![]() I own several inexpensive fabric pop-up blinds often sold as hunting blinds and a top-of-the-line photography blind, made by Tragopan. I’ve even sat in my car in my driveway and photographed birds in my yard that way! Beanbags are a handy tool, but there are also sophisticated window mounts available that can support cameras and telephoto lenses. My most essential blind is my car (my mobile blind), as birds and other animals seem to have much more tolerance for humans in vehicles than humans on foot. How can we get close enough to get the intimate shots we want while minimizing the disturbance our presence inevitably causes? I’ve found blinds and camo of various kinds to be essential tools. Knowing your subject’s behavior is also critical for us wildlife photographers as we consider how to find and approach them while minimizing our disturbance of them. Deeper knowledge of the subject will shine through that work, distinguishing it from the run-of-the-mill nature photos out there. The photographers I admire most have an innate curiosity about their subjects’ behaviors and life cycles, because they intuitively realize that knowledge will help them achieve the most interesting and unique photos. Such knowledge helps me in a number of ways: to know where to look for my subjects, to be near them without disturbing them and to be ready on the shutter when I predict certain behaviors. ![]() To know what’s unique, what’s truly revealing, I have to know the basics of my subjects’ lives-what and when they eat, the risks to their survival, their family structures, how they move through their environment and what motivates these movements. I’m deeply interested in the natural history of my subjects, and I’m always on the alert for interesting behaviors and gestures. I consider myself a wildlife biographer almost as much as a photographer, because I aim to visually tell the stories of wild animals’ lives. During this time, I also learned that patient, long-term observation can yield treasures, something that serves me well as a wildlife photographer.Ī pod of American white pelicans settles into its roosting spot, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Utah. I’ve seen elephant family members reunite with great emotion, try to rescue unrelated dying infants, and young and old frolicking joyfully in mud pits. I also learned that they share much with us-that they feel joy, affection and grief. There, I learned that what we know about wild animals is only the tip of the iceberg, that theirs is a world as complex as our own, though in a myriad of different ways. For two field seasons we lived in the Central African Republic to study elephants in the wild. It also felt like a natural progression from the work I had been doing in upstate New York at Cornell University, as a research assistant to an elephant scientist. My discovery of wildlife photography felt like a fulfillment of that lifelong affinity and fascination for animals. It didn’t take long until I expanded my focus to all wildlife. Thanks to the instant feedback that digital technology provides, my skills advanced quickly.Ī few years later, I discovered the world of bird photography, and I outfitted myself with the best possible camera gear for small, fast-moving subjects-a pro-level Canon camera body, a 500mm telephoto lens, a carbon-fiber tripod and a gimbal head. ![]() I spent a lot of time exploring bogs and forest floors. ![]() To be able to reveal the hidden world of a wild orchid or pitcher plant excited me. I was fascinated by the camera’s ability to capture the most minute detail and the most intense color. I bought a digital SLR camera with a 100mm ƒ/2.8 macro lens and a good tripod, and I focused on plants. Sometimes my work has coincided with that affinity for animals, but that’s not how it started.Ī decade ago, looking for a hobby, I took a course in basic digital photography at a community college. Though I grew up in the concrete jungle of New York City, in my adult years I’ve gravitated to wild, natural places and to the large charismatic creatures that live there, from forest elephants in central Africa to humpback whales in the Caribbean. A Spirit Bear (or Kermode bear) cub finishes the remnants of the salmon his mother has just caught for him in a nearby stream, Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada.Īll my life I’ve been drawn to animals, particularly wild ones. ![]()
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