You can have the best gear and know all the great techniques. But if you aren't putting yourself out there in the field regularly enough, you just aren't going to get the results you want. This is especially true in nature and wildlife photography. Of course, as a nature photographer, I do my best to put myself in the right place at the right time to get the shot that I am looking for. But honestly, nature has a mind of its own.
Sometimes, it all works according to plan and everything falls in place. More often though, it's a struggle to acquire the images you have in mind. This is because all sorts of factors are in constant flux. The time of day and therefore the position of our light source, the sun, is always moving, albeit kind of slowly. The weather can change in an instant. The animals themselves can change their behavior and simply not be available at times. And on it goes ....
But there is one equalizing factor to all of this uncertainty - being there often. The more chances you give yourself to get the shots you want, the more you will find that good and fortunate things just seem to happen to you in the field.
Case in point - a few days ago I went to the Circle B Bar Reserve in our local area to spend a few hours there, as I can usually come away with something that I'm pleased with even if it's not what I expected. But I was so disappointed to find that a couple of the main trails had been closed by the officials, in many cases because of dangerous alligators. I only found a few wading birds on the trails I was allowed to use, so I was not a very happy photographer at that point.
But as I was heading back to the parking lot, sure enough, serendipity happened! All of a sudden, a mature red-shouldered hawk just appeared out of nowhere and landed on a branch within 10 yards of me. Not only that, he wasn't even bothered by my presence at all, so he just stayed on the branch and gave me pose after pose as I clicked away for about 20 minutes. I tried different angles, compositions, and lighting. And through it all he just patiently stayed put and looked around.
Later on that day, I was just thinking how disappointed I was initially about the trails being closed at Circle B Bar. But just because I was there, a very fortunate occurrence happened that I've never experienced before. It wasn't due to my skill as a photographer, or to anything I had planned for this outing. It was just simply because I was out there making myself available to whatever nature would send my way.
Now, let me be clear. Nature doesn't doesn't always throw me a bone like this on slow photographic days. But, I find that the more I make myself available to nature, the more serendipitous success I have.
So, if you aren't happy with the images you are getting lately, maybe you just need to put yourself out there in the wild more often!
Here are a few of the shots I took of that red-shouldered hawk:
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| Red-shouldered hawk |
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| Red-shouldered hawk with backlighting |
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| Red-shouldered hawk from a different angle |
See my latest nature and wildlife images at:
www.duanelipham.com
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