Wild Free Ranging Wildlife Photo Hints

[WackyRoger]

Wild Free Ranging Wildlife Photo Hints

I have had numerous E-mails from my Photo Gallery Web Sites asking how I manage to get close enough to the wildlife without them taking off.

My equipment
Regular Photos:
Panasonic FZ30

Digiscope Kit:
Zeiss Victory 10x42 FLT Binocular
Zeiss 85mm Diascope
Zeiss 20-60x Vario Zoom Eyepiece

Hints: What works for me.

1. Patience is the #1 most important thing to remember. When you are trying to get close enough to an animal go as slow as you can. After you are moving as slow as you can STOP and cut your speed down by 50%. Remember when you spot wildlife from a distance and you want to get closer you need to use both the wind and cover so you are hidden from their view. Does this mean you will have to backtrack and start over?? YES probably 3/4 the time.

2. Murphy's Law: What to do to keep the wildlife calm and then to get them to look at you??? Use wildlife calls. I have and use about 5 different calls. The most flexible one is a power crow call. If the animal is getting nervous stop and if the animal is still nervous try the crow call softly and stay frozen in place until the animal calms down. When you are ready to take photos use burst mode.Now that you have some pictures taken, try the call again and click on burst mode because most of the time the animal will turn and look at you.

3. Remember nothing works 100% of the time. Above is what works most often for me.

Before the call


After the call


Before the call


After the call



If you check out my wildlife photo gallery you will notice I get a lot of photos of the same animal looking different directions. 80% of the time this is because of the crow call.

Wildlife Gallery Link:
http://www.camerahunts.com/homepage.htm