Landscape photography is the easier subject. In this undertaking, you only need to have correctly tuned equipment, be conscious of the lighting, the angle of the sun, cloud cover, the composition of the picture, the exposure and depth of field, the background, the reflections and shadows, and, sometimes, transportation into remote areas. The easy part is that the subject generally is not moving, is not aggressive and doesn’t object to being photographed.

 

When the subject changes to birds and animals, this adds a layer of complexity the photographer must deal with. Some of the animals are dangerous. They are often shy or object to being photographed. Rarely will they hold an interesting pose to allow the photographer to get the equipment in place and set. The rear of the animal running away is the least interesting photo.

 

The more difficult and challenging photographs for the nature photographer are birds in flight (BIF).

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The flight environment adds significant complications in equipment requirements and photographic technique.

 

To capture a bird in flight the “auto” setting on the camera won’t do. It will set the shutter speed too low, and depending on the accuracy of the pan (movement of the camera to track the movement of the bird), will induce blur, or if the wings are flapping as opposed to gliding, the wings, especially the wingtips, will show movement blur (which may be desirable under some circumstances.) Shutter speed set to a minimum of 1/1000th of a second up to a 1/5000th of a second will produce a complete “freeze. This requires a long reach telephoto lens with a large diameter F-stop (read expensive). Also, if the lens aperture is too small, the camera will not autofocus, a feature absolutely required for birds in flight. Simply tracking the bird in the viewfinder is difficult enough without trying simultaneously to manually focus the camera on the subject when the entire duration of the shooting opportunity may be only a few seconds. 

 

In addition to the technical requirements for all of these subjects, a generous measure of luck is required; being at the right place at the right time with the right equipment and lighting (and of course, a cooperative bird or animal). The position and elevation of the sun above the horizon (and in relation to the camera and the subject), the amount of cloud cover and time of day are factors that significantly influence the result for better or worse. Then the correct angle on the bird is critical. Birds or animals moving away from the camera photograph poorly. The subject should be lateral to, or moving toward, the camera. The camera may be level with, slightly below, or occasionally above, the subject. Blend in the mix the post processing using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom and specialized printing on premium metallic roll paper with a 24” wide professional printer. Employ all of these techniques and equipment and then take a thousand pictures. If the stars and planets align, all the technical and hardware requirements are in place, and lady luck is perched on your shoulder, snapping the 1-in-a-thousand picture might just happen. Those photos are what you see here.