Fun and
practical wildlife photography practice
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This will let you know if you
are ready to shoot the real thing. It will also help you get used to your equipment,
composition, natural lighting and just tune you up in general. You should become the worst
critic of your images. |
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Start in your own backyard !
(Remember to keep the hands of man out of your images)
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If you are a complete beginner start off with a pet
dog or cat in the backyard. Take some candid shots, not posed shots! |
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Having no pets, I am using this wild Red Fox kit
from a local golf course as example for one of the types of images you should be
trying to equal or better. From the true pets you can advance to some of the neighborhood
half wild cats. I'm talking about the homeless ones that are wary of you and won't allow
close approach. Good practice! Most communities have them. If you can't get good images of
these animals, don't expect to get the wild ones. |
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Now lets progress a little to a semi-wild animal.
(LOL) If you or your neighbors don't have squirrels, most city parks do! If you try to get
an image in the city park, that will be some excellent practice and a little more
difficult than you might think. Again, you are trying to equal or better images like this
one. This was taken in my backyard, from a bedroom window. Thats called a blind! Take note
that I even used a tripod in the bedroom. A tripod is essential to good sharp images. |
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Birds are a special case.To
constantly get good images of small birds you normally need telephoto lens and shoot out
of blinds. I picked a Robin because they are a little larger and very common across the
country. Watch their habits and routines. Notice that you can't come up on one but if you
are already there, they don't pay a lot of attention to you. Thats a big key to
photographing birds. Once you know when and where they will be, you can be there first and
ready for them. You can use the house or even a tent as a blind. If the Robins feed in a
certain area, try a pup tent and lay down to get a wonderful image on their own level. |
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Most cities or communities have a small lake or pond
somewhere that the "kiddies can go and feed the ducks" This is a great place to
get experience with shooting birds and water. I took this Mallard at one of these little
lakes.Now it's really getting to be fun! |
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Now the really easy part! You think so? Go to the
nearest zoo and try to equal or better this image by Amy Newcomb. She is a student
photographer and took this image at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.. The zoo is a
great place to practice on various size, shape and color animals. But remember you are
keeping the hands of man out of the image for practice. Also you are trying to get an
interesting and correctly exposed image. |
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Ok, now you have got the practice in, had some fun
doing it, lets get out to the national parks and put this experience to use. You can join
the crowd going after the big guys. This is a sample that I shot the only time I was in
Yellowstone National park. You see if you really worked and learned through these practice
drills, you are now a senior. You might even have that thirst to work at getting the
cliche park images out of the way so you can graduate on into the true adventures of
photographing the wildlife in the wilderness. |
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Its all up to you! If you really had fun, worked,
learned, and applied the knowledge you should have gained from every image taken; Then
this image I took on the edge South Park, in Colorado can symbolize the sunset on routine
cliche images and the sunrise on real adventure and wildlife photography. |
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