10 replies to this topic

[Rich Steel]

HI

Thought it would be interesting to start a thread to see how everyone got started in their wildlife photography.

I started back in about 2005 with fish. This was a natural choice as I am trained as a fish biologist. I spent many happy hours in front of my community and malawi cichlid tanks playing with multiflash setups, A Canon 20D and 100mm macro. Here is one of those very early jpeg photos of a Congo Tetra.



Obviously there are only so many photos you can take of your own fish so I then started to visit public aquariums. I decided in about 2006 to broaden my horizons and start visting zoos with my newly acquired 100-400mm and spent nearly a year visiting as many as I could. I know many look down on zoo photography but you do have to work to get decent photos and overcome the constraints of the enclosures.This was a great training ground and I always believe was time well spent.

Then I was drawn to the wild and the need for a long lens . Given the limited availability of mammals in the UK, and where I live on a pennisula surrounded by sea and wading birds (I even have waders at the end of the road where I live!) I was naturally drawn to bird photography. The beauty of bird photography, apart from the incredible beauty and diversity on offer, is that they can be everywhere and therefore can easily be fitted in as short sessions when you have a full time job. Now I just concentrate of birds and mammals but may have a little 'play' with adders this year if I get time.

Look forward to hearing how others got started.

Cheers

Rich

[John Robinson]

Rob
I started the same way you did.
Photographing fish- or trying to !!- 61 years ago ! Its a lot easier these days !!

Cheers
JR

[John Stuart-Clarke]

In 2006, purely to escape the confines of a bland hotel complex, I went on a half day jeep safari during a business trip to South Africa. On that safari, I was very fortunate to see most of the 'Big 5'. The most lasting impression was made by the lions... we discovered a small pride of four animals, laid up in the long grasses at the side of the road, almost directly beneath me. We got very close to them and they looked back at us imperiously as we whispered frantically to each other, enthralled at the sighting. I had a basic compact camera with me and I took some abominable photos of what I saw on that trip; fortunately, the memories live on. My images hugely disappointed me when I got to see them on a PC so I resolved to buy something called a "DSLR", whatever that was...

Once I had acquired my "DSLR" (a Canon EOS 30D with a EF-S 17-85mm kit lens), I thought I would focus more on landscape photography but over time, I found I was peering through my lens more and more at the birds in the garden. Lots of awful bird-on-stick images followed but I continued to improve and the images became technically better but lacked creativity. My kit was gradually upgraded as funds permitted and I found that my creative eye slowly started to open.

By this time, I had begun to travel and attend workshops. This phase of time was a very mixed bag for me photographically... the highlights were bears, bears and more bears (I will never tire of watching bears in the forest) but I became quite jaded by what in the main were mediocre workshops, poor "teachers" and the identikit photo opportunities this avenue led me to but I also got the odd unique photo opportunity along the way, so I stayed on that path for a little too long for me. The best workshop I ever attended was with a virtually unknown landscape photographer who taught me what light was and how to record it properly.

Eventually, I was caught in a quandary - bored of the workshops but too poor a naturalist to sniff out much of interest on my local patch. As a result of this, my photography suffered, almost entirely drying up for a year or so. The highlights during this difficult time were the excellent, warm-hearted company of some similarly photographically inclined togs (who I met at the Hawk Conservancy Trust a year or two earlier and who are still many of my closest friends), the learning opportunities that came my way via the now defunct ukBPN forum and meeting my wife, who has turned out to be a fantastic nature photographer.

Moving to Oxfordshire to be with my wife brought me closer to the countryside and I realised I simply had to put in more field work and study my environment more closely, rather than just pottering about in the middle of the day (!) on footpaths (!) in busy reserves (!). So I spent lots of time out and about, mostly unproductively - or so I thought. But I started to see the world around me in more detail, noticing things that had probably always been there. I had some good fortune with some local water voles and hares and I was transfixed by the majesty of the Red Kites that were growing in number in our area. I noticed field vole tunnels in the grass - study taught me that they were food for Barn Owls and Kestrels - the penny had finally dropped. I then resolved to spend all of my photography time with wild subjects, however scant the opportunities might be. Now I shoot considerably fewer images but they all resonate so much more with me and I am content that this was the right choice to make.

My travelling has since tailed off significantly - I now prefer to travel alone or with small groups of like-minded friends - but the bears and wolves of Finland still call to me and I have discovered the Florida coastline, which is a beautiful natural oasis. I have recently moved to Norfolk and so a new phase in my nature photography journey is about to begin...

[Greg Norrell]

^{I began as a field geologist in graduate school, long before digital cameras. An important component of field work is documenting exactly what you see in places that may be difficult to return. So at the time, I would carry a couple of lenses and three camera bodies, one for color film, one for color slides, and one black and white. During my first field season, I enjoyed the assistance of a field assistant from Spain. His request in return for the help was to stop at national parks along our cross country journey from New York to California. We went to the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Yosemite, etc. When I was home, I treasured the photographs. Years later (still before digital) I moved to eastern Idaho just outside Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. I began spending time in the parks where the photography was the primary objective. With the advent of digital technology, it became much easier to experiment and evaluate results. Eventually, with my rock hammers retired, I opened a portrait studio so that I could still take pictures when I wasn't out in nature. I'm still much more of a landscape than wildlife photographer. Shooting wildlife takes more patience. But I enjoy all types.}

[Targy]

Having retired in 2001 my first buy was a compact camera use to carry it around all the time alot of the time in the pub this is where i did calendar`s of my friends,2006 i was down the beach saw this guy with a camera and large lens stalking some birds after he finished i went home and put up birds on the internet,came across some Excellent images also looked up Nature Reserves found one 25mile from home this is where i saw my first Kingfisher,decided to buy new camera went down to Beach started to take bird pics then back home started to print advice and comments off internet then joined a couple of forums as time past and with reading and getting more advice i bought a bigger lens and better camera then all i wanted todo and i still do because its such a challange was Birds Inflight and the Kingfisher on the move one day i hope to get what i want if not it wont be for the lack of trying.

[Deanneart]

I'm an artist by trade and always wanted to do paintings of birds but didn't have any copyright free reference materials to work from so decided to take my own pictures. I began with a digiscoping set up and was so amazed with the beautiful feather detail to be seen in those early close up images. I became captivated with the process of getting better and better bird images and it continues to this day along with my aquiring and still wanting bigger and better camera equipment. LOL The funny thing is I'm so busy taking bird pictures I never have any time to paint them.

[David Sewell]

I started back in 1966, with a Kodak Brownie roll film camera using black and white film. I still have the first bird photo I ever took, although as I look at the picture I can't now remember where the bird was! Suffice to say it was far too small in the frame to make a successful shot. It was nearly 10 years later before a great photographer of the 1970s, Frank Blackburn, taught me how to use a hide properly to photograph birds. We worked at nest or at bait, using 200mm lenses - or zooms, which were just coming in at the time. Because film speeds were low (25-64 iso, or the grainy "high speed" ektachrome at 160 iso), we mostly used electronic flash, at least as a fill-in.

One of the first species I worked at nest was a redshank. To save money I processed the film myself. It was a false economy, as all the shots went a deep magenta colour after about two weeks.

I gradually managed to buy more equipment, including a macro lens that saw my focus move to butterflies and dragonflies. Over the years I have moved my interest about, spending periods on mammals, amphibians, reptiles and even grasshoppers. I returned to my first interest, birds, a couple of years ago. These days we have it easy, powerful lenses, and with the advent of digital the ability to take shots all day long.

David

[AndrewA]

I started back long ago with a minolta 7000i which i think was the first slr with auto focus
Didnt take it up again seriously until 2003 with a canon 300D
Then got the bug seriously and have been ever since

[ChrisKten]

I've absolutely no idea how or when I started; although I suspect that I was born with my fascination with Nature.

I vaguely remember using my grandfather's Box Brownie (well it was brown, and very box-like ) as a child during the late 50s/early 60s. I know I spent a lot of time in the garden, so it's not much of a stretch to assume that I took pictures of anything that moved. I'd guess Spiders and Worms would've been my first attempts, but who knows.

I was an Angler for over 40 years, and always had a camera with me. I've no idea what cameras I've had over the years, but the last film camera was an Olympus SLR with a fixed 4X (* see below) zoom lens (IS100 I think. I tried to convert it into a teleconverter for one of my Superzooms, so I've loads of bits of plastic and glass, but no camera ). I realised that I was spending less and less time watching my float/tip while fishing, and more and more time watching and photographing Wildlife. As luck would have it ( ), my health deteriorated at about the same time; which meant I could no longer handle fishing. I fished every month of the year for over 30 years, so I already knew what happened and when with the Wildlife at the places I fished, so I started to go to those places with just a camera and a pair of binoculars.

It's the behaviour of Wildlife that's always interested me; the photographs are mainly to remind me of what I've seen. I'm not a "Birder" or a "Photographer", but I do often take pictures of Birds.

* Some of you might be wondering why only a "4x Zoom" on my last film SLR; it's all I ever needed. If you sit in the same spot for 6+ hours the Wildlife comes to you, and comes close too. If I'd invested in a "proper" long lens or a longer zoom lens, I'd have had no use for it at the time.

[CharlesF]

I started about five years ago, with a very basic DSLR bought to photograph pets. I moved on to more expensive kit, and wild animals, largely because my cats became very sick of the attention.....

[Talyn]

I have always liked birding, ever since I was a kid. I also liked photography, starting out with some pretty basic equipment - 110 and cheap 35mm compacts - which was utterly unsuitable for taking pictures of wildlife, of course. Even when I was able to afford 35mm equipment I didn't get really into wildlife photography as the cost of film and processing was too prohibitive for loads of frames with blurry wings and tails vanishing out of the edges of the picture - I contented myself with pets, ships, aircraft and that wildlife that was fairly easy to photograph. This changed when I switched to digital in 2004.

I started off 'properly' taking wildlife pics, at first mostly to illustrate the birding blog I then had, once I got a DSLR in 2005, a Nikon D70. I then got a D80 which I used with Sigma 70-300 (the dead cheap non-APO version) and 170-500mm lenses. They satisfied me for a while before I discovered that Canon made a lens I wanted for a price I could afford, the 400mm f/5.6, while Nikon had no such equivalent. So I switched, first with a Canon 20D, then a 40D and now I use a 7D with the 40D as back up. As for lenses I use 18-135mm (a cheap EF-S lens, but one I like), 70-200mm f/4 L, 100-400mm L (my travel lens) and my beloved 400mm, which I could never bear to part with and still use, despite also owning the 100-400!

The beauty of digital, as we all know, is that there is no costly film or developing, so it doesn't matter if 8 frames from 10 aren't good. That has allowed me to improve a lot over the past 7 years. Some pictures I took then, which I thought were great at the time, I wouldn't give house room to now, unless they're just 'record' shots.

I wish I could afford a 500mm f/4 L but with the advent of the new line of these meaning they cost more than I paid for my 3-year old second hand Renault estate car(!), that will remain a pipe dream! In the meantime, I will keep going with what I have and there is a lot of room for improvement!