M
@orkan said in Seeing the sights!:
I've come to really like photography. Obviously the marketing efforts of Primal Rights have benefited, and I do enjoy that a great many of my skills with a rifle cross over to skills with a camera.
I can say there are about three really important things that allow even a novice to be proficient with photography.
1 - Gear
Just like with a rifle, you need to have the good stuff if you expect to get high quality pics. You can have the best camera body in the world, with a crappy lens, and you're going to get a crappy pic. Just as with rifles, there are surprisingly few truly exceptional body and lens options at each price point. My stuff is mainly low to mid-range. I'm running a very dated canon T3i body, but its a good one. Those are very cheaply had these days. My lens however, no expense was spared. Canon EF 100-400mm IS II USM zoom lens. With the crop body T3i, it's as if it is a 640mm top end. With a full body like a newer pro grade canon, it would be truly representative of the 100-400mm zoom specs.
2 - Settings
Once you truly understand the relationship between shutter speed, aperture, and ISO... it's all down hill from there. They are all tied into each other, and have to do with lighting and motion. Most good camera bodies will have light meters, and you can usually plainly see how fast something is moving, and light is easy to observe also. In time you can get a pretty good instinct for it all. Run in manual mode only on the camera, and get these three settings correct... and you can take crazy good pictures. After that, adobe photoshop for post process and maybe lightroom if you really want to get fancy. That's it.
3 - Framing the shot
Learning how to present your subject is purely instinctive. Once you can properly frame shots and use lighting to its fullest effect and understand how shadows affect everything, it gets fairly mechanically simple. Yet this will always be a "talent" or an instinctive skill set rather than raw mechanics. You need to be able to see something that looks good, and then capture it correctly.
Another item you need on the list if we're talking about wildlife photography specifically, is the ability to hunt. If you can't hunt, you can't be a wildlife photographer. Both the deer and the pronghorn below required intimate knowledge of the wind, lighting, terrain, and the animal's behavior in order to get close enough to make these shots. Being able to stalk is a skill I picked up from bowhunting. I can get close. Really close. I could have easily killed either animal with a bow.
The hawk carrying the snake I shot out the window of my pickup. I always keep my camera ready to roll in the seat next to me, and as I was driving I saw this hawk sitting on the shoulder of the road. I figured it was eating something, so I quick grabbed the camera... checked the settings at a glance, popped off the lens cover, rolled down the window, and just then it flew. I saw it had a snake, so I put my knee on the wheel and fired off a dozen shots in a second or so as I drove by. Only two of those shots were usable... but ONE is all it takes.
The difference between a zoom lens and a telephoto is pretty basic. Zoom lenses have variable powers, while straight telephoto is generally referring to fixed powers. My 100-400 second generation canon is awesome. However, for some extra range I plan to get a fixed 800mm canon at some point. I just don't feel like spending that $11,000 right now. lol The zoom lenses are very forgiving and allow some real flexibility. If I were to only have one lens, it would be this 100-400. Other lenses are great for other things. I have a mid-range macro lens, a couple wide angle lenses, and some crappy kit lenses also. It all comes down to what you want to be able to do. Generally, with a good wide angle, a decent 50mm, and a good zoom lens, there isn't much you can't do.
Those are some amazing pics
Thanks for sharing them.
