Wildlife Photography_ From Snapshots to Great Shots - Laurie Excell [52]
What is your lenses’ MFD? MFD is minimum focus distance. Set each of your lenses to its minimum focus distance and find subjects to photograph at your lens’s MFD. Try this with each lens you have to get a feel for just how close you can get and how much an object fills the frame at MFD.
Try All the Angles
Once you find a subject, photograph it from three to five different angles. Move left, move right; raise up, get down. Whatever angle you choose, compare the images after the fact to see if your first angle was your favorite or if working the scene gave you a better composition.
Three Ps
Practice, persistence, and patience are the criteria for success. Get out and practice your photography every chance you get. Keep persisting until you take your snapshots to great shots, but have patience; that sleeping bear will rise at some point, and when it does, you’d better be ready to rock and roll.
You will be amazed at how lucky you become when you put in the time with a subject. It’s then that you are able to capture those special moments of behavior that make amazing photographs.
Share your results with the book’s Flickr group!
Join the group here: flickr.com/groups/wildlifephotographyfromsnapshotstogreatshots.
10. Birds of a Feather
A Visit to One of My Favorite Bird Photography Hot Spots
For every type of bird, there is a best location and a best season. Putting it all together is what ensures a successful photographic adventure. Although I love to scout and find new locations, I have a few favorites that I can’t seem to miss each year. In this chapter, I’ll share one of my favorite bird photography hot spots with you. This adventure takes place in the deep south near the Mexican border in McAllen, Texas, where many ranchers are opening up their property to photographers so that you can visit and photograph the local residents and the migrants that pass through at certain times of the year. When I say the photography in South Texas is hot, I don’t mean just the outstanding variety of birds (we counted 47 species one week); it’s HOT! So, pack your shorts and T-shirts, and let’s go.
Poring Over the Picture
Finding a natural perch is part of making a great shot. I see so many Scissor-tailed Flycatchers on wires in Texas that it almost seems natural.
What (Equipment), When, and How
I already know the what (birds) and where (South Texas ranches) my next adventure will lead me to, so I then have to figure out the best time (the hotter, the better) to go, how I will get there (small commuter plane to McAllen, Texas), and what equipment (Figure 10.1) I will need and how to get it there.
Figure 10.1 The 600mm f4 VR is my lens of choice when it comes to photographing birds.
What Equipment
When it comes to bird photography, I pull no punches and go straight to my 600mm along with all three teleconverters. Small birds take all the reach you can get (Figure 10.2). In South Texas photographing from blinds, I also have my extension tubes close at hand. The rest of my gear is pretty much the same as in Chapter 9, “Bear Tales,” with the following changes:
• Nikon AF-S 70–200mm 2.8 VR II in place of the 70–300mm VR for the increased speed and the ability to add teleconverters reaching to 400mm with the 2X.
• Gitzo GT5541LS in place of the GT3541LS due to the increased weight of my 600mm lens.
• Lightning Trigger; hey, it could (and has) happened!
Figure 10.2 Adding a 1.7X teleconverter to my 600mm gave me 1000mm, increasing the size of the Painted Bunting in the frame.
What Clothing and Gear
On location, it’s hot, it’s muggy, it’s prickly, and it’s buggy! Oh, yeah, and you’re in a blind (box) with very little ventilation. I don’t want to scare you away; I just want to warn you to dress accordingly by wearing lightweight clothing that wicks away moisture and closed-toed shoes to avoid stubbing your toe into a cactus. Here are the items you should have with you:
• Shorts and T-shirts rather than thermal underwear and fleece, and well, nearly everything else on the list in Chapter 9. You