Maximising reach

> I think your odds are much better spending the time in a place close to home where you can pattern the animals.

 

Oh, indubitably, not that I can spend that much time not being in the office anyway. Unfortunately, in urban bits of Berkshire, my options on wildlife are a bit limited unless you really like magpies (and the occasional yes-even-had-one-in-Yellowstone fox). I could go and practise on some deer in Windsor Great Park, though. My problem is that I think photography should be about showing people something new - which either means I need some unusual behaviour or setting, or an unusual subject. Perhaps it's my judgement because they are, inherently, things near me, but I don't really consider any wildlife living in my locale to be something that people won't have seen a thousand times already. I may just need to try harder and seek some inspiration.

 

Dedication, that's what you need (as the Record Breakers theme tune used to say). Shame I'm fundamentally lazy!

 

For what it's worth, I found it amusing that most Americans in the park were dismissive of the presence of coyotes and excited that a red fox was going past. I've had a red fox nursing her cubs in my garden; I've picked up two dead ones and moved them off the road to avoid traffic incidents. We don't have coyotes in the UK - to me, they're new. To each his own. And, of course, we acclimatise quickly - someone came up to me at Old Faithful (I guess I didn't look lost) and asked where they could see bison in Yellowstone. Er... everywhere? I explained that I had become accustomed to the unique Yellowstone sub-species, the "another bloody" bison. Besides, a bison jam stopped me getting to Grand Prismatic while the sun was fully on it...

 

Now, how does one attach helium balloons to a telescope?

Now, how does one attach helium balloons to a telescope?

A large drone? :)

Don't underrate your local wildlife - what is common to you may be exotic to others!

> Don't underrate your local wildlife - what is common to you may be exotic to others!

 

I have been a bit bemused by guides in Yellowstone getting excited about swans (albeit an unusual species). Maybe I should focus on my local bigwhiteduck infestation...

 

I'll give it a go. This forum may elevate me to being a mediocre photographer eventually!

Did not realize you were coming from UK. You might be ahead to hire a local guide who keeps track of where the animals are, and can find them in specific weather and times of day. Most animals are "creatures of habit." My strategy is mainly to find their food and wait for them to show up. Anyway, there is truth to how we often take what is close for granted, and anything far away is exotic. I have a herd of buffalo about four miles from my house, and drive by them several times a week. I rarely pay much attention to them. Same for coyotes which I see and hear fairly often. OTOH, on my last trip to UK we mostly stayed in Scotland. We spent a day on several unoccupied islands in the Inner Hebrides. My wife and I were astonished at how many birds there were! We were even able to take photos of puffins from about three feet away. I had to switch to a shorter lens to as they were within my len's minimum focus!

 

Kent in SD

There is another park in the West that offers just as many wildlife photo opportunties as YNP, and is much less crowded. It's Custer State Park in South Dakota. No wolves or bears, but plenty of big horn sheep, mountain goats, elk, deer, antelope, coyotes, prairie dogs, turkeys, porkypines, and hundreds of free roaming buffalo. It even has a little bird called the American Dipper that walks under water on the stream bottoms. If I need photos of wildlife, that's the first place I would head. It's much more relaxed there than YNP, too. An hour to the east is the Badlands, which has a surprising amount of Northern Plains wildlife as well.

 

 

Kent in SD

Don't underrate your local wildlife - what is common to you may be exotic to others!

Absolutely.

 

Back in 2002, my wife and I went to Australia with an US photo group. Several of us had long 500mm type lenses. We saw a wallaby (essentially a small Kangaroo) among some rocks in the country side. A bunch of us immediately set up our tripods and long lenses to take pictures of the wallaby. The local Australians thought we were a bunch of crazy Americans. A wallaby there is probably as common as a squirrel in North America.

:-) I almost mentioned Australia, and that the locals give you funny looks when you start photographing the giant bouncing rats.

 

I did the tours on my first couple of trips to Yellowstone (although not exactly off trail) - and there's only so much "trailing around people with radio antennae on their vans" you can do. But I concede I may have done better hiring a specialist; next time, when I'm back with my wife and can better justify the expense. My first two trips to Yellowstone, with guides, I saw no wolves or bears - but probably at worse times of year.

 

Thanks, all. I've had people in Yellowstone point me at Glacier and Denali for better ways to shoot the same wildlife. I'll certainly focus on my local stuff, not least for practice. Still, sometimes it's nice to get a shot of something that's unusual to me! Maximum preparation and realistic expectations, I guess. Or I need to persuade work to let me take longer holidays so I can camp for longer (but I do somehow need to pay for my NAS...)

Sometimes wild life finds you. Was fly fishing the north fork of the American River and had 2 fish that I kept because they took the fly deep and were bleeding dripping out of the back of my vest. Heard some movement in a tree behind me about 40 feet and up 15, it was a mountain lion looking right at me. He was between me and the truck. I left the fish and backed away slowly thinking my wading staff wasn't much of a weapon nor was the 3 inch one hand opening buck knife . They tend to attack from the rear and crush the skull with those jaws and huge, I mean huge looking teeth when you are being stalked. A few years before, 30 miles downstream a lady was eaten by one while jogging.

Bob: That's what a tripod with spike legs is for. :-) But good story. I'm not hugely scared of any UK wildlife, unless the foxes get *really* organised.

I'm not hugely scared of any UK wildlife,

Except in some pubs, and the black adder? :D

> Except in some pubs,

 

Wild? He was livid.

 

> and the black adder

 

Except squirrels? Yes! Bastards! I hate them with their long tails and their stupid twitchy noses. (Wow, I hope that was the reference you meant...)

Living in the deep south we have quite a few varieties of animals to photograph. Not all of them will run away though so if I am out in the woods with a camera I always carry a handy .308 rifle. I worry less about unfriendly animals than I do the unfriendly owners of the fairly common marijuana crops in season. A game warden started to write me up for hunting out of season once until I explained this to him. He had to agree so case closed. If I ever get the chance to photograph bears or other predators I will be doing it with the longest lens I can find. I'm pretty sure the average bear or mountain lion can outrun me so I'll take the biggest head start I can get.

 

Rick H.

I'm a particularly lousy wildlife shooter, but the tip of local wildlife rings true. Returning from a holiday to British Columbia a few weeks ago, in the train back from the airport we bumped into a pair from Vancouver Island. They were thrilled with the canals in Amsterdam, the occassional windmill etc. and we shrugged a bit. We told we were thrilled to have seen a number of orcas near the coast, and the tail of a whale, and they shrugged. It is kind of hard to appreciate what you've got near.

 

I actually love squirrels :-) They're too rare over here, and last time I was in the UK I just carried a tiny P&S :-(

In the UK, there's a 'Cunning Plan' to feed Grey squirrels a kinda squirrel contraceptive so they breed but with no offspring.

 

Hopefully the native Red will move into these vacant areas.

 

To a native Brit, the wildlife, esp, birdlife in Florida is a photographers dream. ... and yes you can definitely have too much reach!

 

To a Floridian, the idea of birders rushing to see an Osprey must be kind weird.:)

I actually love squirrels :) They're too rare over here, and last time I was in the UK I just carried a tiny P&S :-(

 

In that case, have a complementary one of my local squirrels (D810, 300mm AF-S f/4 + TC14):

 

 

Obviously this is an immigrant squirrel, coming over here, stealing our nuts. I don't think I've actually ever seen a red, but I'm really not in the right bit of the country.

Thanks :-)

In the U.S.We have the common grey, red, black, and on occasions, I've come across albino, pure white - those look like something Steiff would make. Locally all I've seen is red, and those only from the car. Edited October 6, 2017 by Sandy Vongries

Greys (genetically - occasionally black) are fairly common in the UK. Some used to live in the (trees of the) car park of my previous employer, so I could watch them while I ate lunch in the car. The one in the image is from the trees around my local lake where they're moderately tame and fairly visible. The greys came over from the US; reds are native, but now restricted to only a few areas of the UK (due to infection and competition). If I see one of those, I'll certainly take a photo!

I don't know if you're ever interested in hiring a guide or doing a Yellowstone workshop, but I met this guy last summer in Big Sky who does both. I bought a photo of his at an art festival, talked to him for awhile. Nice guy.

David Reeves Photography

The best info I got was from an off duty Ranger I met in the bar at the Inn, but then, that's an ecology that I used to be very familiar with!

Sigma 800mm f/5.6 EX DG APO HSM Autofocus Lens for Nikon

$6600

Thanks, Yardkat. The name is familiar; I'll check him out. Or try Sandy's approach. :-) (I did run into a guide who'd taken me on a "photo safari" last year; worryingly he said "I don't normally remember people, but you look familiar", which suggests I was trouble.)

 

beegeedee: Sadly, my level of disposable income means I'm looking at hiring (and again, there's also the 300-800 if I were going to buy a Sigzilla). It's a shame there aren't old versions of a Nikkor 800mm available to be affordable (except the AI-S, and ... I've had that pain with the 500mm f/4 AI-P, so no; wildlife moves). I did notice someone selling and older model Sigma 120-300 f/2.8 relatively cheap recently, but I should probably save my funds for the D850 and updating my 70-200 (and then the 85mm Sigma Art, and either the 105mm f/1.4 Nikkor or 135mm f/1.8 Sigma Art). I'm expecting to be able to hand-hold a 400 f/2.8, so with that I have interest in VR, but for the longer telephotos I'm less fussed - though I did find the VR on the 200-500 helped compensate for the collar instability when shooting. (Annoyingly I forgot my remote trigger.)

 

But if I win a lottery, I'll be back.