Transcript Wildlife and Nature Photography

Wildlife and Nature
Photography
All photos in this presentation were taken by
and are ©Drew Loker, www.drewloker.com,
unless otherwise noted.
However, please feel free to distribute freely
this presentation as long as the
photo credits stay intact.
Lake Travis, Tx
Presentation by
Drew Loker
Wildlife and Nature is like
the Rodney Dangerfield of
Photography…no respect
• Some people
view it as easy
• More to it than
just being at the
right place at the
right time.
• Being prepared
with the right
equipment and
knowing how to
use it is essential.
Slept in a car over night…waiting
for a campground.
Jenny Lake, Grand Tetons
Know your location
• Where are you shooting and what time of day will be
best for the location
– Use a compass to track the sun and determine how the lighting
might change through out the day.
– Check sun and moon charts to know the exact time
Texas City, just last night
Know your subject
• What will you be shooting
– Determine living habits.
• Food
– Does it feed in the tree or on the ground
• Does it sing at the tops of trees, what kind of sounds
does it make so you can flush it out
• What are it’s mating habits – Cardinals mate for life
and usually hang out together…but not to close to
each other
• Dragonflies tend to return back to the same spot
Clothing consideration
• Some obvious:
– Avoid bright colors, wear green,
navy, brown…non-alarming colors
• Unless you are shooting on the side
of the road…then wear a safety vest
and have cones.
– Avoid strong odors
– Wear gloves…animals will see your
hands moving before they see the
rest of you.
– Camouflage netting, build a blind
– Soft brim hat, shorts or loose pants
Photo by Todd Hargis
Equip consideration
• Some obvious:
– Buy cheap stuff to get started, but budget to
upgrade.
• Most of my first lenses came from pawn shops.
• Canon 500d vs. dedicated Macro
– Buy used…if it was good enough for a pro
yesterday, it is good enough for me today.
– Find alternative uses of non-traditional
items, making items if possible.
– Get extra lens caps
– Use UV filters for hazardous conditions.
– Camouflage netting, build a blind
– Hire a sherper to carry your equipment
Packing for a Trip
• Photography is always about compromises
– Will you benefit from any given piece of equipment on
any given day?
– If it all possible, drive rather than fly so you can take all of
your gear…different hikes dictate different gear.
• Hiking 1-5 miles in to a remote location in Big Bend is going to be
vastly different than driving up to the road side and taking
pictures at the scenic overlook.
– Bring enough memory cards to try not to format
– Back up in the field to a portable device, like a laptop,
portable hard drive or device that records DVDs in the
field.
– Bring wet weather gear – economy lens rain suit…saran
wrap, or shower cap from the hotel room
Understanding Exposure
Why use different
Shutter Speeds and Apertures.
Town Lake,
Austin, Tx
Exposure
Setting the exposure is like
filling a bucket:
How much you open the
valve is going to
determine how long it
takes to fill.
Closing the aperture is going to make the
exposure time longer.
Silhouettes
• Any time you have the sun in your picture,
you are going to have a tough exposure.
The Camera is only as Smart
as the Photographer
1/125 @ f/8
Left: Good sky Exposure.
1/15 @ f/8
Right: Good Skins Tones…shirt blown out.
Except for the new SMART cameras…then it is as
smart as the people in FRONT of the camera. 
1/320 @ f/4.5 with fill flash
Photo by Aimee Loker
Here the camera balanced the background
with enough fill flash to expose for the foreground.
Set the camera to “M”, set exposure for the background, then turn on the flash.
Using Exposure Compensation
Program and Automatic Exposure Modes do a pretty good job when
the subject is evenly lit. But when the subject is off center…or much
darker/bright than the back ground, you have to use the Manual exposure
mode…or dial +/- Exposure Compensation.
Using Exposure Compensation
But which is correct? Depends on what you are looking for? Maybe you
want a silhouette.
Exposure Compensation is when you CHANGE the base exposure
increasing or decreasing the total amount of light.
Using Equivalent Exposure
Equivalent Exposure (EE) is different than Exposure Compensation.
EE is when you keep the SAME total amount of light…but change the
variables to either stop or blur motion, or control your depth of field.
Using Equivalent Exposure
4 sec @ f/10, 38mm
2.2 sec @ f/10, 112mm
Long Exposures allow for creative control.
Left: 4 sec exposure allowed for people to blur as the walked through the
image. Right: 2 sec exp. Allowed for zooming while exposing.
Don’t Pass Up
Shots
• Taken at Christmas
time
• Shocked to see
yesterday the
picture doesn’t
exist now…and
may never again.
• You may only pass
a place once at the
right time.
Bracket shots for tough exposure,
or if your spouse is waiting on you
When hiking, try to walk by yourself
• Birds tend to
come back out
quickly after
people have
passed by.
• Just stop and
wait.
Just don’t get
too far behind
• I really did
loose Aimee
on this
hike…and
really started
to panic with
a storm on
it’s way.
Have your camera with you
Equipment Considerations
A Quote I shared with my students today:
• Every hike is different. Unfortunately, there is no
Pictures
life's
experiences.
easy answer,
andhold
much
of my
equipment is
duplicate in function but serves different
And I feel that with every experience you
purpose.
learnto something.
• Drive by vs. walking
• Terrain
Therefore,
you learn something
• Lighting
picture you take.
• Protection to equipment
– 70-200/2.8 vs. 70-300/4-5.6
- Anonymous
– 70-200/2.8 with 1.7x vs. 150-500
– 400mm with 1.7x vs 600mm or 800mm
On the way to work…
spare camera in car.
with every
• Heat is bad for the camera…but
not having a camera is worse.
Just protect the camera from
extreme heat.