Editor's note: Welcome Steve Gettle to the blog! Steve has been a professional wildlife photographer for over 25 years. Hailing from Brighton, Michigan, Steve has traveled the world to acquire stunning images and to teach a wide range of workshops. Steve's work has been featured worldwide as well, from the Museum of Natural History in London, to the National Center for Nature Photography in Ohio. Steve has been a multiple award winner in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest as well. Make sure and take some time to browse Steve's wonderful images, read his blog, and learn about his incredible variety of workshops at his site www.stevegettle.com!
A few years back I had the privilege of spending some real quality time with a Sandhill Crane family. I have photographed cranes on the nest on several different occasions but this situation was about as good as I could imagine. The nest was located in Kensington Metro Park (a park very close to my home). The nest was very near the Nature Center so the birds were extremely acclimated to the presence of people. This was a good thing because at times there were more than a half a dozen people enjoying the experience. Over the course of about a month I spent dozens of hours photographing this incredible situation.
I found the nest early on and was able to photograph the adults as they incubated and turned the eggs. The incubation period for Sandhills is about 30 days, during that time one of the parents was with the eggs at all times.
Finally after a month of waiting and checking, the first egg hatched. In this first image below the female is still incubating the second egg while bonding with the older sibling that had hatched earlier that morning.
I knew that the following day the second egg would most likely hatch, so I was out early to try and photograph this event. This was my favorite image from that morning. In this image the mother is helping the utterly exhausted chick out of its shell, as the older sibling watches on.
I am fairly certain that the younger sibling had no idea what he was in for. In true ‘survival of the fittest’ fashion the older sibling tormented the younger, smaller, chick for the first couple of days. The reason for this is that if he eliminates the sibling it means more food for him and a better chance at survival. This behavior stopped after the first couple of days when the younger bird got large enough to defend himself. I am happy to report that both chicks survived at least into the fall when I last saw them before they headed south for the winter.
Our local pal and great customer Jason Holzworth from Louisville, KY recently ventured to Costa Rica for a photo excursion. Jason's a fan of snakes and of OPG and he decided to mix the two in a few images. One of the best pics of our hat we've seen!
Jason engages in even more dangerous photo ventures every week: weddings! You can check out his site and his images here: holzphoto.com and join him on Facebook here. Thanks Jason!
Editor's note: Welcome Andy Biggs to the blog! Andy has been a long time supporter of OPG, and is the designer and manufacturer of the wildly popular Gura Gear Kiboko bag. In addition to running Gura Gear, providing commercial stock images and teaching workshops, Andy conducts incredible photo safaris to Africa. Andy heads overseas six or more times a year, covering nearly every accessible part of the African continent. Having traveled with Andy myself to several stops in southern Africa, I can tell you that Andy's safaris are first class, and that you'll have the photographic experience of a lifetime. You can find out more about Andy, see his images and learn about his safaris at his websitewww.andybiggs.com. We look forward to more articles and videos from Andy in the future! –Chris
There are many different types of safari vehicles in Africa, and this is the first in a series of videos to try and explain what the vehicles are like. This video specifically describes what the pop-top, or open-roof vehicles are like in east Africa. There are other vehicle types in east Africa (Tanzania and Kenya), however this video specifically addresses the open roof type. I'll shoot similar videos in Botswana and in Kenya later on this year, and my goal is to use these videos to visually explain what the vehicles are like before travelers get to Africa.
You can find the Kinesis Safari Sack described in this video in the OPG Store here.
So I’m here today to talk about how to photograph out of a Land Rover in Africa. Here we have one of my vehicles that we use in Tanzania, and the vehicles are very similar in Kenya as well. But these are what we call pop top, open roof vehicles. Some vehicles do not have a top. I prefer the ones that provide shade because you’re out in the bush all day long, and that sun just beats you down. So I’d really prefer to have one of these tops, these canopies.
The main location you’ll photograph from will be from the standing position. You’ll be in your vehicle. You’ll find your game, what you want to shoot, and you’ll stand up. Here we have a generic bean bag underneath my 200 to 400 lens. My preferred bean bag is from Kinesis. It’s their Safari Sack. It’s kgear.com is their website, and what makes this bean bag really great is it’s got the ability to cinch it to the posts here and keep it in place. You could put a bean bag on one side of the vehicle and another on the other and just leave them there all day long.
When I mount my lens or I place my lens on the bean bag, a lot of times I am using the lens foot. I have a replacement lens foot here from Really Right Stuff, and the reason why I like to use the replacement feet is because they’re typically lower, a lower sense of gravity. You’re not creating a big pendulum on top of the bean bag. That’s my recommendation there.
If my subject distance isn’t changing very much, I do prefer to move that lens foot around to the side or to the top so I have more surface area to hold the lens. The downside of that is that you can’t tweak your manual focus very well, and it’s also hard to zoom if you’re using something like a 200 to 400, a 100 to 400, just some other type of zoom. But for the long zooms, the focusing ring and the zoom ring really do get in the way, so I do like most of the time to just leave the lens foot in place on the bottom.
Now, this is really the best place to photograph if your subjects are farther away. But if your subject is very close, you’re going to want to be shooting from a lower position. And here on the bottom of the vehicle I have a 70 to 200 mounted on top of another bean bag and just sitting out of the window. This is great for those big cats and subjects that come really close to the vehicle because you don’t want to shoot down on your subject. You really do want to shoot at eye level, if at all possible.
This also allows a different view where you can get things and your subject in your frame, like the horizon. I find that is a good storytelling item in an image. The second thing is that if you’re shooting at the same aperture up here, like let’s just say F8 versus F8 down here given the same length of lens, you’re going to have more shallow depth of field, i.e. a blurred background from shooting from a lower position. Why? Because your background is physically farther away from the lens.
I also have two bean bags stacked here in the middle of the vehicle. This is really great where, maybe, if you’re uncomfortable and you need to create a little bit more height but you still want to shoot from a lower position, this can work well. The caveat with that is that if you’ve got some sort of predator walking by the vehicle, you’re not going to want to have that bean bag fall out. That’s a really bad time.
Here is a Land Rover from East Africa and how we shoot from them.
Name a distant corner of the world associated with photography, chances are E.J. Peiker has been there, or is heading there soon. Born in 1960 in Augsburg, Germany, and moving to Mansfield, Ohio, in 1969, E.J. became an American citizen in 1975.
E.J.’s photographic journey started when he received his first camera at age 7, while still in Germany – a square-format, Kodak 126 Instamatic. He still has it. At age 12, he graduated to a Yashica 35mm rangefinder and began to take photography more seriously. His favorite subject matter was landscape photography.
In 1990, E.J.’s photographic aspirations came to a sudden stop. While skiing, E.J. suffered such a serious injury that he was diagnosed as unable to walk again, possibly even losing a leg. As it appeared that E.J. would not be mobile without assistance, he sold all his camera gear. However, determination, resolve, several surgeries and painful physical therapy resulted in E.J.’s full recovery 3 1/2 years later.
Even though he did not photograph, E.J. put his recovery years to good use. His interest in aviation took over and provided him motivation during that tough time. He earned his Private Pilot, Instrument Pilot, Multi-engine Pilot and Commercial Pilot certificates, and became heavily involved in advanced flight simulation. He even logged time in American Airline's full motion flight simulators where he learned to fly a Boeing 727!
After his full recovery, E.J. returned to the world of photography, starting out again with Olympus gear, and migrating to Nikon equipment. His choice of Nikon was heavily influenced by John Shaw's photography, and E.J. concentrated primarily on Southwestern landscapes and captive species animal photography.
In 1999, E.J.’s photographic world expanded when he was introduced to the beautiful bird photography of Arthur Morris through Arthur’s book "The Art of Bird Photography". As with many of today’s nature photographers, this book prompted both a keen interest in avian photography, and a switch to Canon equipment for image stabilized lenses.
E.J.’s previous career path took him through the field of electrical engineering, working for the Intel Corporation in California, New Mexico, Oregon, and Arizona, where he engaged in the production of microprocessors, chip-sets, and communication chips. During that time, he studied photography at the University of New Mexico, the Rocky Mountain School of Photography, and participated in photography seminars and workshops led by renowned photographers including John Shaw, Arthur Morris, and Charles Glatzer.
E.J. began planning his career move into professional photography in 2000, with a target of 2004 for his change. Investment volatility and an unstable economy changed the plans of many Americans, and E.J. had to adapt and extend his plan. He finally made the change to full time professional nature photographer in 2010. Today, E.J. is a Nikon shooter, having made the switch from Canon gear that same year.
Artistic images of ducks are E.J.’s photographic specialty, and he teaches others duck and bird photography through his DuckShopTM photographic workshop series. E.J. has also expanded his love for landscape photography and is heavily engaged in creating artistic landscape images of world's great scenic wonders. Well traveled, E.J. has been fortunate enough to photograph 6 of our planet's 7 continents.
Why the concentration on ducks? In E.J.’s words:
“I have often been asked why I like to photograph ducks so much. Ever since I was a young boy, I have loved their ungainly waddle when on land and their graceful ability to cut through water and air as if they were defying gravity and friction. Some of the most incredible patterns in nature are found in the plumage of ducks. Their colors range the entire spectrum and in one case, every color in the spectrum is contained in one bird – the male Mandarin Duck. Another intriguing thing about them is the ability to completely transform from a drab brown bird into an incredible array of colors in just a few weeks. Finally, ducks have a lot of personality and are much more intelligent than most people realize. There are a number of individual ducks that come back year after year to the Phoenix area that immediately recognize me from the previous years and become very tame around me while they stay away from people that they don’t know. There is a familiarity and a knowledge on their part that this particular human won't hurt me.”
Now an accomplished professional nature photographer, E.J.’s images have been published in many nature, agriculture and photography magazines and books including Outdoor Photographer, Popular Photography, Birding Magazine, Audubon Society publications, National Geographic, and Barron's. The US National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Department and many zoos use his images in their brochures and for their identification displays. You’ll find E.J.’s images in different places such as on T-shirts, wine labels and in iPhone apps. E.J. also stays active on the net, not only with his own website, facebook and his ebook, but with nature photography forums such as NaturePhotographers.net and Naturescapes.net.
When he’s not flying around the world in pursuit of landscapes and ducks, E.J. resides in sunny Chandler, AZ with his two sons, Nicholas and Gregory.
You can view E.J.'s website, with wonderful images and workshop information here: www.ejphoto.com
I first met Chris Klapheke, founder/owner/operator of Outdoor Photo Gear, during a workshop I was co-leading in December 2008, in Bosque del Apache, New Mexico. We met during the event that Chris eloquently describes below, and exquisitely illustrates above.
I was new to the area, but Chris had been there several times before.
Day one of the workshop: Not only was I freezing, but I needed some help with finding the best shooting locations. Chris took me under his wing, so to speak, and helped me, and all the members of the group, get some knockout images.
Chris is a humble dude. You never hear him brag about his photographs, yet he is one of the best outdoor photographers I know. Recently, I asked him to jot down a caption for the image you see here. Well, Chris is the kind of guy who goes above and beyond in everything he does (most recently when it comes to customer service at Outdoor Photo Gear). Below is the “caption” that Chris sent me.
• • •
My alarm clock went off at 4:30 am in the Super 8 motel in Socorro, New Mexico. A sleepy little town about an hour south of Albuquerque, Socorro is the gateway town to the Bosque del Apache national wildlife refuge.
At 4:30 in the morning in Socorro in December, it’s darn cold. Fumbling awake, I checked the temperature: 12 below zero. Great. No, wait a minute—Great! Yesterday was a nice warm day in Bosque, with plenty of sun. That means, with this brutally cold morning, that any water that was shallow enough to warm up would be emitting a rare substance in the desert winter—steam.
When you get a nice warm day and a shivering cold morning, you can have steam rising from some of the ponds in Bosque. And when you get that steam and a clear sunrise, you have a chance to capture one of the “holy grail” shots from Bosque —birds in a golden mist of light.
Bosque del Apache has an avian cycle that repeats itself daily during the winter. Tens of thousands of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes spend the winter in Bosque. Each night, all those birds seek out water as a resting place for the night, where they are safe from predators such as the coyote. In the morning, through some hidden communication, the birds will start taking off out of the lakes and ponds. If you’re lucky, they will all take off at once, in what is called a “blastoff”. The sky becomes so thick with birds that sometimes the sky is nearly blocked out. It’s noisy, and you better wear a hat.
To experience this blastoff, and to get some fantastic images, photographers start setting up and jockeying for position in the cold dark. Depending on the wind and the light conditions, photographers scramble for the best views. You can glance down the road and it looks like the Olympics or a Space Shuttle launch—hundreds of long lenses pointed in the same direction.
But that’s not the shot I was after. Soliciting a few hardy members of our workshop, we were going to gamble. In trying for the golden mist shot, you are far away from the action of the refuge blastoff. Many conditions have to fall in place: a warm previous day, a cold cold morning, a clear sunrise, and of course, birds have to be in your chosen pond. You either get the shot, or you come away with a big fat nothing.
To have a chance at this shot, we would have to get off the road and crunch across frozen swampy grass to get close enough to a small pond. Leaving the road is strictly forbidden in the refuge. So, we scraped our windows, cracked open our chemical hand warmers, grabbed some coffee and headed in the dark to a pond along the road just outside the park.
Pulling off at the exit for the pond, we knew two of our four conditions—the warm day and the cold morning. Now we had to check the other two conditions in the pitch dark. Looking up, we could see the Milky Way spill across the sky. Good. A clear sunrise. As to the birds, it was too dark to see them. So we stood still and listened. We could hear their honks and grunts. The birds were there. All the conditions were in place, so if the birds hung around for sunrise, we’d have about a 60 second window, when the sunrise was just right, to try for the shot.
With hikers’ headlamps on, we carried our gear across the frozen ground toward the pond. We did not want to get too close, for fear of spooking the birds. Enough other things could do that, like coyote, leaving us with nice steam and no subjects. We used a compass to point where the sun would rise. Then we waited in silence (except for chattering teeth) for the sun to rise.
As the eastern sky lightened, our main concern was for the birds to stay put. They like to fly off at sunrise, and we needed them to stay long enough for the sun to pour over the hills and rushes to light the steam coming from the water.
The steam slowly gained color. In looking at my images in sequence, you can see:
Black gray gray gray gold gold GOLD! gold gray gray gray, all in a small amount of time.
Happily, the birds stayed, and the sun lit up the steam like flames. We snapped like maniacs. And only a minute later, it was over. Lots of LCD checks confirmed that we indeed had some good chances. We headed back to the hotel, freezing on the outside, but excited and warm on the inside.
I would like to introduce everyone to my good friend Chris Klapheke. Chris is an avid bird photographer and has been gracious enough to spend a little time with us this morning to answer a few questions. So here we go…
John: You have some amazing bird images. What is the toughest part about getting a great shot?
Chris: There are a lot of things that go into a successful avian shot. But no matter what style shot, I think the most important factors are planning and visualization. If you plan well, the execution of the shot is relatively easy.
Let’s start with visualization. What is the shot that you want? Do you want a bird on a perch? If so, what kind of perch? Would you like the bird singing or eating? Do you want a bird in flight? And so on. Of course, the shot you want will change depending on the bird and your shooting environment, and will develop “on the fly” (pun intended) during your shooting time. However, it’s important to place a visualization in your mind’s eye.
Once you visualize your shot, planning takes over. To me, the top avian shooters, like Alan Murphy or Arthur Morris, constantly produce stellar images because they plan.
“Planning” incorporates a whole host of factors and objectives. For the image itself planning can include:
Light (of course!)
Wind direction
Background
Type of shot
What kind of bird
For the mechanics of getting the shot itself, planning can include:
Habits of the bird
Staging area for the bird
Food for the bird
Type of perch
Skittishness of the bird (do you need a blind?)
Lens size
Many other factors come in to planning, but you get the idea.
Let’s take a real life example. I was with Alan Murphy in Texas and we wanted a shot of a Kingfisher that was hanging around on a local pond. For our planning, we knew what shot we wanted and we knew the habits of the bird. Here’s what we knew:
We wanted a perch, so we put one in the water and dressed it up with some moss.
Kingfishers love fish, so we bought some minnows.
Kingfishers are very skittish, so we knew we had to have a blind.
We wanted the sun at our back, and very little wind.
We wanted the Kingfisher to face us, so we knew we had to put the food source between the bird and ourselves.
We knew that Kingfishers like to “stage” and survey the scene before flying to a perch, so we set up near a shore tree.
We had to keep the minnows in one place for the bird to feed, so we got an inflatable baby pool, filled it with water and tied it in front of the perch.
So, after all that planning, we were in a blind before dawn, with the sun to our back, facing a perch that had fish corralled right in front of it. After all that, snapping the shutter when the Kingfisher landed was relatively easy!
There is a funny part to this story. Despite what we thought was a perfect plan, the Kingfisher showed up before dawn and ate all our minnows before there was any light! So the next day, we put a net over the minnow filled pool and strung fishing line up to the blind. The Kingfisher arrived early again but could not get the fish. When the light was right, we pulled the net off from inside the blind. We had a happy bird, and happy photographers!
Belted Kingfisher, Roma, Texas
The Blind
Wood Duck on golden water, Albuquerque, New Mexico
John: If you had to give a newbie some advice in relationship to bird photography–what would it be?
Chris: Well, in addition to the planning above and the right gear, which we’ll discuss next, I’d say a few things:
Practice and practice some more, and be prepared to fail. Many times. Don’t get discouraged, as good avian shots are hard to come by, even for pros.
When you are comfortable with your camera and your bird, try to get shots that don’t have the “hand of man” in them. Try to eliminate feeders, fence posts and such.
Like all photography, looking at other photographers’ images really helps.
Nothing will accelerate your learning curve faster than attending a workshop or shooting with an accomplished bird photographer.
Roseate Spoonbill, Merritt Island, Florida
John: Being a photographer and an owner of a photo gear business gives you a unique perspective. If you had to give advice on buying gear what would it be?
First of all, know that avian photography is expensive. Very. With avain photography, it seems you can never have enough reach. We constantly use teleconverters and search for longer lenses. When Canon came out with their 800mm, scores of photographers dumped their 600mm lenses and moved up despite the cost.
Most avian photographers also have a crop factor camera (like the 1.6 crop Canon 7D) for better reach.
For gear advice, I’d break components down to four areas: camera, lens, tripod and head.
I won’t delve too much into cameras as there are so many out there. If you are just starting though, get a crop factor camera to give you some reach, like a Canon 50D or a Nikon D300. If you think you will shoot birds in flight, make sure and step up from the entry level cameras to get a better autofocus system.
For your lens, I’d try and get the longest lens you can. You may have to stretch, but if you are going to continue in this field, you’ll end up with a 500mm or 600mm down the road. You don’t have to start there, of course. The 70-200 f2.8 works well with a teleconverter, and can get you on the way. One great starter lens is the Canon 400 f5.6. It’s about $1200 new, and will get you some long reach right away, so you can find out if avian photography is your thing. It’s also a great hand-held lens for flight. One warning though: if you are used to shooting a smaller lens, and get a taste of the reach of a 400mm, you’ll be drooling over the 500mm in no time.
As to tripods, there is a standard answer we give on workshops: nothing will improve your photography more than a good tripod. It’s best to “buy ahead” with tripods more so than with lenses. If you think you are going to end up with a 500mm, then go ahead and buy the tripod that carries it. Smaller tripods are harder to resell than smaller lenses. In the tripod category I would suggest a 3 Series Gitzo, either basalt or carbon fiber, or 3 series Induro carbon fiber. Is a 3 series overkill for that Canon 400 f5.6? Probably. But you’ll move up, and you’ll want to protect your investment in your lens. One thing good about tripods is their longetivity. My 3 Series Gitzo is 7 years old. I’ve changed camera bodies many times in that time frame.
The last component is your tripod head. If you only want to shoot static birds and don’t think you’ll ever go larger than a 400 f5.6, a good ball head is fine. But if you ever want to shoot birds in flight, no matter what size lens you have, you’ll need a gimbal head. Wimberley, Induro, Jobu and 4th Generation all make fine gimbal heads. Most work for any size lens, from a 70-200mm all the way up to an 800mm.
Come to think of it, of all the components, the camera body is the least place where you have to stretch or “buy ahead”. I’d take a non-pro camera body like a 50D any day, and use the extra savings to purchase a good lens or tripod.
Juvenile Great Horned Owls, Louisville, Kentucky
John: If you had to pick one lens and one lens only, what would it be?
Chris: If you’ll let me have a teleconverter, then I would say that if I could only have one lens, it would be a 300mm f2.8. With that lens, I can cover close subjects, and I can get to 600mm easily with a 2X converter. It’s important to have an f2.8 though, as with an f2.8 your teleconverters will not slow down or shut off your autofocus. For both Canon and Nikon, their 300mm f2.8 lenses are among the sharpest, if not the sharpest, they make.
John: Is it true they use fake backgrounds when photographing birds? If so, why? And how do you go about setting that up?
Chris: No, it’s not true we use fake backgrounds with bird photography. (With one exception for hummingbirds). Those nice, blurred backgrounds that highlight our subject bird are accomplished with good lenses and depth of field control. More importantly, when we plan a shot, the correct background is one of the most important factors. You see a lot of jockeying around in avian photography to get the right background, more so than for the subject bird! We do “manicure” our backgrounds sometimes, for example snipping off a bright flower 30 feet behind the perch, or piling up leafy branches to cover up a bright spot.
Hummingbird flash photography does have fake backgrounds, usually a big print of an out of focus plant. The reason? If you are trying to freeze a hummer’s wings, your flash speed is so fast, that if you did not light up a background, you’d end up with midnight black around your subject bird.
Reader Question: The thing I’d like to know most is how to go about getting great images in your own backyard or local park without having to get into all the camo gear and hides.
Chris: The answer to this statement really lies in the type of bird you want to photograph. Some birds, like hummingbirds, tolerate humans just fine. Urban and backyard birds are mostly fine with us as well. But if you want to photograph a shy bird like a Pileated Woodpecker, you’ll need a blind.
Birds around the country have different tolerances of humans. For example, I cannot get within a few hundred yards of the Wood Ducks in my backyard stream, but in Albuquerque I could practically pat them on the head!
Reader Question: I have been stunned by the talent of Fergus Gill, winner of the Veolia Environment Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year for two years running. Both were images he got in his back garden!
Chris: From reading about Fergus, he noted that he was in his garden every day photographing, and his local birds acclimated to him. There is a lot to be said for this technique as to your back yard. The more you are out there shooting, the less the local birds will pay attention to you. Your odds will increase as well! In addition, if you get an abnormal event like a big snowfall, birds will be so focused on food, they will be likely to overlook your presence.
Fawn Breasted Brilliant, Tandayapa, Ecuador
Reader Questions: What if I can’t make a workshop? Do you have any resources for aspiring bird photographers?
Chris: I sure do. For the basics on bird photography, including technical details such as exposure compensation, I would recommend Arthur Morris’ books: The Art of Bird Photography and The Art of Bird Photography II (actually a CD).
If you have your camera basics down and want to learn how to do songbird set-ups, particularly in your own back yard, you can’t beat Alan Murphy’s CD: The Guide to Songbird Set-up Photography. I help Alan with a couple of workshops every year, and continue to be amazed at the setups Alan comes up with. I swear the guy can talk to birds.
I want to thank Chris for his time and if you’re interested in seeing any other work by Chris then make sure to stop by his portfolio HERE.
–John
Learn more about John, view his images and check out his blog here.
Our own Chris Klapheke is featured in November's issue of Outdoor Photographer magazine, hitting the stands this week!
"On The Wing" showcases five pages of Chris' bird images, from portraits to blurs. Chris shares bird photography tips and gives the background stories to some of his images. He also gives kudos to his mentors including Alan Murphy and Arthur Morris.
You can check out the magazine in bookstores, and we've also posted a pdf of the article for you to read here: On The Wing.
When I was first getting involved in professional wildlife photography, one of my mentors told me something I’ve made a point of remembering. What he told me should be obvious, but like much of what should be obvious, it isn’t always that obvious until someone points it out to you. And what was this pearl of wisdom and insight that I received? It was simply, “Cute Sells”.
I know a lot of wildlife photographers love capturing images of predators capturing and then ripping apart their latest kill. And don’t get me wrong. Those are exciting shots that graphically illustrate the harsh realities of the natural world. But ask yourself, is the average person going to want to look at that sort of image as a print on their wall, on a greeting card or even a calendar? I’ll tell you that regardless of what you might think, the answer is no. You’ll find the occasional person interested in that sort of graphically real image, but the vast majority of people don’t want to be reminded of the harshness of a wild life.
So then, let’s consider the sort of images might qualify as cute for a wildlife photographer.
I’ll tell you the first one. And it is darned obvious and that’s why I’ll point it out. Baby animals. Much like human babies, it is very difficult to find a baby animal that a lot of people won’t consider cute. Babies (human and animal alike) tend to have proportionately large eyes and it seems we humans are instinctively drawn to these features. So, we’re programmed in one form or another to babies and when you can get a photograph of a cute baby animal, your chances of selling it go quite a bit higher.
(You can click on the images to see larger versions)
Sleepy Raccoon Kit peering out of a hollow log- CA
Another thing that makes baby animals compelling wildlife subjects is that baby animals tend to be a bit playful and clumsy. And if you and your camera can capture some of that playfulness or clumsiness, you’re on your way to creating a cute image that has sales potential written all over it.
Playful Bobcat kitten on top of a rocky hill – CA
Black Bear cub peering over the top of a tree
Here’s another truism. Interaction between cute subjects makes a big difference. What does this mean for a wildlife photographer? Consider different types of interaction. Interaction between a baby animal and its parent is compelling. The average person loves to see one animal being cared for by another. Another type of interaction that is compelling occurs when a two or more siblings are interacting and playing with each other. Just like its compelling to see one animal exhibiting playful behavior, I’ll argue that the cute factor goes up exponentially when there is more than one baby animal involved in the playing.
Common Loon with chick on its back swimming on a lake
Pair of Red Fox kits play fighting in some tall grass
Find an animal exhibiting a behavior we typically associate with humans (also know as anthropomorphism; that’s your big word for the day today) and you can create an image that will have the cute factor working in its favor. When we see an animal exhibiting a behavior we typically associate with our own species it helps create a connection between the viewer and the image and that connection will help make the image more salable.
Black Bear standing and leaning against a tree – CA
Polar Bear Chillaxin'
So, if you want my advice, heed the follow. If you’re a wildlife photographer who is interested in selling your images, invest your time and effort into looking for and making cute images.
Editors note: We are proud to welcome Richard Peters as a contributor to the OPG Blog! Based in West London and employed in the television/media industry, Richard's passion is wildlife photography. Richard maintains a wonderfully detailed blog that includes great images, equipment reviews, and videos, including stunning time-lapse presentations. Links to Richard's material follow this article. We're looking forward to more of Richard's contributions in the future!
One species I had not seen before, but knew could be found in Florida, is the Burrowing Owl. So I decided to spend some time photographing them at a couple of locations in the sunshine state…as well as recording my first ‘On Location’ video to give you an idea of the conditions I experienced, and to give you some idea of what to expect if you decide to go out photographing these little guys for yourself.
Burrowing Owls are funny little birds. They are only 9 inches tall and spend most of their time sitting at the entrance to their nests, keeping an eye out for food and predators. Florida’s population is estimated to be between 3,000 and 10,000 pairs and they are located at several specific areas, rather than anywhere and everywhere like other species you find in the sunshine state. They are listed as a protected species to help keep the numbers up, as in places like Cape Coral, they have built nests on empty plots of land. As a result developers have, in the past, disrupted nests so that they can build on the land the owls are occupying.
Where to look?
There are several areas around the state you can find the owls nesting although, unlike other species, these locations are quite few and far between and so not quite as easy to just stumble across.
I visited a couple of areas in my search for the owls, and to accompany this article, I made a video to show them – which you can see below (bare with me as I find my feet with this new skill that I am having to learn, it’s only my second video – shot with a Lumix TZ7 – but I do hope you enjoy watching…). You’ll notice I only talk about Cape Coral briefly and that is simply because I spent a couple of hours one morning trying to find the owls there. At the bottom of this article you can find links to websites that will give you more information about the owls and locations you can find them in to help you find some for yourself.
Now you’ve seen the video…
I also wrote this article to better show some of the Burrowing Owl photos I took and also back up the video with more information. I hope you find it an interesting and useful read.
D30, 200-400, 1.4x, 550mm, 1/320, f7.1
Cape Coral
This is probably the most well known location for seeing the Burrowing Owls in Florida. The city is well known for its population which is estimated to be over 1,000 and indeed, as you drive around the city you will see nests dotted all over the place. There is a toll to get on to Cape Coral so be prepared for that if you are visiting from further away…it’s only a couple of dollars but you don’t want to get caught out and have to go off looking for an atm when all you want to be doing is taking photos. The community of the city really do a lot to look after the owls nesting there, with various tips and advice on the protection and well being of the owls to be found on the Cape Coral website. It’s really nice to see just how much effort the city puts in to the conservation of the owls, but given how many of the entire states population live there it really is no surprise. Many residents have also put up wooden crosses by the nests for the owls to perch on, although I only saw one owl off in the distance perched up.
D3, 200-400, 1.4x, 550mm, 1/800, f8, ISO 360
The nests can be found all over the city and you basically just have to drive around looking for them. When you see one, depending on it’s location, you can simply pull up and take photos. As you may have seen in the video, many of them are found around the housing estates, which means you basically have to drive around the many residential areas to spot them. The nests are easy enough to see as they are marked with poles around them and usually rope joining those poles. Because many nests are on private property or in areas that you just cannot reach very easily you may not always be able to get close enough for a decent shot. The good news though, is that there are quite a few of them so it won’t take you long to find another that is a little more within reach of your camera. On the morning we drove round however, there were very few owls on show with most of them seeming to want to keep out of view or as hidden as possible with just a pair of eyes looking out at you. We did find a couple out in the open but we were at the mercy of the sunlight…and that’s your other problem…because a large amount of the nests are on private property you can only photograph them from one direction, which may not always be in the right position for the light.
D300, 200-400 VR, 1/500, f8, ISO 200
I liked Cape Coral, it’s a nice quite city with plenty of space and lots of owls to be found. I would have liked to spend more time there to really make the most of it though as my friend, fellow photographer Colin Pickett, spent a few days there and had more success. Although he informed me the time of day and various nests activity varied a lot, so it really does seem like it might be hit and miss as to whether you see them or not. As is the case with most wildlife, you just have to put the time in and hope you are rewarded with some sightings.
By contrast, Brian Piccolo Park really did give me a lot more opportunities to photograph the owls. It really is the last place I would have thought to look for them though, as the park is purely there for recreational purposes with football (soccer!) pitches, cricket fields, basketball courts, a velodrome etc as well as picnic areas. No wetland area, no wildlife conservation area or anything like that which you find in many other parks around the state. This park is purely for the entertainment of the Broward County residents so it really did come as a surprise when I was told to look there for the owls. I was expecting them to be sparsely dotted around and hard to see but to my delight there were a good number of nests and almost every single one of them had at least one owl standing by the entrance…further more, on both the days I visited, the owls were showing well the entire time I was there.
D3 with 200-400 VR, 400mm, 1/250, f7.1, ISO 400
Shooting at the park is really good because the owls there seem much more approachable and accepting of people. I think because the park gets so busy and noisy at times, the owls have grown to understand that they generally are not in danger from the people that use the area, and so you can get close enough for some really nice images – with the owls being far less timid than the at Cape Coral. Again as you can see in the video, some of the nests are right up alongside the pathways and road that wind throughout the park which has all helped to make the owls grow used to the daily visitors. It’s worth pointing out that you should never take the owls trust for granted by getting overly close to them, but you can certainly get close enough that a 400mm on a full frame camera will get you some nice images (or 300mm on a crop body) – although I opted to use my 1.4x TC on my 200-400 because I prefer to stay further away from my subjects, as airing on the side of caution is always the safest bet. The owls always seemed comfortable with my presence though and mostly ignored me and spent most of the time doing what they do best, observing the area around them and moving their heads in all directions to keep an eye on things.
D3, 200-400 VR, 1.4x, 550mm, 1/250, f8
The other advantage here is that you can get to any side of any nest with ease, so you are always able to shoot with the light in the best possible position. It’s also worth pointing out there is a fee to get in to the park depending on the day you visit, so bare that in mind. Full information about the park and it’s location can be found below.
D3, 200-400 VR, 1.4x, 550mm, 1/400, f8, ISO 200
I had great fun photographing the owls in Florida, they are funny little characters, although they don’t do a huge amount so don’t expect any action shots – although I did have one fly between two nests, straight past me…I was totally unprepared for it so missed the chance to photograph it, typical. The one and only time I saw one doing something other than standing around! However, I can recommend them for anyone that might find themselves in The Sunshine State – so do check them out if you ever get the chance.
D3, 200-400 VR, 1.4x, 550mm, 1/320, f7.1, ISO 1100
The other day I started to think about things people have innocently said to me about my photography that have annoyed me. Now, I know that most of the comments were meant without any malice and were well intentioned. I get that. But, that doesn’t stop them from bothering the heck out of me. I’ve taken the liberty of compiling the top offending comments into a top ten list, presented in the traditional descending order for your reading pleasure. I also decided to annotate each of the comments with my own thoughts which would not normally remain safely ensconced in my brain.
10. Will you photograph my wedding?
Okay, I know that I should take this as a compliment. But unless the bride and groom are going to wallow through a swamp on all fours, count me out. Brides and their mothers scare me more than coming face-to-face with a mother bear and her cubs while hiking.
Female Black Bear and her cubs walking on a trail
9. Why can’t I get pictures like that with my cell phone?
Hmmmmmm. Tough one. Could it be that the miniscule image sensor and cheap piece of plastic they call a lens can’t quite compete with quality glass and the resolving power of the sensors in modern digital SLR cameras?
8. Digital is okay I guess, but it’s too bad it doesn’t have the quality of film
Hello? 1995 called and they want their camera back. Seriously, the quality of digital cameras surpassed film several years ago. Seriously.
Northern Pintail flying over a golden pond
7. That picture would be amazing as a painting.
Why in the blue hell is photography held in such poor regard when compared to sketching, painting or sculpting? I get that these days everybody has a camera of some sort and there are literally millions of images captured each day. But, I’ll put a great image up against a great painting or sculpture any day in terms of “artistic” merit.
Black-capped chickadee perched on the branch of a pine tree – Converted to simulated oil painting to garner some artistic merit
6. That image looks like it could stand a bit more sharpening.
Probably the most common bit of “advice” you find on Internet forums when folks post their images. This age of pixel peeping has lead to an increasing number of people wayyyyyy over sharpening their images. In my humble opinion.
5. Did you Photoshop® that?
Yeah I did. So what? Do you realize that folks used to “darkroom” their images, remove flaws, lighten areas, darken areas and even completely alter the image? Manipulation of photographs goes back to the advent of photography. A famous example from 1920 is when Stalin had Trotsky removed from an image.
Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov, before retouching.
Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov, after retouching.
4. You were so lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
In the same sense that I was lucky to be up an hour before sunrise for a week to arrive at the location in time only to be disappointed 6 out of the 7 days, I guess I was lucky.
Long tailed weasel looking for baby gophers
3. How many megapixels is your camera?
200 bazillion. I know that the marketing folks at the various camera manufacturers have worked their butts off to convince folks that megapixels matter. But, I’m here to tell you that you may be able to get away with bigger crops on a high megapixel camera, my “old” four, six and eight megapixel cameras still make great pictures
2. That’s a really great snapshot.
Maybe it’s just me, but I find the term snapshot pejorative in the extreme. Call it a great picture, image or even capture, but not a snapshot. Please and thanks.
Sectored Plate
1. Wow, you must have a really nice camera!
Yeah, and that painter must have had a really great easel. Seriously, a nice camera? Are you referring to my new K-Tel Autocapture 3000 that not only takes care of all of those confusing exposure calculations, won’t let me make an image that isn’t optimally composed and automatically chooses the perfect instant to make a photograph? Sure, quality tools will help produce a quality photograph. But until the Autocapture 3000 actually ships, it is still the photographer who makes decisions on exposure, subject, setting, timing, and composition.
Yellow-headed Blackbird singing from on top of a bullrush
If you’ve ever been in a situation where you heard some innocent comment or question about your photography that just bugged the heck out of you, take it in stride.
When the Sun Ignites the Steam by Rick Sammon
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010Hey Gang,
I first met Chris Klapheke, founder/owner/operator of Outdoor Photo Gear, during a workshop I was co-leading in December 2008, in Bosque del Apache, New Mexico. We met during the event that Chris eloquently describes below, and exquisitely illustrates above.
I was new to the area, but Chris had been there several times before.
Day one of the workshop: Not only was I freezing, but I needed some help with finding the best shooting locations. Chris took me under his wing, so to speak, and helped me, and all the members of the group, get some knockout images.
Chris is a humble dude. You never hear him brag about his photographs, yet he is one of the best outdoor photographers I know. Recently, I asked him to jot down a caption for the image you see here. Well, Chris is the kind of guy who goes above and beyond in everything he does (most recently when it comes to customer service at Outdoor Photo Gear). Below is the “caption” that Chris sent me.
• • •
My alarm clock went off at 4:30 am in the Super 8 motel in Socorro, New Mexico. A sleepy little town about an hour south of Albuquerque, Socorro is the gateway town to the Bosque del Apache national wildlife refuge.
At 4:30 in the morning in Socorro in December, it’s darn cold. Fumbling awake, I checked the temperature: 12 below zero. Great. No, wait a minute—Great! Yesterday was a nice warm day in Bosque, with plenty of sun. That means, with this brutally cold morning, that any water that was shallow enough to warm up would be emitting a rare substance in the desert winter—steam.
When you get a nice warm day and a shivering cold morning, you can have steam rising from some of the ponds in Bosque. And when you get that steam and a clear sunrise, you have a chance to capture one of the “holy grail” shots from Bosque —birds in a golden mist of light.
Bosque del Apache has an avian cycle that repeats itself daily during the winter. Tens of thousands of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes spend the winter in Bosque. Each night, all those birds seek out water as a resting place for the night, where they are safe from predators such as the coyote. In the morning, through some hidden communication, the birds will start taking off out of the lakes and ponds. If you’re lucky, they will all take off at once, in what is called a “blastoff”. The sky becomes so thick with birds that sometimes the sky is nearly blocked out. It’s noisy, and you better wear a hat.
To experience this blastoff, and to get some fantastic images, photographers start setting up and jockeying for position in the cold dark. Depending on the wind and the light conditions, photographers scramble for the best views. You can glance down the road and it looks like the Olympics or a Space Shuttle launch—hundreds of long lenses pointed in the same direction.
But that’s not the shot I was after. Soliciting a few hardy members of our workshop, we were going to gamble. In trying for the golden mist shot, you are far away from the action of the refuge blastoff. Many conditions have to fall in place: a warm previous day, a cold cold morning, a clear sunrise, and of course, birds have to be in your chosen pond. You either get the shot, or you come away with a big fat nothing.
To have a chance at this shot, we would have to get off the road and crunch across frozen swampy grass to get close enough to a small pond. Leaving the road is strictly forbidden in the refuge. So, we scraped our windows, cracked open our chemical hand warmers, grabbed some coffee and headed in the dark to a pond along the road just outside the park.
Pulling off at the exit for the pond, we knew two of our four conditions—the warm day and the cold morning. Now we had to check the other two conditions in the pitch dark. Looking up, we could see the Milky Way spill across the sky. Good. A clear sunrise. As to the birds, it was too dark to see them. So we stood still and listened. We could hear their honks and grunts. The birds were there. All the conditions were in place, so if the birds hung around for sunrise, we’d have about a 60 second window, when the sunrise was just right, to try for the shot.
With hikers’ headlamps on, we carried our gear across the frozen ground toward the pond. We did not want to get too close, for fear of spooking the birds. Enough other things could do that, like coyote, leaving us with nice steam and no subjects. We used a compass to point where the sun would rise. Then we waited in silence (except for chattering teeth) for the sun to rise.
As the eastern sky lightened, our main concern was for the birds to stay put. They like to fly off at sunrise, and we needed them to stay long enough for the sun to pour over the hills and rushes to light the steam coming from the water.
The steam slowly gained color. In looking at my images in sequence, you can see:
Black gray gray gray gold gold GOLD! gold gray gray gray, all in a small amount of time.
Happily, the birds stayed, and the sun lit up the steam like flames. We snapped like maniacs. And only a minute later, it was over. Lots of LCD checks confirmed that we indeed had some good chances. We headed back to the hotel, freezing on the outside, but excited and warm on the inside.
I hope you enjoyed this "Story Behind the Shot"
Explore the Light,
Rick
Check out my blog here.
Tags: Bosque del Apache, Chirs Klapheke, learning, mist, photography, Rick Sammon, Travel Photography
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