This image was captured in the waters of Tampa Bay while wading near a collection of spoil islands. The spoonbills congregate here in the shallow waters to forage, flying in and out throughout the day as rising or falling tides change the landscape of the area. While photographing this bird, I noticed that it had stopped feeding and exhibited a series of behaviors that from my experience told me he was getting ready to fly off. I prefocused on him, and swung my camera so it was pointing a few feet left and up from where I suspected that first wing-flap would take him. This image was taken while waist deep in Tampa Bay, with a Canon 1D MkII, with a 500mm lens and 1.4x extender, at 1/1600 at f8 and ISO250.

Shooting in Sand and Salt - Beaches and coastal waters provide some of the best opportunities for nature photography, from wildlife to scenery, but sand and salt are probably two of the worst substances to expose your photography gear to. Sand can scratch lenses, jam up tripods and focusing rings, and find its way into every nook and cranny in your gear. Saltwater can be death for electronics. While the extreme way to handle sand and salt is too avoid shooting in areas where they occur, doing this limits you from shooting in some great locations.

Carry a paint brush - In sandy areas keep a 2 or 3 inch wide paint brush with you. You can quickly knock loose sand off of tripods, cameras, clothes, and hands. Of course do not use this on lens elements, as it may scratch them.

Use a closed fist to get off the ground - If going after subjects on the ground, either by crawling or kneeling, when its time to stand up, prop yourself up with the knuckles of a your closed fist. Do not set your hand flat on the ground, as your palm will become covered in sand, which you will then have to get off before you can take another photo.

Keep a dry rag hand - If around water, especially salt, keep a dry rag handy to wipe off any accidental splashes or spray. Be sure you have it somewhere that will stay dry. I usually keep a small cloth inside a sealed plastic baggie in my pack. While wading I have had large fish jump directly in front of me and splash water all over my gear. A quick wipe with a rag was all I needed to keep shooting.

Clip and Zip - If you are in salt water, minimize the chances you will drop something by clipping everything to you. Use retractable cords or lanyards if necessary. Make sure all pockets are zipped or buttoned shut, you don’t want to have something fall out if you bend over (…which is how I lost my first cell phone at Ft. De Soto…).

Keep items high and dry - A lot of times when wading after a subject I get so caught up I don’t realize how deep I have gotten. I try to keep all items that are vulnerable to water damage waist high or higher. I never put items in pants pockets, preferring pouches on my belt harness or shirt pockets instead. Periodically check the bottoms of pouches on belts or vests to see if you have gotten them wet. If so, take a moment and check the contents to see if they need to be dried.

I watched a pair of Sandhill Cranes foraging with their chick along the banks of the Myakka River, near Sarasota, Florida for several days. Each day this pair would start out at the north end of a stretch of the river and work their way south. After spotting the pair, I picked a nice spot in the mud along the river, and waited. In my neck of the woods Sandhill Cranes are constantly on the move, and I have found if you try to follow them, they just keep moving away from you, rarely giving you nice front-side portraits. By standing back for a while and watching their foraging route, you can pick a place to wait for them to pass by you, which will give you a great series of photo opportunities. Then carefully leap frog to a spot further down their route and do it all over again. This minimizes any chance of you stressing the animals, and puts you in positions to make great images.

For this image, I picked a spot in the mud about 15-20 feet or so back from the edge of the river, and waited. The family walked in front of me, and instead of continuing on, they stopped, and began flipping over rocks and rooting through the mud to pull up food for the chick. They stayed in this spot for close to an hour, giving me a fantastic photo session, and one of my most memorable wildlife experiences.

Know your Critters! - Knowing as much as possible about the wildlife you photograph will help you not only find animals to take pictures of but, also help you take more interesting, dynamic, or intimate photos of them. When you encounter an animal, take a moment and watch what they are doing. You can learn a lot about their body language and habits this way, and often be able to anticipate what they are going to do next. While it is tempting to start blasting away with your camera, take a few moments, let them get used to you and decide you are not a threat, and just watch. You’ll find your images are more composed and you can enjoy encountering and observing some amazing creatures, which is why we are out there after all.

Get Low! - For this shot I wanted to be eye level, and see things from the chick’s point of view. Getting to eye level makes your images more intimate and engaging, but as with everything in photography, you may have to make compromises. While you can use the viewing angle to draw your viewer into the shot, you also use it to compose your image and remove distracting items from your background or foreground. Sometimes going too low may pull things into your background you do not want, so find the right height that gives you a nice background, but still gives you that eye level feel.

Crop don’t clip! - Anyone who has been on one of our workshops has heard us say this a million times (right along with “how’s your histogram look” and “now, where did I leave my coffee mug”…). Cropping is a conscious choice in your composition, it looks deliberate and adds to the image. I chose where I would crop the adult crane when composing the shot, choosing to include the whole leg and the tail to give a sense of size to the chick, and the feeling of being under mom/dad’s protection.   A “clip” however, is an accident. For example, if you frame the image to include the full body of a wolf, but the edge of the image cuts off a toe, an ear, or a tail tip. If showing only part of an animal be very careful and conscious on where you chose to “crop”, this will avoid crops that look like you made a mistake.

And for the last tip... Do your own laundry! – That was some seriously stinky mud I plopped down in to get this image!   While I love to get low and get muddy for these kinds of images, I have found everyone in my family is much happier when I take care of cleaning my photo clothes.  No one should have to wash another person's muddy swamp socks. Your loved ones will seriously thank us for this advice.  Just a little PSA for those who want to get muddy... :^)

Background - This image was made during the 2008 Images for Conservation Pro-Tour.  This was one of the final images I took in the competition, during the last hour of sunlight on the last day.  I found this pair of GHO's hanging around a pair of trees hunting in a field  and over the course of an hour they gave me some fantastic photo ops, this shot was one of my favorites.  This image was shot at 1/1250th @ f8 with a Canon 1DMkIII, 500mm f4 and a 1.4 x TC.  This is full frame, no major crops were allowed in the competition.

Body Language - To get this particular image I was photographing the owl as it sat perched on a snag.  Having photographed this species before, I had a pretty good feel for their body language, and as this one hooted and wing-stretched I knew it was probably going to take off.  Knowing the body language of your subjects is a huge asset in helping you predict and capture the action when it unfolds!

Leading your Target... - Most larger birds when they launch into flight have do do so with a lot of power, taking a large initial push and flap off of their perch.  GHO's do just this, launching themselves out into space.  To catch this shot, I prefocused on the perch and swung my camera so it was pointing a few feet right and up at what I suspected would be where that first leap took him.  I watched him out of the corner of my eye and as soon as I saw the initial flap I squeezed off a burst and began my pan with him.  This little bit of a lead gave me some much needed leeway on my reaction time (I was getting pretty tired and sluggish by the end of that competition!).  Granted you may clip a wing tip or two when you shoot big birds in flight this tight, but by timing my burst I got most of my shots "wings in" before the second flap brought his wings out of the frame.

Sometimes just the experience is worth it... - Settings and technique aside, this was one of the coolest experiences I had during the competition.  It was a real treat watching this pair up close, and whether I had gotten a single keeper or not, it was just a lot of fun photographing them.  Granted I am much happier having made this image than not , it is still an image I come back to as a favorite just 'cause I like to tell the story about it.

Background... Digging deep into the image files, this is one of my favorites from the 2008 Images for Conservation Pro-Tour. This image was taken late morning about halfway through the competition when I found this family of Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers (STF) hunting in a meadow near a pond. The family of three were perched on a variety of mesquite snags and other perches, they would fly out from the perches, snatch a bug from the air, and most of the time return to the perch they had just left. This image was shot at 1/1600th @ f7.1 with a Canon 1DMkIII, 500mm f4 and a 1.4 x TC.

Watch and Learn... The real key to this image was just taking a few minutes to sit and watch these birds engaged in their daily routine. It is really tempting to go in with "guns blazing" when you spot an animal you want to photograph, but sudden movements and sound from you and your camera can spook off wildlife before you get a chance to really capture the images you want. By waiting a few minutes this gave the birds time to become accustomed to my presence, see I wasn't a threat, and allow me to gradually move in a little closer. It also allowed me time to analyze their behavior, and see the pattern of "fly/land/eat/repeat" that they were engaged in. This male in particular really liked this perch, chasing off his young'un who tried to land on it a couple of times. His predictable pattern really made it much more possible to get this landing shot.

The Pre-Flight plan... Having a pretty good idea of how he would come in for a landing having watched it a few times, I prefocused on the perch and then waited for the STF to fly back in. With the wind coming from the right side of the perch, I knew he would most likely approach from the left, so I set my auto focus sensor to one click left of center as being the most likely place I would have to focus on. As he hovered over the perch I rolled my focus to bring him fully in, only tweaking the focus as the bird hovered around the perch to land. By prefocusing, I cut the time needed for my autofocus to acquire the STF, reduced the possibility I would accidently autofocus on something in the background and lose him all together, and overall improved my chances of success for getting a sharp image. Prefocusing on the perch also allowed me to frame the area, and compose my background, so I could make slight shifts to get a nice clean background that was free of distracting elements.

See it before you take it... I am a big believer in Pre-visualization, in other words seeing the shot before you take it. I drive and hike around with a whole laundry list of images in my head all the time, and am constantly on the lookout for opportunities that would enable me to get the "shots in my head". For this image I had been looking for a chance to get a STF perched on something other than barbed wire or a power line, so when the opportunity presented itself, I already had an idea of how I would approach getting the image. Flying in with a bug in beak was just an added bonus!

This photo was taken on my recent trip up to British Columbia, during our whale watching portion of the trip.  The area we we were cruising through in search of whales (of which we found plenty!) is also host to a series of islands on which hundreds of Sea Lions haul out, rest, argue, and generally do what Sea Lions do.  This image was shot with a Canon 1d MkIII and 100-400, handheld from a boat, 1/800th sec @ f8 and ISO640,

Settings for Sharpness - Shooting hand held in soft light from a bobbing boat sounds pretty much like a good way to come home with a lot of out of focus images.  But you can make a lot of choices in your settings to still get sharp images despite these factors working against you.  One of the easiest things to do as light levels drop is begin moving up your ISO to allow you to continue shooting at higher shutter speeds and equivalent apertures. The latest generations of digital cameras have exceptional noise characteristics, I find I rarely shoot wildlife at anything lower then ISO 400 anymore with the Mark III.  It is far better to get a sharp shot with a bit of noise, than no shot or a blurry shot.  Noise can be fixed, out of focus, not so much...  There are some great noise reduction programs out there, I find Noise Ninja to be an exceptional plug-in for Photoshop to clean up noisy images.

On the Fringe - While I certainly took plenty of large group shots, this image is an example of working the "edges of the crowd" to isolate individual animals or small group interactions.  To capture images of single animals, instead of shooting into the mass of animals, which can sometimes provide very "busy" images with clipped parts of animals in your backgrounds, keep an eye on the edges.  Look for animals entering or leaving the group, and constantly scan for opportunities as they arrive or depart.  If possible, try to position yourself nearer an edge also, instead of directly opposite the middle of the group.  Not only do you get better opportunities at individual action and portraits, but you end up with much cleaner backgrounds, such as this, that really frame your subject.

Remember though, there is nothing wrong with group shots, just be very aware of your composition to best "tell the story" of the rookery, herd, or flock. 

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