Don Orkoskey argues you don't need new gear for better bird photos. Any camera from the last 8-12 years works fine with a 300mm lens. The real skill is knowing bird behavior: where they eat, drink, bathe, and roost so you can anticipate the shot.
If you're struggling with your wildlife photography and you think that you need better gear, watch this video to find out if that's true or if there's something else you can do. I'm professional wildlife and bird photographer Don Orkoskey, and I'm here to tell you that you may not need to update your gear to get better photos. of birds and other wildlife. So how does paying attention to bird behavior actually help improve your photos? Your bird and other wildlife photos are going to be a lot better if the animals in them are doing some sort of action— taking off, landing, eating, drinking, bathing. All of these actions are going to make your photos so much more interesting than just taking a picture of a bird Sitting on a branch doing nothing. Any camera that's been made in the past 8, 10, even 12 years is probably going to do an okay job when it comes to wildlife photography. If you have the lenses that came with your camera, often called kit lenses, chances are high that one of them goes to 300mm. That, I would say, is your bare minimum that you want to be using If you want to get good wildlife and especially bird photos. Okay. So understanding behavior is important, but what exactly do we need to know to understand that behavior? It's important to understand the different sort of categories of that behavior. So let's break those down. Where does that animal like to eat? Where do they prefer to sleep? Where do they hang out when they're not sleeping? Where do they like to get a drink from and bathe at? Another important part of bird behavior is grooming, preening, pulling out feathers, rearranging feathers, getting dirt and other debris off of them. What other behaviors can we draw on in order to improve our photos? So let's recap. You may have thought before you watched this video that you need new equipment. In order to get better photos of birds and other wildlife. Hopefully, if you have at least a 300mm lens or a 400mm lens, then you now understand that that might not be the case. And what you need to do is pay attention to the behavior of those birds or other wildlife that you're trying to photograph. I really appreciate you being here and watching this video. If you haven't already, please subscribe. And if you enjoyed this video, please make sure to like it so that more people will see it. Thank you so much again. I appreciate you and I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.
