MPB Birding and Wildlife Photography

Hey, what's up guys? Profession outdoor photographer David Johnson here for outdoor photography guide and today I want to talk about birding and wildlife photography. Now over the past year I've been scouring wetlands across the United States just like the one behind me looking for birds now not just. Any old bird. I'm photographing blue herons, and this has been my project for the last 365 days and it's been one of the most rewarding, but I wanna share some tips with you on how I've been able to discover some of the hacks for better wildlife photography.

So the number one hack that I want you guys to understand is getting out when the wildlife and the birds are actually out. Coming out here I've just shot several photos in this marshlands that I'm at right now and it's basically midday. I've been out here all morning and sometimes I get out here late, late in the evening. Birds of prey and water birds, especially other wildlife are most active very early. In the morning right before the sun comes up, now this is a huge plus for photographers because that's when the light is softest across the entire landscape and you can photograph some really interesting lighting situations for your wildlife and bird photography.

Now if we're talking about blue herons specifically. They have a very white neck and face and some bluish plumes on the back of their body too. This makes for some great photography when you're pairing warm soft light in the morning and some nice blue feathers on their back, pairing warm temperatures and cool temperatures in one photo, which is great for visual contrast and adding a lot of dynamic energy. To a photo as well. Tip number 2 might not be something that you're already doing, but it's getting your camera off of your tripod and getting it down on the ground.

Think about this. If you're walking around at eye level all the time and you photograph wildlife down at a 45 degree angle, are you really making a connection with your wildlife and are you portraying that back to your audience through your photo? I found the best kinds of wildlife photography, especially bird photography, is getting on their eye level. A lot of birds, even larger birds like blue herons, which I've been photographing for so long now. Really sit low to the ground.

Now just recently I was at the beach and I was photographing these birds right on the shoreline and getting down low, getting the foot of the lens down on the sand as my leveling platform. I was able to create a really Soft foreground to ease you into the photo that creates a really nice transition from soft foreground to the subject of your photography, which is your bird all the way to a background that can also be soft. This adds tons of depth to your photography. And makes it a lot more interesting like you're actually hiding in the grass or the sand looking at the bird yourself. Obviously you want the right gear for your wildlife photography and birding photography and a super telephoto lens is where it's at.

I typically photograph landscapes with a 70 to 200, but if I'm going out for wildlife photography, I stack something like this 150 to 600 lens into my bag. This is just allowing me to get as close to the wildlife as possible without disturbing it because wildlife is very skittish, especially birds, so the longer lens you have and the closer you can get to them, always the better it is. Now speaking of gear. This whole video and all the products included in this video are brought to you by our friends at MPB. MPB is the largest global market for you to buy, sell, and trade, use photo and video equipment.

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So get started with a free instant quote at MPB.com or check out their entertaining and educational content at their MPB content hub for the next tip, I want to invite you to photograph during dynamic weather. Now a lot of you may be thinking, OK, I wanna go out and photograph beautiful light, but I want to challenge your thinking into going against the grain a little bit. And stay out photographing during some dynamic weather. Let me tell you a story. I was out photographing in the crystal sands of the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, and I was photographing this blue heron that was fishing.

Now out of nowhere with the sun still shining in the background, it started to rain. And I could have packed up my camera bag and headed in during the rain, but I decided to continue photographing during this rainstorm that only lasted a few minutes. Now during this rainstorm, the fish and the heron got extremely active, and it struck the water several times during this rainstorm. The warm glow of sunlight paired with the moody tones of the rainstorm also having the rain hitting the water around the heron paired for an extremely dynamic wildlife photo that I will treasure forever and I'll remember that moment forever as well, so stay out photographing during dynamic weather events. It's also important like to have cameras that have a lot of weather ceiling.

On them, a lot of these cameras have a great weather ceiling, including the ones that you can find at MPB.com, a camera with weather ceiling and a great telephoto lens with weather ceiling as well. Lastly, I want you to anticipate great moments. You need to anticipate and watch wildlife when they're doing something like a blue heron fishing or a bird going after a prey. Now this can be very challenging because you need to spend a lot of time in the field watching or reading and researching when animals do certain things. But when you put in the research, you put in the work, you can anticipate these actionable moments.

Now, actionable moments in wildlife are unpredictable most of the time, and they happen extremely fast. So get a camera. I'm using an OM system, OM1 Mark 2. And this 150 to 600 lens. I have my camera set up for wildlife and birding photography for autofocus continuous mode, so it's always focusing.

It has eye detection on my autofocus and it's set up to sequential shooting mode, so it takes extremely fast photos when I can anticipate a moment is about to happen. That allows me to get photos of birds catching fish, diving into the water. And so much more. So use these tips next time you're going out for some bird photography and checking out some wildlife because they can make or break when you're gonna get a great photo and how often you can get those great photos as well.