And Then It’s Time to Say Good-Bye, For the Moment

I have a thing for Woodstorks, a throw back to early bird evolution that have managed to hang on in our modern word. Their deliberate nature, their at times comical approach and graceful flight is just one of those pleasures in wildlife photography that doesn’t need to be captured to be remembered. I was glad to see them my last evening and to spend a little more time with them. It was a good trip!

Do You Need to Fill the Frame?

Wildlife photographers seem to spend a lot of time and a lot of money to capture eyeballs. The upclose and tight shot is very popular. I personally have no problem with that style and every so often, indulge in it myself. When photographers ask me to comment on their images though of “eyeballs” I ask them why they shot it that way. To date, I’ve never gotten an answer that really was meaningful. Many think that that’s just what you need to do. While getting the upclose and personal shot might seem like a challenge because you do need to own big glass and you do need to get close physically, I’ve always felt it was the easiest form of wildlife photography. What I’ve always found to be a challenge is making the shot when the subject is really small in the frame.

When you fill the frame with the head of a critter, the rest of the image is taken care of because, there is no room for any other element. There is nothing that can take the mind’s eye from the subject. When the subject doesn’t fill the frame and in this example of a Great Egret, doesn’t even come close, making sure you see that subject and then move the eye around the frame and back to the subject I think is a gargantuan hurdle to the great image. I find that a long lens is still essential to do the dance, include wanted elements while excluding unwanted. But you have to go beyond that and become a great story teller! So when it comes to the question, do you need to fill the frame? You don’t have to fill it with the subject but you do have to fill it with elements that take the mind’s eye and imagination back to the subject. That’s just plane old hard!

In the Bag
D3x
600f4VR AFS
TC-20e III
Gitzo 5561SGT w/ Wimberley Head

Which Way to Turn?

We’re cruising down Periwinkle coming up to the fishing pier when I looked up and saw an Osprey with a great fish. I’m picky, I only stop when the dead fish looks really cool because otherwise, it’s just a dead guppy. Risking a parking ticket, we jumped out and went over to make the shot. What you see above is the first click and as you can see, it has issues! The background makes you wanna puke so I picked up the camera and moved left and closer. With that big mackerel and since it was still basically whole, I knew it had just landed with the fish so the Osprey wasn’t going to go anywhere if I moved and I needed to move.

First I moved left and backwards up a little knoll to get a better angle (I hate shooting up the ass) but it just made the background worse. So I moved left as far as I could (big bush). Doing as much as I could by moving, I then started to refine the elements in the viewfinder. I still wasn’t pleased with the background so went to vertical and while I liked it better, the background got worse (the bottom of the frame). I went back to horizontal because it was the best option of them all but it wasn’t the best in a perfect world. With that, I watched the munching and then made the click when the action and posture were the most pleasing. Yes, it was shot at highnoon and the background is still a little busy but it was the best that could be captured and that’s how it is sometimes with wildlife photography. So with all of that, you have two options. Click or don’t click, it really comes down to that simple of an option and since its your photograph, it’s up to you. In this case, I liked the fish so I clicked.

In the Bag
D3x
600f4VR AFS
TC-17e II
Gitzo 5561SGT w/ Wimberley Head

After the Sun Sets

It’s pretty well known I’m not a ISO pusher. I do it once a year just to make sure the ISO button on the camera works, but otherwise I don’t do it to extend shooting time. I get asked why this is a lot, a lot and there are many answers. But the main one that comes to the heart of my photography is, a day should come to an end. No matter what occurred that day, when the sun has gone down below the horizon and it was in these two images, there is simply a natural order to life and it’s time to stop. The shutter speed was down to 1/5 when I made these clicks and that’s when I turned the camera off and just watched the world say good night. That moment to watch, that minute to stop and reflect is often the best part of the day. A favorite quote I love to share is this. “It was exposed forever on the thin emulsion of my mind” to which I add, “and a beat of the heart.” There is simply no ISO that can capture that.

In the Bag
D3x
600f4VR AFS
TC-17e II
Gitzo 5561SGT w/ Wimberley Head

We’ve Got Nothin but Dirt!

We have a whole lot of bird feeders on our property. They serve a couple of purposes, one of them being bringing in species that otherwise wouldn’t stick around long enough to get any glass on them. One popular food source we put out is commercial suet. It brings in all sorts of birds, most being nuthatches and woodpeckers. Red-shafted Flicker are real common at our feeders though you rarely seem them about in the forest. We love these guys, especially in the spring when the males go to attracting mates. The males attract a mate by drumming on choice branches and trunks, those that are hollow and resonate really loudly. Well the males that visit our feeders have found that the aluminum chimneys on our homes make a really loud should when they drum on them. Our neighbors don’t take kindly to them, but it makes me laugh. I normally don’t photograph the birds directly on the feeder but rather perches beside them. I really focus on this during the winter and in the spring when the birds are in their finest. But here’s the problem…

We’ve got nothin but dirt! We have not one stitch of snow on our property where we should have a minimum of ten vertical feet. This presents a whole bunch of problems but for my photography, two kind of big ones. The first being with no snow cover, there is a ton of food available for critters. There is no need to gather at our feeders for food when the critters can range near and far for food. At the same time, photos like this one above of a Flicker waiting its turn for the suet with the snow falling during a break in a storm aren’t possible. It’s so bad, I don’t even have my 600mm set up by my desk (where it was when I took these two photos) because there ain’t no snow! Can you say bummer in the sierra?

Can you see the difference between the two Flickers? One is a male and the other a female. On our property, the females are really scarce so whenever they appear, I try to make clicks. The bottom photo is the female, you can tell by the lack of the red mustache. If you look at the bottom of the perch or her breast, you’ll notice lots of white light. That’s not flash fill, that’s natural fill…snow! That’s the other reason why I’m bummed right now because even if I had birds, without the snow I would have to work harder because I would need flash fill. As it is though, we’ve got nothin but dirt!

In the Bag
D3x
600f4VR AFS
TC-17e II
Gitzo 5561SGT w/ Wimberley Head
Lexar 32GB 600x cards
with snow most definitely not in the bag!

The Browns of Winter

There is one aspect of winter I look forward to on the flats each year. That’s the carpet of brown vegetation. The shrubs, grasses, reeds, everything has gone dormant and brown making it the perfect home for many dickie birds. Many of the dickie birds are in their winter browns and the combo in the gorgeous mellow light of winter just sucks me in!

The biggest challenge of this type of dickie bird photography (White-crowned Sparrows are seen here) is capturing a “clean” photo. The shrubs, grasses and reeds are a very busy world and the dickie birds move through it like we drive freeways. They often don’t come up on top of the vegetation because that’s how they get eaten, down deep is safety. The way I approach it is find the perch with the background I want within the area the dickie birds are forgaging. Then I psssst, psssst a couple of times and more times then not, a bird will come up on the perch to see what’s up. You don’t have much time, you need to have prefocused on that perch, but you do get rewarded. White-crown Sparrows are a long time favorite of mine and I know them well so making these images is a relaxation making it even more enjoybale. Ah, the brown of winter!

Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e

Snow is a Great Stage

Winter is coming and hopefully with it, lots of the white stuff. Snow is a marvelous background or stage for photographing wildlife in so many ways. One that I recently pointed out is its great light bouncing qualities. It makes shooting critters anytime of the day a no-brainer. Next, it cleans up the world so nicely, making lots of the natural world’s clutter disappear. One of its greatest gifts though is its ability to set the stage for our photograph.

There is no body who sees a photograph of white sweeping across the landscape who won’t know it’s snow. That in itself is huge! Talk about easy story telling, put the white stuff in there and you can say it’s winter in a heartbeat. And with it being white, anything you stick on it will visually pop without any problem. That’s huge too! The three photos here, the Coyotes in Yellowstone, Polar Bear on the edge of the Beauford Sea or Dall Sheep in the Yukon territory demonstrate this. The “subject” in each one of these photos gets smaller and smaller yet, you can’t help but to see them. You don’t need long glass to make these types of images come to life. You’ve just got to see them and get past having frame filling subjects but let the whole world into the frame.

This brings up for many I’m sure the question of exposure. There is some really old, really bad advice out there on this topic but like anything photographic, YOU must find what works best for you. Personally, when shooting snow I don’t automatically do anything with my metering. Using modern cameras with meters connected to computers, I don’t find an issue so it comes back down to what it is you want to communicate. I’ve written about this before, if you wanna find out more, head here. The biggest trick of all if simply getting out in the snow because once there, the whole winter wonderland opens up and the photographs seem to be endless!

Set Them a Place at The Table!

Ah, the first snow of the season that will stick has fallen, winter is on! I love shooting critters in the snow for many reasons. They have their thickest fur, densest feathers, most of the time they are all puffed up to stay warm giving themselves the “I’m full and pleased” look. It is also easy to photograph them. I have learned over the years what patches of snow to NOT remove as it acts like a natural reflector so flash fill is not required. No matter the time of day, the snow bounces light up and makes getting snap shots easy to take. All you need are the critters!

Attracting critters in the winter is real simple, food and water is all it takes. When it comes to food, suet works great because it is such high energy but even better, it doesn’t freeze. Lastly, suet hangs so snow doesn’t collect on it and even if it does get wet, it’s fat so it won’t spoil. We do put out seed but it’s a pain to keep clear on some days. Water is the best, it’s free and brings in everything critter from birds to mammals. The only trick is to keep it from freezing. There are bird bath (some even solar powered now) heaters which draw no power really and keep the water just a couple degrees above freezing. This “free water” as it is called is vital to critters since they still need to drink especially in the winter.

Now if there is a trick to this when it comes to photography, it’s putting up food and water so you have a shot. That means watching backgrounds! Now I tend not to shoot the critters at the feeders and baths, but when they come and go to them. In the top shot, this is the suet post, you can see the suet cage in the lower right corner of the frame. I hung it this way because the Clark Nutcrackers (who you see here), Steller Jays and woodpeckers love to land and argue about who gets to eat. I needed a beefy branch for all that activity. But it’s the line of birds waiting their turn at the offerings that I love to photograph the most. The bottom shot is a favorite from this spring (birds are missing from our feeders right now ). I love the light and the gesture. You might be saying, “There’s a stick going through its head” and you’re right. If you showed me this image I too might make a joke about the skewered brains. But for some reason, it doesn’t bother me here which doesn’t make it right, I just like it. So with Thanksgiving just around the corner, remember to be thankful for the wildlife we have about and remember to set them a place at the table!

Photos captured by D3x, 600VR

Them Feathers are a Flyin!

Ah, the blaaaaas of August are past and wildfowl and shorebirds are starting to hit the area. Another reason fall is a favorite time of year for me. While the ducks, geese and shorebirds are in their fall plumage, it’s fresh, new plumage which makes them great targets of opportunity! But how can we do more then just take a photo that says, “They have arrive” and rather say “Hot dogs, they have arrived!”?

On of the best ways is to change your angle! I’ve become pretty famous for that video clip that shows all to well my poor imitation of a beached whale but getting down low is a must! This shot of a Red-necked Grebe is a classic example. I’m not totally flat on the ground but perhaps 12″ off it, the legs of the Gitzo not totally flattened. I did that because I loved the pattern in the water which is what attracted me to the photo in the first place. Shooting with the 600mm w/TC-17, it was easily to isolate the reflection of the trees on the other shore which you see as simple green breaking up the pattern of blue. So you start to move your images forward by not just plunking down your tripod and being satisfied with getting a sharp image.

You knew this was coming but gotta say it anyways. You gotta greet the sun! The sun hasn’t even come up on these Short-billed Dowitchers still napping into the day. This is important for two key reasons. The first is the mellow light and lack of shadows. That’s important for the second reason, the calm water. The mirror properties is what makes these fall drab plummaged shorebirds spectacular. So, greeting the sun is a must in my book!

One thing I can’t encourage wildlife photographers to do enough is go out shooting when the weather sucks! I’ve been saying it for 30+yrs and still say it, some of the best photography is in the worst weather! Fall is when winter storms start to make their appearance. Before, during and after a storm you can have some incredibly dramatic light like on these Blue or Dark Phased Snow Geese. They didn’t have that single shaft of light on them when I started to pan with them but knew they would fly into it and they did. Click! You and your gear won’t melt if it gets wet. Simple, basic care like a clean, white towel and blotting your gear dry (do not wipe!) and you’re rockin in that dampness. And the photographic rewards of that one magical image will warm you up better then any fire!

The whole trick to all of this is getting out! DO some homework, visit bird hotlines and websites and see where the birds are coming in and then get there! Do you need a 600mm? I’m often asked that question and if you wanna play with the big boys, you sure do! If you’re just starting and learning, you sure don’t! A 400mm lens does a great job and is all the focal length I had for years and started my business with. Never loose sight, it’s the person behind the camera that counts!

The Fur is Thick!

I was just talking with our forest biologist (a neighbor) last night and the thickness of the fur on the critters came up. When you see the bears and squirrels with a thick, healthy coat now and not 30 days from now, it hints to a cold and wet winter is coming. For photographers, it also means some great photography! Mammals look their best when they are fat, both body fat and thick fur. This combination fits what the public stereotypically think of a critter and when it comes to visually grabbing their attention, this is important. So how can you take advantage of this in your photography?

One of the first things I would do is head north. Winter comes earlier in the far north so critter are already getting in condition there when some down south are still finishing up with the spring brood. How far north? All the way! Depending on your budget and how much you like to explore, I’d start at the Arctic Ocean and work your way down. Sept is great there and Oct is great in Anchorage just to give you a reference. Then you get down to Yellowstone where late Oct rocks! It’s all hooked into cold, cold temps at night and cool to coldish during the day. That starts the whole cycle.

Take advantage of the gorgeous, gorgeous fall light! Light in the fall I think is some of the most romantic, moody and emotional of all light during the year for critters. This does mean getting up early, stalking light and chasing it all day long until the last beams slip away. Do this means you are dressed to deal with the chill! The mammals have a thick coat for a reason (and put on all that fat) and that’s because it’s cold! This is a great time to underexpose and take advantage of those long shadows!

And for most of the ungulates, it’s the time of year when love is in the air. You wanna get close, you wanna capture great biology, you wanna capture that unique photo, there is nothing like sex! Critter sex that is. When their mind is on each other, they could give a rat’s ass about dumb photographers and that is key.

And wrapping this all up in a successful trip takes homework. You gotta know the critters biology, you gotta find where they are this years (because last year don’t count, they have legs!) and if it is cold there when you wanna be there. And understand the weather you might be getting into. I was just told a a story from last year where three photographers headed out to photograph elk but didn’t do their homework. They spent three days stuck in their truck as a snow storm closed in on them and left stuck on a back country road. It’s going to be a great fall for photographing mammals, the fur is thick!

Food & Time – Key to Wildlife Photography!

More and more Phalaropes started to land out in front of us. They motored around the Tufa and started to come closer as they chased the food source. Here you can see one coming up to a clump of Brine Flies. And while it might seem like they are trying to hide from the flies as they flatten themselves against the water, I think they are avoiding creating a splash from their bill when they strike. Being flat to the water, when they snap at the flies, their bill doesn’t touch the water.

Well, hunger works wonders in a short time, 45min or so, the flies lead the little flock into shore and my waiting lens. Now I had already positioned myself based on light and food source. How did I come up with that place to plant? Angle of incidence equals angle of reflection is how.

I had a hunch that once they came into the shallower water, they might start to bathe after munching a little. Sure enough, they did. Now bathing in water 7x saltier then the ocean really can’t do much for their oils but they did it anyways and with a lot of zeal. They were ignoring me so I took two steps closer, closing the gap two feet. I would have loved to be laying flat on the ground but the grasses were too tall and I saw no alley ways to shoot through so I remained standing.

After a bath comes preening of course. Knowing that, I started to watch for the signs. Because after preening comes…..

the wing stretch! This was a challenge to photograph because of the grass. Now you watch birds enough you will see that second or two second warning that a wing stretch is coming. That warning helps, it permits you to get wider or go vertical (based on body position) to catch the wing stretch. And if you’re thinking, the chance to close the lens down to capture as much DOF as you can. I never got the wing stretch but anything I was getting I felt was a gift from the photo Gods.

You must be asking yourself about the light?! At least I’m hoping you are. If you remember back to yesterday’s blog and one from last week when I bemoaned the horrible light of August on the Eastside, you might be looking at the photo above saying something like, “That doesn’t look so bad.” If you look at the second image, the little group shot and then the one above, you should see in a matter of the 10min I had with this flock, the light changed. The sun rose higher and when it did that, it made the water a reflector. You can see the difference for yourself, it bounced light into the shadow therefore “mellowing” the light a little. Angle of Incidence Equals Angle of Reflection!

And after their food and bath, it was time to head back out into Mono Lake to do whatever it is Phalaropes do to entertain themselves. They also went back to foraging. Mono Lake is their gas station where they fuel up on their migration south. There can be as many as 1 million of these floating cottonballs on Mono Lake within the next month. I still wanted that photo that said Wilson’s Phalarope on Mono Lake. So as the Phalaropes left their little beach I followed them in the viewfinder. The third or fourth one when it left gave me the photo I wanted, and my favorite from the morning.

The moral? I don’t know if there is one other then, photos only happen when you’re behind the camera. I went out to simply stretch the mind, the gear and keep all thinks sharp. After that, once out I just followed the clues to where they led. It would be great to say that’s how it always works but that would be a lie. Most of the time after such an outing, after I check for sharpness, I delete all the images because the light sucks. In this case though, I was rewarded for getting up early and willing to wait to play my hunch. Get out this weekend, exercise your gear and your mind and play the hunch. I hope you are rewarded as well!

Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film

The Direction of Light – Flash

Just because you own a flash and seen a video doesn’t make you a flash photographer. I sat in what seem like thousands of classes on flash, from college to present and while I understand and kinda feel like I know flash, I know that what I’m seeing made to look so simple on the screen, isn’t! I’ve seen and worked with even more who have taken the same class and walked outside, turned on their flash and then have a blank look on their face. My first “flash” teacher back in ’78 told me something I share with everyone I’m teaching flash to. “You can only learn flash when you’re working with flash.” You might get ideas, concepts, have your creative juices charged in a class or watching a video and that’s great! But it’s not until you take the canned light and blast it on something do you start to understand it’s not as easy as it appeared in class. And just why the hell is that?

The MAIN problem photographers have with flash is, they don’t know light. We pull out flash the majority of the time simply because there is a deficiency in the light. There is either not enough or the quality isn’t what we need to tell our visual story. Without understanding that key component of photography, light, just throwing a flash in the hot shoe isn’t going to solve your problems. More then likely, it will make the worst. Taking a que from my book Captured (really a must own if you wanna learn light), is this photo of an Allen’s Hummingbird. Look at the direction of the light. It’s backlit so without flash (flash fill) the hummer and flower would be all black. The background which is an important element in the photo would also be gone. The last thing that would have been lost is the gorget, the bright red throat (it’s an immature so it’s not too bright). To bring that out flash was required. You might be looking at the flash set up and asking yourself, “You need that many flash units?” To find out the whole story you need to check it out in Captured, but I was shooting in FP – High Flash Sync mode to use a high shutter speed and fast flash duration to freeze everything in the photo. And you might be saying you don’t own that many flash units so it’s a pointless read. You can rent them and if you don’t push yourself in your “free” hours, you’ll never be able to use flash when you have to.

To emphasize my point, here’s the first photo in a series I started 10months ago. Having flash filled the Queen Mary while fireworks went off in the background and other large objects back in my youth, having practiced flash a bit since, I felt like starting a new project for myself. We had luxury of time, workspace and a shit load of gear and yet, when push came to shove on this first outing, I feel I went down in flames! It’s a backlit subject, not much different then the hummer other then there is a slight size difference. Still working with small flash (SB-900 on

Moose Peterson Gear List