Wildlife Photography With A Wide-Angle Lens

Ok, for those of you who have done photography, you’re probably scratching your head at the title of this blog post.  Either that or you’re thinking, “What, is he stupid or something!”  Or both.Going out photographing with Ann is always a pleasure.  Most of the time we’re photographing some sort of landscape images and, while I’m somewhat limited with my fixed focal length, slightly wide angle lens compared to Ann’s range of wide angle to fairly long telephoto lenses (not to mention 1:2 macro), I usually have a range of photo opportunities within the arena of straight photography that I generally enjoy.  There have only been a couple of occasions where we’ve gone out and I haven’t photographed anything (which happened even in my old 4x5 days and, as I will often say, any day out in nature photographing is a good day, even if you don’t come back with any photographs), and only once do I recall recently thinking, “Only if I had interchangeable lenses . . . .” (and even then, Ann lets me make photographs with her camera when I need the focal length for something I see).  So any opportunity to go out photographing is an opportunity!

Ann has become interested in wildlife photography, which is fundamentally different than landscape photography.  Wildlife photography, for those who don’t know, along with sports photography is most easily done with one of the the super-huge camera lenses that look like a SCUD missile launcher.  It’s kind of hard to do wildlife with a wide angle lens - birds, varmints of all sorts, and wildlife generally tend to not let you crawl up to two feet away so you can take a photo of them that fills the frame.  So when Ann said she wanted to go to Finley National Wildlife Refuge to photograph wintering birds, and then we decided to go again the next morning (pre-dawn,) I knew that I’d have to get a bit creative if I was going to do any photography of my own.

Fortunately, I didn’t hit a creative block and while Ann was photographing trumpeter swans, Canadian geese and ducks I found other subjects for the most part.  She spent most of her time either hidden in bushes or in a blind, I spent mine often looking in the opposite direction.  Still, I also managed some wildlife photography of my own.  Here’s what I managed on our two trips to Finley . . . 

The first day, while we arrived a bit earlier than we had planned, we probably arrived a bit later than we should have.  I could tell our timing wasn’t quite right when we were about ten miles away or so and realized that we should have left a bit earlier.  Well at least that’s what I thought when I saw the flocks of thousands of birds off in the distance heading in different directions.  Still, when we arrived, the sun hadn’t been up too long and frost was still on the ground.  I got out of the car, grabbed my camera and made my first photos of the day before Ann finished putting on her boots and grabbing her gear.

We weren’t the first ones there - there were two other cars in the parking lot.  One guy was in an open area of brush next to the water line not far from the parking lot (pretty much the closest and best photography spot on the water), and we eventually found out that the other guy was in the bird blind at the end of the short trail.  Ann settled into another clearing a bit further down the trail that was well concealed by brush, but with an open view of the water.  I turned around to see what else I could find. 

As birds were still taking off, I decided to see what I could do with my wide angle lens, thinking that maybe I could get some interesting patterns of birds in the sky.  I started out basically framing a view, and waiting for flying flocks to enter it.

Despite the thousands of birds I’d seen leaving on the drive to Finley NWR, smaller groups were still taking off by the dozens.  I eventually gave up with the landscape mentality and started tracking flocks as they flew overhead, wondering if I could get interesting compositions.  It was fun, good practice for sometime in the future when I have my own SCUD missile lens, and not a total waste of time.

After checking in with Ann, I decided to walk down to the blind (because the guy had left) to check it out.  On my way back, I noticed a potential shot, so I spent a few minutes on my butt struggling to get a decent image of the grasses backlit by the sun.

I went back to Ann and she was pretty much done at her location, most of the birds there had left.  So we went to check out the blind.  It’s rather nice, hexagonal in shape, with window/doors that open up on the three sides facing the water.  Ann set up shop to take a few shots there and we discussed the possibility of coming back the next day, except a lot earlier.  I agreed and found a location with a view that wouldn’t result in a totally boring image with my camera.

It wasn’t long before we decided to leave to check out the rest of the NWR.  Unfortunately, access to all the other parts is closed for the winter, so we decided to go to Alsea Falls (the subject of Shooting the Shooter Part 7) for more photo opportunities.

The next morning we were up early and at Finley before dawn.  Actually, quite a bit before dawn, about 20 minutes before astronomical dawn, which is when the sky starts not being black any more.  Which meant we were struggling to stay warm for quite some time before we got any real light, and certainly light enough to do wildlife photography.  One thing we could tell in the darkness though, there were a heck of a lot of birds not far from the blind.

After about half an hour, things started to lighten up.  Since it was still too dark for moving subjects, I decided to see what the sunrise looked like.  Much of the night mist had drifted away and I could see the moon and venus.  Dawn was here and it was time to set up for my photography.

As I was waiting for the light to change, I heard what sounded like a jet engine revving up and this sudden roar explode from the other side of the blind.  I turned around to see this massive black cloud of geese sweep over the blind and head south.  I decided it was takeoff time and that I’d better get back into my position.  

Unfortunately, it’s still really, really dark when the geese, ducks and swans take their turns taking off for the day, so getting good photographs is hard and freezing action is near-impossible (no, my camera does not have an ISO 1,000,000,000).  I decided to set my tripod up looking out a side window and see what taking a 1/2 to 1 second exposure would be like.

After the 5th or 6th set of mass take-offs, I finally got an image of one that isn’t too bad!  The photograph above is possible only due to the wonders of photography - it didn’t appear nearly that bright to the naked eye.  Poor Ann, because even though she could visually get closer to the birds with her telephoto lens, it was so dark that the lens couldn’t focus! 

So I spent the rest of the morning moving in and out of the hide to alternate between wildlife and landscape shots.  As the sun started creeping up over the horizon, I set my gear up and took a series of images over about a 15-minute period (post on that to follow).  It’s amazing how quickly things change in the early morning and all the different possibilities the sun gives you at that time of day.  Here’s just one of the images I made of the sunrise that morning:

As the sun steadily rose, photographing birds in action became easier and easier, though there were fewer and fewer birds around by the minute.  Still, there were enough to compose images with, so we stuck around for awhile.

Not having the ability to change lenses or to zoom in and out, I decided to move my camera over by Ann at the main window to get some photographs overlooking the lake.  While there isn’t much in the foreground photographically, you get an idea of what type of views we had.  Now imagine the entire lake full of birds, which it was when we arrived.

Even with Ann’s long lens, at ten times the magnifying power of my wide angle lens, she still couldn’t get “close ups” of the remaining birds in the distance.  I guess we need to get Ann a SCUD Missile lens too!

Finally the sun cleared the mist, started burning off the morning fog and frost and painted everything in a nice golden color.  And a few minutes after that, even that color was gone and everything started looking a bit harsh.  Not to mention that most of the remaining birds decided that the middle of the pond was the best place to be.

So at that point, it was time for Ann and me to leave.  The thermos was empty anyway and, well, it was still darned cold out there so warming up in the car sounded like a great idea.