Inspired by Captured

Wildlife photography for me is one of the most enjoyable endeavors that I can do with m DSLR.  Being in nature and watching God’s critters do their thing and having them accept you as part of their routines is a privilege.  Behind the scenes though is really where a lot of the work is done.  I have been re-reading Moose Peterson’s book Captured and have bee trying to apply the lessons to improve my photography when out with the subjects I am shooting.  One of the take home lessons that I have gotten out of the book is know basic biology of the subject.

I decided to start simple and focus on the American Mourning Dove.  This is one of the most common birds across North America found in all fifty states and regions of Canada.  Getting that really shallow DOF where the subject pops off the print and you have no distracting backgrounds is a must in wildlife photography.  I knew from researching this bird that it is a ground dweller and prefers to feed on the ground rather that from a feeder.  I thought this is good, I can get some good shots without distracting things in the frame, but alas, not as easy as you would think.   As I mentioned earlier, having the subjects ignore you and realize you are not a threat is the key to getting these types of shots, but it takes patience and getting down low.  Depending on the species, this acceptance can take very little time or hours.  In my case, it took about 1/2 hour for the doves to come in and feel as if I was not a threat.

So now the birds realize that I am not a threat, how to get close to get the shot?  A long lens would be the obvious choice, but what if you cannot afford the big expensive glass?  This can be done with shorter lenses and in fact Moose Peterson has an entire class he is teaching dedicated to just such a thing.  Find out about his course by clicking here: Short Lens Wildlife Photography Course.   Getting closer with shorter lenses obviously takes practice and the right equipment.  These photos were taken on a RRS Ground Tripod with a 70-200mm VRII while in the seated position.  I still need a lot of practice, but the fun part is the actual practice.  I will be attempting more shots with a panning plate once I get used to it, so their is more to come …

Gear:

Nikon D3s
70-200  VRII
RRS Ground Pod
Lexar Digital UDMA 600x Film

Nightime photography

I spent this past week installing new exterior lighting around my home.  It was a fun project and I learned a lot.  The one thing that kept going through my mind was how much I couldn’t wait to take pictures of the house lit up at night once the lighting was done.  My wife was kidding me saying “Why does everything have to tie into photography for you.”  It’s true that I often look at the world through f/stops, but that is the joy of photography for me.  So, back to the project.  I anxiously waited all day for it to become night, hoping it was not going to rain as it was in the forecast.  The rain held off and 5 minutes before the lights were timed to come on, I had my tripod set up, and remote trigger ready to go.

I knew that I wanted to get the starburst effect with the coach lights flanking the garage and the porch light, so I stopped down to f/22 as my starting point and fired away.  I was pretty happy with the results.  The f/22 aperture resulted in about a 13 second exposure to capture the above shot.  Not satisfied, I changed the aperture to f/18 and did 7 frame HDR just to see what I would get.  I used Photomatix this time to assemble to shots.

The resulting HDR gave me more of the night sky which was kinda cool in the final shot.  I turned the porch light off for this one because it was so bright and really changed the overall look of the photo when doing the HDR.   I wanted a darker look to the photo that emphasized the lighting, and with the porch light on, the photo looked a little washed out and the starburst effect was not showing up as clearly.

Images captured with Nikon D3s, 24-70mm on LexarUDMA digital film.