You'll Keep Missing Shots Until You Learn These Behavioral Clues

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. Wow, sweat is rolling into my nose. That was not fun. 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. First, I assume that you have a DSLR or a mirrorless camera and some sort of telephoto lens. So let's talk about minimums there. 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. Your camera is less important than your lens. 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. So if you have only a 200mm lens or something smaller than that, you're really going to struggle. That doesn't mean that you can't get great wildlife photos, but it means that you're going to have to hide somewhere and wait for the wildlife to come to you. So we've talked about the minimum that you need, 300mm. 400 ideally. If you have a full-frame sensor, 400 is definitely where I would start. But you're saying, okay, but I'm not getting great photos, so what am I doing wrong? Well, it's not necessarily that you're doing anything wrong, but it's that you could be doing some things better. So let's talk about what some of those things are. The absolute biggest game changer is going to be understanding the behavior of the birds or other wildlife that you're out What's really helpful is getting used to the animals that you encounter often and learning about their behavior. Sticking with the same species over and over might seem a little bit boring, but it will help you to understand broader types of behavior that you're likely to see in similar animals. This means when you see one of those more rare animals, you're already ready to photograph it because you understand a little bit more about the behavior that you're likely to see. If you're out to photograph something like goldfinches, goldfinches tend to be more active in July and into the fall because more of what they eat has gone to seed. If you are in an area where there are lots of flowers that have already died back, and the seeds are available, you're more likely to find goldfinches there. On the other end of the spectrum, you're trying to photograph wading birds like herons or egrets, then understanding the areas where they're likely to be and where they like to fish is going to help you out. Those are often areas that are shallow so that they can see the fish swimming right around them. But even amongst those, it's important to understand that there will be different behavior based on the species. For example, the great blue heron will slowly move about very methodically, very carefully. It will look all around. They will strike once there's a fish that has come near them. On the other side is the little blue heron. Little blue herons are erratic. They run around like Crazy, just darting around looking for fish. So understanding the difference in behavior, even in very similar, very closely related species, is going to make a huge impact. But of course, feeding is only one thing. Understanding that all birds need to drink means that knowing where to find fresh water that those birds are likely to come to, to drink and to bathe. is going to help you out. Speaking of, there's a great blue heron and some osprey. The lake that is just behind the camera is an ideal spot for the herons because of how shallow it is right now, but it's not the best spot for the osprey who need a little bit more space. Although here comes one flying directly towards me. And he's swooping down to catch some fish. Again, understanding that behavior, understanding how deep the water needs to be for the osprey to land in it. They come down with a lot of force, so they need to not hit the bottom and injure themselves. He didn't catch the fish, but he did splash down. And let's see what I got in terms of the photos. Oh, wonderful. 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. The first is going to be habitat. 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? For example, the Osprey that are hanging out around me right now, that I think you can probably hear. There's one that is up in the top of this tree here who is being very vocal. Behavior is really not just about where to find them, but what those animals are going to be doing and how they do it. That takes watching them and spending a good bit of time with them. getting to understand the types of things that they are likely to do and the things that they do before those things. For example, osprey, before they dive down to grab some fish, they will kind of hover in the air. They'll flap their wings and they'll stay pretty much stationary before going into a dive. Another important part of bird behavior is grooming. Birds All birds will groom themselves after they have eaten or after they've taken a bath. They spend a lot of time grooming, preening, pulling out feathers, rearranging feathers, getting dirt and other debris off of them. So again, let's go over habitat. Places where they're likely to eat, places where they will nest or sleep when they're not In nesting season, places where they can get a drink and bathe. All of those things will help you to understand and react to the birds. Talking about reacting, I, if I was paying more attention to the osprey that was sitting up above me, I would've noticed that it pooped. It's something very silly, but a lot of birds will poop before they take off. So if you want to get bird-in-flight photos, That's something to watch for. When they poop, get your finger on that trigger and get ready because they're likely to take off. You may even start to do a burst of photos at that point so that you don't miss them when they do take off. 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. A good idea when you're doing bird photos or any type of wildlife photography to be very quiet and to move very slowly and purposefully. As well as spending more time in one particular area than you may otherwise think is necessary. We've talked about habitat. What else? What other behaviors can we draw on in order to improve our photos? Well, I mentioned that with the osprey that was above me and took off, that paying attention for That bird pooping, or other birds, not just Osprey, but other birds, to poop and then knowing that they're about to take off. Paying attention to the order that these animals, specifically birds, will preen in, where they start, where they tend to finish preening, will give you an idea of how long they're going to be in a place. 2 pictures of them actually doing that, that preening, actually cleaning their feathers, can be very interesting. 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. And you will have much better success. You will create much better photos. 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.