In this vlog, photographer Angie Birmingham recounts her and her partner Jeff’s participation in the 2023 Wildlife in Focus photography contest, where they were paired with the Rob and Bessie Welder Wildlife Refuge in South Texas. She explains the contest’s strict rules—no social‑media sharing, limited cropping, global‑only edits, a defined shooting window (Jan 14–May 11, extended to June 4), and a cap of 100 photos (max two per 50 categories). The narrative follows their field preparation (setting blinds and feeders), daily scouting across the 7,000‑acre ranch, and a series of wildlife encounters: bucks losing antlers, armadillos, wood ducks, hogs, a helicopter cattle roundup, a buck fight observed by a raccoon, a bobcat scare, coyotes, javelinas, and more. Angie shares anecdotes about the challenges of blind work, chiggers, drought‑affected lakes, and a memorable moment where she froze to avoid startling a doe while a bobcat screeched. The vlog showcases the winning images—nine placements across categories such as coyote/fox, hawk, barred owl, bobcat, javelina, and antler‑less bucks—highlighting both her and Jeff’s successes. She concludes with enthusiastic advice for future contestants, noting the intense but rewarding “photography scavenger hunt” nature of the contest, the odds (≈10% win rate from ~90 submissions), and logistical tips (travel, blind placement, time commitment). The video also includes a sponsor plug for audio.com music.
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Well, we did it! Jeff and I signed up for an exclusive photo contest in 2023, and we were paired with the most amazing ranch in our area. It is known as the— I have been thinking about the Wildlife in Focus contest since the first day I found out about it, which was back in 2009. I'd considered signing up for this contest every time they're accepting entries, which is every odd year. So in 2023, I finally signed up for it, the Wildlife in Focus contest. Not only did I sign up for it, Jeff did as well. So we signed up as a team, and we were paired with the Rob and Bessie Welder Wildlife Refuge. This is such a privilege to have unlimited access until May of 2023. to photograph on. The year we finally decided to participate in it also ended up being a year where our calendar was pretty clear. But then a trip of a lifetime fell in our laps and we could not say no to it. That was our polar bear trip to Svalbard Island where we got to photograph polar bears from a ship for 8 days. But if you want to know more about that trip I'll link a video below so you can watch that after you watch this video. I wanted to start a vlog on my experience and post all of my experiences to my YouTube channel, but I had to clear that first with the officials at the contest because they had very strict rules for this contest, and that was to keep the contest fair to all participants. So I opted out because I didn't want any of our images to get disqualified. I'll put a link up below if you would like to sign up for the 2025 contest. They are opening up the contest to the entire state of Texas this year. There are way too many rules to go over here, but here are just a few to give you an idea of how strict it was. There was no sharing of images on social media that are similar or exact to to the ones that were entered in the contest where that was an immediate disqualification. And you can't crop more than 50% of your original raw image. All editing can only be done globally, so that means no masking, no removing, no adding objects of any kind. And all images must be taken on the ranch that you are paired with and must be taken From the official start date of January 14th to the official end day, which was May 11th, but they extended ours just a little bit longer to June 4th since we had some really bad weather last year. In the end, you can submit up to 100 photos and up to 2 in each of the categories, and there are 50 of them. One thing I want to mention is that if you like the audio that's playing in the background, that is supplied by audio.com. You can get a 70% discount below in the comments, so make sure you go and check out audio.com. Their music is top-notch. So let's jump into the fun stuff. This contest is like a photography scavenger hunt for 4 months. During the months of January and February, our main focus was the big bucks and the migratory birds. Mainly the bucks because they're going to lose their antlers typically starting somewhere around mid-February. So it was a rush to get some buck shots— no pun intended— buck photographs before they lose their racks. The migratory birds are also a priority because they're going to be leaving soon to head to their summer homes. Also during January, we had to get our blinds set up and feeders to entice the animals in. We would run a mixture of half cracked corn and half bird seed so we would get a mixture of animals, anywhere from birds to bucks. And at first this was great. The deer loved the corn. It was almost like candy. They did not typically get fed that on the refuge because they don't have feeders there. But it quickly wore off and the numbers dropped soon at the feeders as far as the deer went and the blind locations. I guess they went back to eating their normal food. So we did a lot of driving and walking around to find all of our potential images. This ranch is nearly 7,000 acres, so it's like finding a needle in a haystack. On opening day, the ranch was amazing. We saw tons of wildlife— bucks, does, fawns, armadillos like crazy. Every time we turned around, there was one there. I actually laid down in the grass despite my better judgment to get a photo of the armadillo that was out in the distance. He was feeding straight across from me and Jeff was over on the other side. And as soon as he would notice that Jeff was there, he would— I was hoping that he would then take off and run at a 90-degree angle for me so I could get that little bit of distance that he has. Between him and the ground. I thought it would have been an amazing image, but this is what I got. But hey, good idea, right? Yeah, right up till I got home and I had a bad case of chiggers. Against my better judgment, I knew what the consequences were, but I went and did it anyways. And then after that, we headed down the road to the big lake. Uh, when we started this contest, the big lake had probably half the amount of water that it normally has in it. And when we finished the contest, there was literally hardly any water in it because we went into a drought. So anyways, while we were at the big lake, we observed some hogs down there eating vegetation out of the water. So we quietly got out of the Jeep and we walked down towards the water. And as we were walking towards the water, we noticed a whole group of little piglets in the grass in front of us. So we just sat quietly as they walked in front of us, and then they just slowly wandered off. We then made our way back to the water's edge and noticed another hog off to the right that was much closer and was eating the vegetation as well. Then we finally got close enough to the water to photograph the one that was in the lake. And as we got close enough, we noticed that off in the distance there was some wood ducks swimming around. That was the first time that Jeff and I had ever seen wood ducks in person. They are absolutely gorgeous. So from that point on, we became a— we started a mission to try to get Wood ducks. But it was a total fail because I think they left after the day we saw them. After we were sitting there photographing the hogs and the ducks, another hog that was in the reeds behind us about 5 feet, um, I heard him, so I turned around and I focused my camera on the hole in the reeds where he was going to come out of. And just as he started to come out of the reeds, he darted off the other direction. Apparently he didn't like me sitting there. I was too close for comfort. So then midday we just drove around, finished setting up blinds and feeders, then finished our evening down by Big Lake. And on our way out we saw numerous deer and birds as we drove into the sunset to call it a night. We then had to take a quick trip to Nashville for the PPA convention where I had received my first ever merits for images, and they were going to be on display, so I just had to go and see them for myself in person. And our friend Kevin Dooley received the Diamond Award, so we had to go and support him in his accomplishment. I was very anxious though to get back on the welder and get some more potential images. So our typical day out on the ranch, we would head out to the welder, which is about a 40-minute drive one way. from our house, and typically during the day on our way in, we'd see lots of bucks and does and fawns out eating, and we'd also see lots of armadillos. There wasn't a lack of armadillos at all. So many of them that we actually stopped looking for them and would only stop for them if we thought maybe they might participate and give us a good photograph. And then we would go and sit in blinds for a couple hours, and then typically Drive around or go for a hike, find something else to photograph. And midday we would go get lunch, work on feeders, fill feeders. Then in the evening we'd sit in a blind, go for a hike, or go home. And towards the end I found that I had much better success driving around or hiking than sitting in a blind. So let's jump into some highlights. I was able to go and photograph a helicopter cattle roundup. Here is a short, short video that I did. And I also saw 2 fairly good-sized bucks get into a knock-down drag-out fight while Raccoon watched from a tree. So there was one week in particular we found this really big monster buck on a trail camera. So I set up a blind and a feeder, and I sat in that blind for probably 2 weeks trying to get a picture of this monster buck, but the buck never showed up. I got some nice pictures of some does, some raccoons, some smaller bucks, and then one day I was sitting there in the blind and I had a really nice 8-point buck come out. At first I thought this could be him, and as I got the binoculars on him, I realized it was not him. Of course, I might have been exaggerating. He probably wasn't that great of an 8-point buck, but anyways, at the time he looked really, really big. And he brought along with him a doe, and the doe quickly made eye contact with me, so I pretty much had to freeze in the blind So that I would not scare her off, so everybody else would get scared off. And as I'm sitting there freezing— or not freezing freezing, but freezing so that the doe won't see me move at all— they're eating the grass, and a bobcat behind me screeches, and all the deer took off running. Every single one of them. It was Amazing. It actually took the wildlife probably a good hour to resume, resume to normal where the raccoons were coming back out and squirrels and the birds and the deer. So anyways, that was just kind of a cool little story I wanted to share with y'all. But what an experience that was. So let's go ahead and dive into some of the winning images and also Some of the videos that I captured throughout the contest. Here's from game cameras, this little buck. Then we had a coyote come to the pond. These 2 next 2 images are Jeff's images that won 2nd place and 5th place in the coyote/fox division. This next one is an image of mine that won 3rd place. In the hawk division. And then this barred owl won 4th place. I really thought it would do better than that. And this one, I'm surprised it even placed, but it was the first time a shakalaka has ever been submitted in the contest, and therefore I guess they decided to go ahead and put it in as a winner. Next here we've got a couple winning images of Jeff's of the bobcats. He had a couple good encounters, which is really tough, but he managed to pull it off. Just gorgeous. And here's the javelinas that would visit me on a regular basis at my blind. And so here's a nice shot. Won 5th place. And this here is a bunch of bucks without antlers. And here's one of the images that placed 5th. So that was kind of a rundown of our experience for the Wildlife in Focus. Would I recommend you join in the contest and joining in on the fun? I would definitely suggest it. If there's a way that you could come to South Texas and spend periodically during a 4 to 5 month period a lot of time on a ranch, I would definitely sign up and I would do it. It was a lot of fun. It's very intense. I mean, it's a scavenger hunt and you just gotta check your images off one by one as you go down, like, oh yeah, that's a good one, I got it, I got it, I got it, finally got that image for I mean, it's, it's definitely a lot of fun. It's a lot of hard work, I can tell you that, because you got to set up blinds, you've got to get yourself familiar with the ranch. That if you don't have a ranch to sign up with, you get paired with one and you go in blind. You don't know, you don't— like the welder, I've never been on the welder my entire life, but I went on there and we had to find locations and set up blinds and feeders and Overall, out of the 7,000 acres, I would say we probably photographed on maybe 500, maybe 1,000 at the most. But it was definitely worth the, the pain, the anguish, the, the blood, sweat, and tears, and all the scratches on my truck. It's definitely worth it. Oh, and a few dents from tree trunks as well. But I would say definitely join in if If at all possible. And we submitted probably around 90 images and we had 9 winners, so that's not too bad of odds, 10%. I don't think that the images that we won with, um, are really that great of images, but they were good enough for the judges, so I'll take it. If you want to watch another one on what Wildlife in Focus right here. But otherwise, don't forget to like and subscribe and ring my bell so you'll get notified the next time I post a video. Have a great week! Bye!
