A new passion… Wildlife photography.

I’ve always been drawn to landscape photography. Getting out and just being in nature just always seemed so peaceful. But there was another type of photography that I’ve always loved and that’s wildlife.

Never thought I’d really ever get into doing wildlife photography. But recently my friend has gotten into learning photography and what he is interested in the most is that sort of photography. Only took one outing to shoot some ducks and I was hooked.

Didn’t capture any award winning photos the first time out or even the other times we have gone out. But still one of my favorite photos of this year is a photo of some ducks that came out looking more like hand drawn than a photo.

Each time I look at this photo I fall in love with it even more. Yes it has some imperfections but it works and only works because it doesn’t look like a photograph. I’m not a professional wildlife photographer but I will take any happy little accidents or luck as some would call it. But being lucky sometimes means you have the knowledge to take advantage of situations. And that’s what happened here. I noticed this group of ducks and how the ice blended into the cloudy sky making is over exposed. Didn’t think the photo would work out but to my surprise it worked out and even better than planned.

Photography is a skill that you will always be learning and growing with. And for me wildlife is that next step in learning more about photography. And my knowledge in landscape has helped me out to spot compositions more easily or at least will the more I go out. Also helps that in doing this I’m helping my friend learn more about photography. Which in turn helps motivate me to get out more and that’s something I struggle with.

Getting out with my camera is hard for me. Life always has something going on for me that my time seems very limited and getting up early sucks. Even though each time I don’t get up I regret it but every time I have forced myself to get up I have never regretted it. And having a friend go with really helps. And I’m hoping that we will continue to go out with our cameras more often. Even if it is just to go take some pictures of some foxes we found recently and will probably become my main focus on wildlife photography while I learn.

I’m fortunate to live fairly close to the group of foxes. Not a long drive and well worth the time just watching them. Foxes have always been one animal that I actually have longed to photograph. Never thought I’d be able to find them so close to my home.

This has become a new addiction or better yet passion of mine. Noticed that even with my Nikon 70-200mm and 2x teleconverter I was still not getting close enough. My friend went and bought the Sigma 150-600mm and just that little extra reach really did help. So naturally I went out and bought me the same lens. Quickly found out that holding the camera and a lens that’s like 7lbs gets tiring really quick. So I decided to get myself a new monopod and gimbal head for the monopod. That really is a lifesaver. Don’t regret investing into those items at all.

I do wish that I would have found out about this family of foxes earlier in the winter. But it’s now spring time and so soon they should be having litters of pups. Really hoping to be able to capture the pups as they grow and learn about this new world. So hopefully soon I’ll be posting even more photos.

Not only have we gone to check out the foxes but we have also made our way up to Antelope Island to check out the wildlife. Although the name is Antelope Island I have only seen a couple of antelope up there. And I have been there many times. What you do see a lot of are bison. I haven’t gotten any photos of them as each time I’ve been up there good photo opportunities of them haven’t presented themselves to me.

But something I have never seen in the wild nor ever was expecting to see was spotted up in a tree while driving around the island. A porcupine! This guy was just sleeping and didn’t care at all. Probably snapped 100 photos of him and only liked maybe three. That’s something I knew would happen but didn’t think I’d be in that group of going out and taking hundreds of photos or even thousands and only keeping a handful. But I’m learning quickly that wildlife photography especially with digital photography you end up taking way more photos than I ever would with landscape. So easy to just hold that shutter down. And although it takes awhile to go through all the photos I’m glad I live in the digital world so I don’t have to be so selective with my shots as I’m learning.

Also on the island is an old ranch that is home to a great horned owl. Middle of the day photography isn’t the best so I’m planning to stop by the ranch almost every time I go to the island to see if I can get better photos of the owl.

I have so much to learn and am excited to develop this skill. Not sure why I never went out and tried my hand at wildlife photography before but better late than never. I do have a few more photos of the little bit of wildlife that I have done in my galleries section. Also most of the photos have been posted to my Instagram and my Facebook page. Feel free to give them a look and let me know what you think.