The Wildlife Photographer’s Best Friend

Like most beginning wildlife photographers, one of the birds I photographed was the friendly, neighborhood Great Blue Heron. This large bird found around the globe is, for the most part, very forgiving to us newbees. They let us make all sorts of mistakes, which most of the time do no more than make the GBH move off a short distance. Their large size permits us to capture nice images even though we don’t have the longest glass in the store. So it is only right that as we get better, we revisit our early friends and do photographically right by them. How?

Start with making them the star of the photograph, and we do that by being very picky with the background. With that long lens you now have in your bag of confidence, move left or right, up or down just enough to make the GBH pop in the frame. You do that when you have that gorgeous soft light. Light that brings out all the detail yet illuminates the elegance of this magnificent bird. While it might be common, with you since you, we, first started out in wildlife photography, it’s a great subject that teaches new lessons every time we have in the viewfinder. That’s why it’s wildlife photographer’s best friend!