way to illustrate the multiple steps that are involved. Lets’ take a look at how I like to keep my ducks in a row while photographing ducks.

Mallard drake taking wing.

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Wildlife photography: One Mississippi Kite, two Mississippi Kites, three Mississippi Kites

When I was a kid, we used to play touch football in the street. Because there wasn’t an offensive line, we had to count ten seconds out loud before we could rush the quarterback. When we counted, we would use Mississippis because supposedly it takes one second to say “One Mississippi”. Say it ten times and you could rush the quarterback. I was out recently looking for wildlife to photograph when I came across several beautiful raptors that caused me to harken back to those days. I found myself counting each of the several birds circling overhead in Mississippis as if I were a kid on the football field. One Mississippi Kite, Two Mississippi Kites, and so on.

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Wildlife photography: The I-20 Wildlife Preserve

If you have ever been to West Texas then you know there really isn’t much to look at. You can literally drive a hundred miles and not change elevation more than 10 feet. For the most part, it’s dry and arid. The average yearly rainfall is about 14 inches and not a lot can grow in those conditions. Every once in a while though you’re lucky and you find an oasis in the desert.

A Canvasback duck at the preserve
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Wildlife Photography Technique ; Notice the small things. The rewards are inversely proportional.

I love wildlife photography. Taking photos of birds and mammals with large telephoto lenses is fun and challenging.  As we discussed in a prior blog though, sometimes the animal or bird you have come to photograph just doesn’t cooperate and show up on time to have their picture taken. It’s at these times that we should, ” Notice the small things. The rewards are inversely proportional”.   Macro photography is a favorite pastime of many photographers. The enlargement of small objects to a huge scale allows for the exploration of detail the naked eye usually cannot see.  Even though with wildlife photography you may only have a standard telephoto lens with you, you can still take near macro photos.

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How to Wildlife Photography Techniques ; The Wildlife Photography Apprentice, a man out standing in his field : Part 2

The sun was due to rise at about 6:00 am the next day, so I was up early to position myself.  Hidden at the base of a large tree at the edge of the field,  I sat listening to the sounds of the morning as sunrise approached. I adjusted my ISO to achieve an acceptable shutter speed in the low light conditions, and I waited.  It wasn’t too long before I heard the noise of large animals moving through the brush down by the stream.  Soon a number of what are the largest members of my field ecosystem began to wander into the pasture.  A small herd of elk.

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How to Wildlife Photography Techniques ; The Lucky Wildlife Photographer

When I post photos of the wildlife I’ve taken on the internet or show them to friends and family, they often elicit comments along the lines of, ” You sure were lucky to see that”, or ” I can’t believe you saw that”.  Renowned entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel once said, “I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have”.  People who aren’t wildlife photographers don’t understand that finding wildlife to photograph is not random or by chance in most cases.  It instead takes significant work to put yourself in the right place at the right time.  In effect,  luck favors the prepared wildlife photographer. 

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Wildlife photography: Wildlife in the Big City

Often as wildlife photographers, we spend considerable time, effort, and money pursuing our passion.  We travel to National Parks and Wildlife Preserves believing that these are the only places we will find wildlife to photograph.  I have a trip to Yellowstone this fall that I’ve been planning for almost two years.  Sometimes though, you find wildlife opportunities in places you travel to for other reasons and where you would least expect.

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