Transcripts
1. Episode 1 - Introduction: Hi, welcome to
photography masterclass about wildlife photography. My name is Simon Wally, and I'm based at Broome Hall
just outside pen writhe in the Lake District, UK. This is my gallery,
the gallery for nature I'm going to do today is
share a few experiences, really pure of my
experiences with you. Hopefully that will
improve your photography, your wildlife photography,
and you'll enjoy that. I suppose I'd benefit wildlife photographer
for about ten years. And what we want you
to do with the video here was just to share a
little bit of experience. Some points which have come up. Hopefully that'll help you. First really to get across. I guess you can't pick a wildlife photographer
if you don't love nature and I can't teach you to love nature anything. It's something I think that
just needs to grow on you or you need to work upon. Is there for a lot of us
as wildlife photographers, we do actually love nature
and I love getting out there. And I think if you
want to develop that, then you haven't had the
opportunity in life. And really that's just
about getting out there, going and finding some way. Even if you live in a town where there's a bit
of wildlife parks, just taken a bit of time and wondering, seeing what's there. A couple of trillion in them. Main point as a master classes that I just
wanted to talk a lot quite a bit about field craft. And by that, I mean
the skills you need to get close to wildlife. And secondly, some
information about a camera. Your camera, whichever
camera using, don't worry too much about him. The best equipment. I think what I try and get across in the video
in the world, what we're covering today is
just that you get out there, you enjoyed whichever camera you can afford or whatever
moment in your life. You have a go and you use
it, and you experiment. That's the way to learn.
Their way to learn is not about reading lots of
things and staying indoors. If you want to be aware
of life photographer. It's about going outside
and seeing what happens. Experimenting. And
there's the piece, as I say, not necessarily to
do with the camera at all. But we're talking about
wild animals here. You've got to go and meet
them on their terms. They won't necessarily
come to you. They might do with a few things, but it is about kind of meeting creatures
in their natural habitat. And I think that's
part of the GI, That's the Jaya photography really. Well, I photography that you're out there and
you're enjoying nature. You connecting more with
nature and the gallery here. That's where I've
tried to help people do sort of reconnect
with nature. It helps us all,
we all enjoy it.
2. Episode 2 - Approaching Wildlife: We're going to cover a
number of case studies. So there'll be quite a lot of footage around the red squirrels I'm working with at the moment. And a book I'm working on
called Beacon read previous to that kind of study number
of creatures in God would, I would call pick images
that I've been pleased with. There might not be the
best in the world, but I'm pleased with them, actually in a commercial
sense to do sales. So that's, I guess two measures
of success, if you like, one that you
personally like them, until that if you want to get into selling
photography, you can. Wildlife photography is a
difficult market to make money, and so don't think you're
going to make lots of money. I think they kind of enjoyment pieces the way to go really. There's another case studies, this red squirrels beacon read, there's a tree
creeper that I got one image of which
I love an image, it doesn't sell a
child, but I love it. There's a badger budget
set that I've studied. A king fisher that
I've studied and got some nice images of that was
actually shot from a hide. So there'll be some questions for you around whether you want to work in hides or
whether you wanted to just work what I would
call work in nature. There's another
picture which I have, another case study of an owl, barn owl, fantastic creatures. If you ever get a
chance to observe burnout barn owls, take it. I think that's a good point
I wanted to get across really is when
creatures were around, grasp the opportunities
to get close to them. So a barn owl about there may only be around at
certain times a year. There may be only ran
at certain times a day. You need to think about that, think about when they're about and enjoy those opportunities. Suddenly birds when the nesting, they're going to be coming
back to the nest quite a bit. So you're gonna be able
to get fairly close. But there's a point I wanted
to cover and work on. Just think about your
interaction with which other creature you're
trying to photograph. So that really means about just understanding when creatures
may be distressed. Thinking about that, our aim really is to get a good images. Take good photographs, enjoy that experience without
distressing the animal. It's relatively easier space in some places in reserves
to get quite close to animals and then potentially distressed and with your
actions scared him. That's not what we're aiming
for. We're aiming to get some great images without causing any distress
to the animal. That's really a space of other things we're
thinking about it is you've been observing what's
going on with the animal, observing the animal closely
and understanding if an animal is moving fast
on the whole and it's moving quickly away from
you each get scared. That's esophagus sign, isn't it? So then in some senses you could argue that because if photography we've
done something wrong, we just need to think
about the way we work in. I guess. Don't be too worried because I've worked with
the red schools I'm working with at the moment and they've
been scared by a dog that runoff at kind of showered or
the dog, squirrels run off. It's shutter portray
that it's safe. And 20 to 30 minutes It's
come back down again. Being very relaxed. So we may scale animals. We don't want to scare them, we may scare them and I think we can just understand that. And then say right,
That's enough for today. Possibly. When I was photographing
the woodpecker, that image you'll see
where the woodpecker and the check actually poking
its head out of the nest, which is the main one that I was really pleased within
that sequence of work, I would go and
study the nest for about an hour a day and it
would make him a nice quiet, piercing cry when it's
a bit distressed. So you can kind of
tell that times if it was distressed or getting
distressed and you start right. Time for me to move on. If you're only there. If the woodpeckers there in
nesting and feeding chicks. And you're there
for one hour a day maximum over a two-week period? One, it may get used
to you a little bit, but also, you know, that's 23 hours when
you're not there, you're not scaling
it or you're not kind of causing any alarm auto. I guess that's the
piece where you may look to use a mobile hide. Mobile hide up just like a
temporary camouflage tent. Or to actually arrive. Be very quiet and gentlemen, your movements and to
stay fairly still. Sort of failed craft points
I'm trying to get across. I think you can't go
wrong if you walk slowly. You move slowly and you're very observant and you're
quiet and what you do. You'll see that if you do head out in nature in
your walk and new crack on a twig cloth and
that's enough to scare quite a lot
of animals away, especially hairs have done
quite a photography with hairs that are easily
scared by noise. We're talking about
noise in one sense and also speedy movements
will scare animals. That's relatively easy as
a photographer to stop. Those two things that
you're not doing, anything like that to
scare him anymore. It's relatively easy
to just go slowly. Think about what you're doing, observe what's happening,
and to keep quiet.
3. Episode 3 - Be Prepared: I think I suppose wildlife
photographer on the whole is a solitary job or
past-time or hobby. You may take friends alone
to observe at times. But if you're looking to get
really good photographs, I think you have
to commit to that. I'm gonna get out
there and we're gonna commit some time to it. It's just gonna be about me and wildlife and that's superb. Just fantastic thing today. And hear a lot these
days about well-being is so relaxing to just be in nature and then to be in
nature and just observe in wild creatures doing what
they do, live in their lives. So enjoy that. Take that moment. If I'm about to embark on looking to
get some new photographs, are some new images
are dedicated studio to get some good images. What I've done over the years
is I've actually walked, found some local walks. Sometimes, quite often
where other people don't go or if
people do go there, it's a popular walk. I'll sort of find
those small details or paths aren't quite as
troubling as the main paths. Walked slowly. Go often. It's interesting,
sometimes find yourself a regular walk and keep going. Go once a week, once a day, wherever you can manage, um, and just see
what's happening. See which creatures live there. See what they're doing. Try and observe their habits. And you'll start to build
a picture and you know, you may want to make notes. Sometimes keep a little logbook. You can keep coach digitally on your phone
or whatever these days. Just kind of times and movements where the
animal was when it came, when it left, what time, a day, etc, and how it behaved. I guess. As we do this more
and more and how alive we kind of
understand that. And perhaps you don't need
to make the notes as much. But even now with the squirrel that I'm
photographing for a book, I kind of I always make a note
now what time it arrives. I was just curious,
ready to start, see in terms of patterns of
behavior, what was going on. Just read quite a bit about the creature that
you're looking at. So if you come across
a tree creeper, I'm one of your works and
anything what it looks like that tree creepers
here quite a lot. Why not read up about it
and go on the Internet, learn about that animal? Because there's so much that we don't know or so much that perhaps we as
individuals don't know, but other people do now think about the
size on the whole, humans are bigger than a
lot of these creatures. I do do some photography work
each year up in Martin del, which is a valid near here
with a red deer herd. Now they're big thing may
say it, but on the whole, a lot of creatures that
I've photographed are quite small so that our size
to them is massive. So again, just thinking about how you're
going to stand up. You're going to sit down,
sitting against a tree. Quite often just blending into the background
a bit all mixed and doing some
observational work, having to see what's going
on, what's happening. The things they'll
send your home from wildlife photography are the light goes dark. You getting cold on the
whole as a photographer. So make sure you've got
a reasonable equipment. Think about, this is just basic stuff for going
out in the outdoors. That you've got your waterproof, you've got your
heart, your gloves. You can be warm and it can be
worn for a number of hours. Of my friends said to me, I've got a lot of patients will, I liked being out in nature, but the thing that
will send me home, he's willing to cold fingers and metallic on so-called that
I can't feel them anymore, can't operate the camera. And it's me that goes home. On the whole awhile
creatures can survive out there. They are doing. There's something about just
preparation work there. I have a nice dark color, looks like you tend to see now
I'm just in dark clouds. It's just a bit about
blending in and you can buy camouflage clothing
if you want to. Put a bit about blending in dark colors, graze
black screens. Just in essence, you're
not scary in an animal. I'm not an expert on
what an animal can see in terms of colors. But on the whole, brighter colors
are likely to just make you more
noticeable to them. And they'll see a bit of
your movement going past. And that might be enough
to scare them away. The darker color is a
good stuff to go for. A really good, better equipment. Keep you warm and you can get out there and you can
enjoy being out there. You'll give yourself
a period of time. I'm quite often out for
probably an hour minimum. Sometimes for 34 hours, half day, sometimes
even a full day. You've got to be
prepared for that. You got to enjoy that. Also bit about what snacks that we got with you
always worth having some snacks that you're
happy and you can stay, stay put, and enjoy
that experience. Where there, as I
say, it's in a hide, in a temporary hide or
just sat against a tree.
4. Episode 4 - Gear And Knowledge: I tend to prefer not
to be in height. You actually feel, I think
you feel much closer to nature and to the creature
you're working with. This preference and the images
that were shown you today, the image of fisher
was taken from a hide. King. Fishers are very flighty birds, and it was probably the
only way I could have got an image and being
comfortable myself. So that one is
taken from a hide. All the others aren't. All the others have got. Just by observing
where creatures were, the animals were the badger, the barn owl, tree creeper, that red square root, etc. Placing myself in a place
where I wasn't scaring them, will come on and have
a look at my camera. You need a good zoom lens. You don't need, I think, lots of arguments
that you have to have a certain particular camera. You just need to zoom lens if you want to get
close to animals, probably 400 mill, at least. So I use a Canon L series lens. Want 400. That seems to be
pretty good for most people. Seem to you, that works pretty well and I find it
works pretty well. And you can be the judge of that with the
images, some game. But again, there's so much
camera equipment these days and you can buy their
equipment, second-hand things. You've got to go out and
buy new equipment and say, well, we'll have a look at
my camera a little bit. But what I would really
advise is that you take a bit of time if you're going to
buy some equipment and then you just get to know
that equipment. This isn't a technical
masterclass. I learned by, I'm listening to a few of the people,
reading some articles. I'm self-taught,
reading articles, listening to people, seeing
what other people are doing. Then mainly about experimenting. You'll have to understand
things like shutter speed, depth of field,
ISO, those terms. If you just take them
one at a time and think about how you're
building up your image. You can do most
of that yourself. And you can build up
the knowledge that you need to take good pictures. It'll take time. I think somewhere there's something
written that you need to do 10 thousand hours
to become an expert at anything. It will take time. But I guess what I'm trying to get across to you is it's like enjoy that learning times
you'll be a bit disappointed. You might not quite
get the image that you thought you
were going to get. But that's part of photography and power of
working with wild creatures. They're not always gonna
do what you want to, the times that you
want to do them. You have to. I guess the thing to do
is just to accept that. Because if you don't, you're just going to have
a very frustrating time being a wildlife photographer. And it's not. It's about enjoyment. You may make some money from it. You may sell some nice pictures. But to me it's about
enjoying that process, getting close to the creature
and enjoying nature. And that's something for us as human beings to work on
rather than the animals, that frustration we
should start to accept. This is our creature behaves. I've got to understand that. There's lots of books on
photography that talks about light and light is crucial. Sunlight is your thing
and I'm fantastic. So you need to think
about sunlight. You need to think about where the sun is gonna be at
certain times of day. Use the Met Office
weather forecast to help me decide which days I might spend more
time out and about. In a phrase, there was craft
news when I was looking at things early on was about
the edge of the weather. You can get some great pictures. So it's not necessarily
just about dawn and dusk, the edge of the
weather when it's just shifting from
rain to sunshine, all the sums just about to come out and it's
been quite dull. And then you creatures
there is really going to help get some stunning images. The same image without sunlight
could be very different. That's just something
we've got to deal with. And I work in the UK, so that's just something
you got to live with.
5. Episode 5 - Case Studies: I'd heard reports from my
neighbors that they were born. I was close to where I live. I started to think about that. If you ever get the
chance to watch a barn owl hunting,
It's just fantastic. I again again, the
footpath close to home. I started regularly going. I'd heard that there was
a barn owl in that area, then saw the band now
for the first time, this occasion, it's
in a barn house, come out to nocturnal. So the buyer now is coming
out to hunt at night. You can't get a good picture
on the whole at night. And I'm not one to work with big flashlights or anything
with wild creatures. So just again, by
irregular thing, that was in February
actually, so it's pretty cold in the UK. But I went down regularly
34 o'clock in the evening, maybe from about three
o'clock onwards, start to work out patterns
of where the band I would come would only come for
a short period of time. It would observe you, but it would carry on it something while public
that he was hunching over and just for mice involves
fairly regularly it would come and sometimes you will be along way
away from me or sometimes it will
be close to you. Again, just a process of taking your time
observing the creature. And then there's, and
I went to look there. The image of God, the
barn owl flying directly towards me then back
off into the woods. I positioned myself,
sat low down, and there's an
element of hope there that it's going to
come and it's going to fly relatively close to you
back to where it reached. So aware it crafting, they'll take creatures to a
favorite tree to eat them. I got the image and it sells, well, I love it. It's nice tablet. My mom's actually got
in her house as well. And it was a fantastic moment. And I think one of the things
with wildlife photography, sometimes you miss that moment
when you see the creature, but it doesn't sink in
jihad beautiful aids. Once you've got the photograph, you can kind of go back to that and look at it
over and over again. The budget size only
probably actually about 300 yards from where the
woodpecker was photographed. So that's a fantastic
work for me. I'm not showing that walk. I can see woodpeckers, badgers, red squirrels has small
birds like Rennes, etc. I'd observed that there
was a bad just said, it's just just that a footpath. And this goes back
to our piece of being observant,
seeing what's there. In the UK, there's
lot of wildlife, wild creatures just live in
just off the beaten track. As I like to look at it crashed
on the edge of woodlands. And she's of woodlands
are great places to go and have a look at. Spotted that there
was about just set fairly obvious really
big holes in the ground. And also, if you see that there's been
craft movement of SEO, you can see that actually
the budgets are there. They're clearing out the set that they're going
backwards and forwards too. You can see possibly footprints. You can see that
it's an active site and the badges are living there. Again, similar to the our
budgets are nocturnal, so we are talking again about potentially
going down one or two hours before time or before just before
the light goes in. And just again, being
observant, watching, staying quiet,
find in a position where you can get some good images if the
budget has come out. Now a lot of people
think it's magical. It's just magical, but it almost impossible
to get photographs. Don't think it is
with a bunch of that. I was there and I
learned himself against the post or sat down
against the fence posts. I should've got a little bit, just a little tip
about equipment. I've got a neoprene maps, which is actually
a fisherman's mat. Something nice and
warm to sit on. Just means quickly. You can get yourself positioned
and be ready to take photographs and you're
gonna stay relatively warm. It's quite odds if you
sit on damp ground, You're not gonna
stay there for long. Yeah. Take that map with me. He looks at chuck it down, sit down. And I'm
there and I'm quiet. It's an already and I've got
a few snacks in my pockets. Batches. Quite timid creatures, but they good sense of smell and seemed to be
disturbed more by noise. So I think that would
come out and they could probably tell that I was there. I could probably smell
me but not moving. I'm not cause them any distress. After a while they
got quite used to me being there and would
happily go about their business summer evenings
or staff for longer and play when it's cold and I just come out and and get
off and start hunting. You've got a brief spell of time that it gets some
images of badges. It may only be a
short period of time. If anybody comes along. And I remember the budget has been disturbed by a couple of walking along the
edge of the Woodland a good two or 300 yards
away, just having the chat. So I was close to
them and I wasn't disturbed number then argues is that just send them
scurrying back into the set. Again. I don't think they're majorly
distress the just right. We want a bit more safety. We're gonna go
back into our set. That's not a big issue. It's just right now,
just something to note, something to learn from,
something to think about. Because I say back to our
being quiet and staying quiet. I spent probably would have gone down a bunch of his
face. On average. I'm just trying to think
the quiet a few evenings or went down and saw nothing. But I'm certain period or a
good week when it's warm. I probably saw the
badger every night about two or three
batches every night for six or seven days. And that gives you enough
time to observe them, get some good images. And then again, I think It's, we've always got
to be mindful of. I've got some images.
I'm gonna move away now and leave the
badges be for a time. This notion really just blend while creatures live
their own life. There's also a picture of
a tree creeper that again, on a regular walk, I observed a tree creepy guy just find nice walks. Minute. So joy, isn't it
going in a nice wall? This one was done
by a river locally. Source paste your stuff where
people weren't walk in, sit down, spend about an
hour there for awhile, find a nice space, sit down and observe
what's happening despite their tree creepy
was going regularly to this rotten tree. I could then see that
actually was nested in there. Again, observed it. Wasn't that scared of
me, knew I was there. Now tree creep has
moved pretty quickly. There's a beautiful image
that I really like. It hasn't sold.
I've never sold it. I've never made a card of it. But I love it. I have
it in the gallery here. I guess it's just a joy for me. Tree creeper arriving
with insects in its beak. And this kind of, well, I think it's perfectly in focus.
6. Episode 6 - Capturing Life: It focuses an
interesting thing to think about when
you photography, you probably looking to
get the animals sharp. Although, as you'll see
with a king fisher picture, which I just talked
about in a while, I actually wanted some
movement in that image. Or I like the particular
image with movement in. That's to do with
your shutter speed. It's to do when you're focusing. It's to do with thinking about, do you want the image of the creature sharp, which
on the whole you will, on how I recommend you try and I won't say blurred
the background, but you're getting
a short depth of field so the background
may be blurred. It just makes the creature crowd from stand out a
little bit more. But there's plenty
to experiment. They would depth of field when you're looking at your
photography work. So understand depth of field and understand that if something
is close behind the animal, it's probably going to
distract from your image. There's something about
the angles since about thinking about where you're
positioning yourself. You've got the
creature and there isn't too much right behind it. Or sometimes you can work on such a shutter speed settings, f-stop settings that it's
such a short depth of field, even something like
some grass close behind his fairly well blurred. So your creature stands out. One of the things I've noticed
with good photography, and this is sometimes good
wildlife photography. It's just a matter of sort
of looked at some degrees, but you kind of like or need a glint in the
eye of the creature. He really taught helps
the image come to life. That, that's a real
live creature. Obviously AES, sometimes
a little bit of sunlight just watching our
creature moves its head. And then up there's a
moment when there's a glint off the eyeball and
taken some images, then We're blessed now
with fast shutter speeds and we're blessed
with quick repeats on our images we can take, you may well just fire quite
a few offer that moment. And hopefully you'll get one. Tried to say don't just blast loads of images and
hope you get one. I think it is about
putting together all the points I've said. But you know, with a
lot of these creatures, they move quickly so that, that kind of fast
shutter release. And the fast, you can
just take a lot of pictures quickly as officers
really helpful to us.
7. Episode 7 - Beacon Red: This is Beacon read down
photographing at the moment, have been for the
last three months. I've probably been up 70 nights. Probably missed about
five days in that time. That's mainly
because the creature is there at the moment
of squirrels there. I'm really enjoying the moment. It's in 2020 in the UK. So COVID virus has been
around in lockdown, has done. So that got me into almost
I'm locked at home. I'm just having my one hour
of work that we can have. I'm going to use that time well, and they got me into a regular
pattern of starting here. That did so spar me a
little bit on this quest. But I've been walking the
beacon regularly from home. And I've seen red squirrels
in the tree tops. And I've thought about getting some good images of red
squirrels for quite a long time. With the red squirrel images
regard on my regular walks, I noticed there was
a fetal weight were a bit of a haven for red
squirrels in the North, north of the UK and
up into Scotland. They are here. There's lots of people
who were doing lots of great work to help them survive. We've got red squirrel
range is locally. There was a squirrel
feed or on a tree. So that's a hobbyist giveaway
that at some point in time, people have tried to feed spirals here and then
maybe coming to this area. The time that I was
out in my walks, squirrel theatre was
empty, nobody was around, nobody was going nearby. Had never seen a squirrel there. But I guess in one
sense it made me think, well, maybe this is a
place to start feeding. So this is an example
where I have put food out for awhile creature. I think if we are going to feed animals and creatures
and hopefully that may potentially get us
more opportunities to get close to them and
get some great images. And we just want to think
a little bit about that dire and that we're not
making them dependent on us. We're possibly putting
out a little bit of food on a regular basis, but it's not and making
them dependent on us. So we just have some foods
as almost like a nice treat, a nice snack, something
that they like. But if it wasn't there, they can still survive. You're not trying to make
them dependent on you. And let's face it. Creatures, human beings as well. We like our food. If somebody's gonna regularly
puts nice food somewhere, it's quite possible little
creature is gonna come. Squirrels like hazelnuts
have been buying. Hazelnuts, have been
taken them up and put a few in the
fader to start with. Just on a regular basis every
day I go back and check. I wouldn't put Manny. I
just go back and check. Are they still there? After possibly a
couple of weeks. They weren't there. Something's taken them probably the squirrel start growing
on a regular basis, start feeling irregular time
and just start possibly sitting and observing and seeing if the squirrel comes to
start to see a red squirrel, a bit nervous of
me sitting up in the treetops,
possibly coming down, had Amendment when it
came down to the feeder, started taken the hazelnuts and they were hazelnuts
fully in their shell. So they'll, they'll take those, they'll bury them,
hide them away, install them for winter. Or when there's foods less
there's less food around. That was this is kind of moment when you
start to think are great. I might be able to get
some good images of a screw and then I might be able to start and build
a body of work. Or some images that could sail or might be
just some cards, or might just be a
nice body of work. I've got a few nice
pictures of red squirrels. So they might well
have been say, eight or ten hazelnuts each day. Smashed, gotten knocked out
and wedged it somewhere. And then maybe six or 78
hazelnuts that they're in the shallow and the squirrel can come collect them
and take them away. Wherever these 70 days or so. I've just watched
the squirrel come. It's still had my
camera ready and I've started to build and
get some nice images in it. It's been intriguing
to me actually, how quickly the squirrel came to accept me, came to accept. They knew that really was
unlikely to be doing any harm. And actually, potentially, I was the person bringing the
hazelnuts food alone. It would come on
a regular basis. When I say regular, probably
between 57 at night. So on times I have sat for two hours and
not seen a squirrel. But often I've gone and
within ten minutes, the squirrel has been
there or 20 minutes. And that's not a long time for a wildlife photographer
to wait for a wild creature to pop alarm and give you a chance
to get some images. And over a period of time that scrolls come closer and closer. I just basically
used hazelnuts as a beige or as a treat for it to bring it to
certain places. After about where their sons at. Some beautiful sunlight
comes through the trees, potentially behind me or you,
but you can move around. You can think about where
you'd like to get some images of the squirrel is I
see above as a stage, is the squirrel stage and I'm a potential or
even directing it, but I'm kind of taking it hopefully in it to go
to certain places, which is a wild creature
still it can come and gave, it comes engaged and you're waiting for it and then
getting your photographs.
8. Episode 8 - Camera Basics: Crunch. So just a little bit
about the camera. This isn't a technical video. I'm just going to give
you a few ideas and notions around the
camera that I'm using, which is the Canon 5D Mark four. I've got the L series
100 to 400 lens on here. What I'm trying to get
across really about the camera's not to give you too many technical
tips about this, but the kids, because
essentially they're all online. You can read them in books so you can have a chat about them and you can experiment
the camera, whichever camera you're
choosing to use. So once you've decided
and you've got a camera and it's a question of getting
out and experimenting. There's a few points, I think which we may have
touched upon before. You're going to need
a certain length of Zoom, three to 400. If you can afford
it five to 600. Brilliant, you can get a extender which
just fits in here, extends the range of your lens. So that's a good thing
to have potentially. But I've never used,
I just used a one to 400 for all of my work. So for all the
images you've seen in this workshop,
It's a one to 400. It's this camera rarely. Or an earlier version
of this camera. Say, there's lots
of technical help, either by the manufacturer of the camera or by experts we're trying to
sell you these cameras. They will have to him
lots of online things, 57 minute videos for, for pretty much all for free. But you need to get to know your camera and to be
comfortable with your camera. Wherever it is in a
wildlife photography, the one thing you don't
want to do is run out at the battery, runs out. Your memory cards
for an yam got more. Make sure you got a few cards, make sure you got
a few batteries, the charged up and
they're in your camera? I've occasionally
gone like that. And there's no card in. And you saw already a
fantastic sharp but there was no card and I do all my
work pretty much handheld. Sometimes people think you
do offer try for a handheld. I'm not sad all the time. Cannot tense. I think. One of the things with
a piece of equipment or a camera is that you are
ready, you almost relaxed. And then once you see
the creek Junior into, here's a way for me to
take my photographs. This has got a really
nice grip there. One of the things I learned
fairly early on was that we need to have to focus
here on the back button. So I'm focusing using my thumb
on the back button there. Then I'm pressing that
button now the front, take the picture, so focus
and take your image. I'm holding that down possibly
to track the creature. Now that's a setting in which
you have to, potentially, for most cameras, when
you get the camera, you've got to work that out
and just set it like that. Because otherwise everything's
on the front here. Focus halfway down, and then take the shot,
close the shutter. That's not gonna work for
wildlife photography. Three things to think
about is our ISO, our f-number, and
our shutter speed. Let's say this isn't
a technical video. So you really will need to know about those things and
experiment with them. For motion photography,
it's about getting the right amount of
light into the camera. I'm playing around
with that rarely. But when I picked
up this camera, I didn't even get the guide out. And just quickly
a Google search. And there's a guy
that really nice four-minute video as to how
to put it onto the bat. Focus. Sorted four minutes, right? I forgot. I craft now just a little
rain cover on this. I'm going on at the moment,
but just a little rank of a protected equivalents
a bit occasion I've had condensation
in the air, but It's possible to
dry these cameras out. So on the whole,
we're looking after our equipment, we're
keeping it dry. I have a waterproof
canoe back, just a bag. You can just quickly
took this in. Paul Irish. Three
minutes radian. I might have a broadly but I
think ten TO body position, a little black bag
or pull it out, take a couple of
pictures, put it back in. That time we're not going to get much rain onto the camera. And if you spend a lot
of money on a camera, take your time
before you buy it. You can't hire them,
you can hire lenses. Why not hide it for
a couple of days. Experiment with it. Bites, do that for
5060 quid and spend a lot of money and
think it's not quite doing what I
wanted it to do. Take a bit of time and research. And again, this is
actually secondhand, both the body and the lens, but of a high-quality. In our modern society, lots of people buy equipment and then don't use it very much. You will be able to
get quite a few. I won't say bargains booked
solid, good equipment. This, you know, having
to pay full price. If we're thinking
environmentally as well, we don't want to necessarily, we don't need a new camera. We need a good camera
in this one doesn't say second-hand book. Pretty good. Yeah. And then just get out
and enjoy using it.
9. Episode 9 - Wrap Up: Okay, So I hope that's
been useful to you. Tried to just share a bit of my experience over the
last ten years of being a wildlife photographer would encourage you to do
is get out there. It's beautiful, isn't
it? It's a great thing that we have for our grasps, go for a walk, take our camera, it takes some binoculars, subsystem grid
equipment with us. And really enjoy
spending some time in nature and working on just trying to get
some nice photograph, some nice images for our own pleasure and potential then if you want to sell them. So thanks for
watching the video. I hope you've
learned a few things that you can put into practice. That's the, the
intention really. If you ever in Paris in the
UK and North of England, come and see me and my gallery
here, or drop me a note. And if you wanted to have
a conversation about any information
that's in the video. Thanks for watching.
Cumbrian Arts Online
