Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2016 i Outdoor Photographer

All my life I’ve been drawn to animals, particularly wild ones. Though I grew up in the concrete jungle of New York City, in my adult years I’ve gravitated to wild, natural places and to the large charismatic creatures that live there, from forest elephants in central Africa to humpback whales in the Caribbean. Sometimes my work has coincided with that affinity for animals, but that’s not how it started. A decade ago, looking for a hobby, I took a course in basic digital photography at a community college. I bought a digital SLR camera with a 100mm ƒ/2.8 macro lens and a good tripod, and I focused on plants. I was fascinated by the camera’s ability to capture the most minute detail and the most intense color. To be…

I still remember the first time I tried a 500mm ƒ/4 super-telephoto lens a few years back, and it wasn’t pretty. Having rented the lens for the weekend, I was overwhelmed by its size, and I was a bit self-conscious to bring it out to a local park in Los Angeles near where I lived. As I was carrying the lens and walking from the parking lot to the river where there was an egret rookery, I felt as if everybody there was looking at me. It took me half an hour to figure out how to fit the heavy lens onto the tripod, and by then I was soaked in sweat. I saw a great egret preening in the rookery about 50 feet away, so I pointed the camera…

When it comes to selecting lenses for wildlife photography, the first thing most photographers look for is focal length—a long lens that can reach out and cover great distances, bringing animals in for close-ups—but other features are also incredibly useful. Vibration reduction makes lenses more easily handhold-able, especially in low light, and a large maximum aperture, such as ƒ/2.8, is also helpful for shooting in low light and at fast shutter speeds. Alternatively, if size is a consideration—and extreme telephoto lenses are big—variable maximum apertures, which change with the focal length, make lenses compact, lighter and more affordable. Here’s a rundown of practically all the telephoto zoom and prime lens options for wildlife photographers using DSLRs and compact mirrorless cameras. Canon Wildlife photographers regularly encounter nasty weather, not to mention…

While mirrorless cameras have been closing the gap, DSLRs remain the best choice for wildlife photography. The availability of extreme telephoto lenses, AF performance, fast continuous shooting rates and high ISO capabilities are all advantages for capturing animal interactions and behavior. Full Frame or APS? Telephoto reach is the most important requirement for wildlife photography, bringing you close to subjects without disturbing them. While full-frame cameras are in some respects superior to APS-C models, for wildlife photography, the magnification factor of a smaller sensor enhances telephoto reach. For example, comparing a 20-megapixel full-frame camera with a 20-megapixel APS-C camera, the APS-C model will give you approximately 1.5x magnification of your lens’ focal length, making a 400mm lens equivalent to a 600mm lens. Keep in mind that this is only true…

I recently attended a lecture given by Frans Lanting about his project “LIFE: A Journey Through Time.” For those not familiar with the work, Lanting set out “…looking for situations in the natural world that provide a window on its past,” to create a collection of photographs that would illustrate the origins and history of life on this planet. The result is a visually stunning body of work that offers fascinating insights into the interconnectedness of all living things. You can learn more about this project, explore a timeline of life and view the photographs at www.lanting.com/experience.html. Lanting recalled a moment photographing macaws in Peru when he realized that local species can serve as “ambassadors of ecosystems.” His eloquent description struck me as particularly meaningful as we were finishing work…

It was just before sundown, and I was laying on my belly in a small homemade blind on a prairie dog town in western South Dakota. I had been sliding into and out of this slim coffin-shaped hide of garden fence and meadow hay from midday until dark for nearly a week, my telephoto lens pre-focused on a spot, resting on an old duct-taped bag of birdseed. Waiting. I was hoping to capture a moment when a burrowing owl might emerge from its underground nest and into the light of day. Then, suddenly, it happened. There, in the cool of the evening, it was as if I was watching an actor being lifted up onto the stage. Through the viewfinder I first saw the top of its feathered head, then…

Wildlife photography is defined by a single overarching challenge: getting close to critters. The elusive nature of our subjects is what makes wildlife photography unique and exciting, but also immensely frustrating. The solution to capturing our skittish subjects traditionally has been the use of telephoto lenses, which allow us to photograph animals from a distance. While this technique is practical and clearly yields beautiful results, it also can limit creative options in terms of the species that we can photograph and the ways that we can portray them. Traditional techniques require finding animals during the daytime and prevent us from using the focal lengths and lighting techniques available to other types of photography. If you want to take shots that don’t have the compressed perspective of a spotting scope, or…

I am a French self-taught photographer, and first started in journalism in 1994 for a daily local newspaper. At the time, I worked with black-and-white film. Because of that experience, I’ve always had an interest in, and an affinity for, this technique, with also a great inspiration from masters like Ansel Adams, Peter Beard, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Sebastião Salgado. Now I photograph only in black-and-white, and my favorite subjects are the animals in the wild and the pristine landscapes. For me, black-and-white is the best way to express the solitary emotion and vitality of wildlife. My aim is to try and forge an intimate bond between the mammals and the human race. I just capture expressions and postures, atmospheres and settings, and let the viewer interpret my work any way…

In the last installment of this four-part series, I talked about creating consistency through calibrating our devices and introduced you to concepts on how to practice ICC color management. The goal was to provide a foundation for printing with a sense of control, by incorporating ICC profiles into your workflow. In this article, I’ll focus more on the how-to of it by covering the important steps and objectives of a typical printing work-flow, the keyword here being important. A typical printing workflow is less about the printer and software you choose or whether you use the manufacturer’s print driver versus a third-party RIP (Raster Image Processor; see the sidebar for more on this topic). Instead, the steps I’m referring to are more universal, and they should be noted regardless of…

Participating in a safari to East Africa is high on the list of experiences for many wildlife photographers. Whether you’re a first-time traveler to East Africa or a seasoned pro, there are universal challenges to be addressed in the planning and execution of your trip. I spend roughly two months every year in Africa. What I’ll share with you comes from a background of hard-earned experience. Having grown up in Tanzania in the 1960s, I have a deep love for the country, its people and the stunning array of wilderness locations to photograph. The year 2016 officially marks my 30th year of leading photographic safaris to Tanzania, so it’s with great pleasure that I write this article dedicated to photographing wildlife in Tanzania. Following are the top considerations that will…