Don’t get me wrong. I love taking wildlife photos. It’s a challenge that takes great technical skills, the right equipment, instinct, and timing. The results can be nothing but spectacular when it works out, but it’s not easy. I’ll lever be good at it.
1. I’m lazy — Hiking to remote locations takes work. Just going on a one-mile out-and-back today in moderate temperatures had me soaked in sweat. At least I won’t have to do my fitness walk today. Setting up a bird feeder in your backyard and waiting on them to come to is so much easier. Note: In North Carolina at least, and other mid-Atlantic states, we have been asked to take the feeders down for a while due to some various diseases affecting birds at the moment.
2. I like sleep — The saying goes “The early bird gets the worm”. Well “The early photographer gets the bird”. Animals are most active around sunrise and sunset. I’m getting old. That alarm goes off too early. It’s my weekend. Sleeping in is good. Of course, you could plan to be out at sunset, but that’s dinner time and, well I like to eat. Besides, that’s the time to get the best light on your critters.
3. I’m not patient — Animals don’t work on your schedule. They don’t care about being in good light or posing well. They want to eat and be safe. You can go out and just not find anything but with Murphy’s Law, you will have either just missed the action or it will happy right after you give up. Today, I went out hunting a Tricolored Heron. Here in this area of North Carolina, there are Great Blue Herons everywhere. I usually see one every couple of days. I know where they like to hang out. They are pretty easy. Green herons are less common, but there are a few places they can be found with reasonable predictability. But Tricolored ones are quite uncommon. I’ve never seen one.
Luckily other photographers have reported seeing one at a community park lake near me. I went out this morning to see if I could get lucky. I hiked the one mile to be back marshy area of the lake. A few female mallards and a great egret were all that was on the lake today. Frustrated I started making my way back out to the car when I saw it. A small heron, not much bigger in area (and a much smaller body) than the mallard ducks at the edge of a marsh island. I had a small hole in the threes I could shoot through, but the light wasn’t great. There was a clearing ahead which offered a better view. I made my way there, and he was nowhere to be seen.
Eventually, I spotted him back the way I had come, so I headed back to the back of the lake, trying to grab shots when I could through holes in the foliage. Eventually, I got him in some good light and close enough I didn’t have to overcrop the images. Then he flew back to the front of the marsh island. So back to the front I went. Did I mention I’m lazy? Anyway, I ended up with some keepers and felt blessed I was successful. But had I not spotted the small bird, I would have walked out disappointed. It’s too easy to just give up and go home.
4. I don’t like disappointment — It’s frustrating to go out and come back with nothing. You spend gazillions on gear. You have good hiking shoes. You put in the effort to get there and those little critters didn’t get the memo to show up and put on a show. At times it seems like not trying and getting those extra hours of sleep is a better choice. But it’s not. You miss out on a lot if you’re not willing to make that commitment. Sometimes you have to keep trying and trying. This pair of Roseate Spoonbills had left their location only minutes before I arrived. It took another trip out to capture them.
5. I don’t like to get dirty — Today, with my adventuring pants and hiking boots on, I took one look at the mud and the muck that I needed to get into to get closer to my quarry and said “Nope! I’ll have to clean those boots later. It’s not worth the effort”. That kind of attitude won’t get you anywhere. Animals live in the wild. They live in briars, poison ivy, swampy areas, areas where rockslides are common. You have to go to them and that means messing your boots up. Just remember one important lesson:
Don’t get dead!
No photo is worth your life or an extended hospital stay. Stay safe!
All that said, photographing wildlife is a great joy. Put into it what you can. Put into it what you can afford and enjoy the time in the field. Even if you don’t get a single shot, Forest Bathing is in itself a fantastic way to spend time relaxing, breathing some fresh air, not living in a real jungle not the concrete one. You don’t have to break the bank. Your photos don’t have to be NatGeo Wild quality for you to enjoy them.
Life is an adventure.