Learning wildlife photography – The three P’s

Posted on 24. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell in Everything, Instructional, Techniques, Wildlife, Wildlife photography

Long-tailed weasel pauses while hunting gophers

The three P’s are (in no particular order), patience, patience and finally patience.

In my experience, there is no other commodity of more value to the wildlife photographer than patience; the patience to get up early to meet the sunrise and find some wildlife, only to discover that the animals have missed the appointment; the patience to find a cooperative subject who doesn’t flee on sight; the patience to watch and learn an animal’s behaviour. And, the patience to keep persevering when, after all other conditions were perfect, it just wasn’t the day for any compelling images to be made.

Sure, you might think that you can circumvent the patience thing by visiting a zoo, a game farm or even a spot with “guaranteed” wildlife like Bosque del Apache or the African Serengeti. But even if you visit one of those places, you’re still going to have to dig into your big ‘ol bucket of patience in order to make some great compelling shots. During workshops at the Triple “D” Game Farm I’ve seen people stop watching the action because they are anxious to “chimp” their photos. As a side note, did you ever wonder where that term “chimp” comes from? I’ve heard that it is called chimping because as photographers stand looking at the great photos they just made they start pointing at the LCD screen making that “ooh, ooh, ooh” sound. Anyway, these photographers are busy chimping their pictures instead of watching the animal through their viewfinder. More times than not, they’ve missed some compelling behaviour or a cute post just because they couldn’t wait to chimp their photos.

I once spent many a summer morning camped out on the side of a dusty rode photographing Mountain Bluebirds. It was about an hour drive from my home to the nest box that I’d found with a pair of bluebirds raising their second clutch of chicks and they’d opted for an east-facing location. I’d probably made a couple of dozen trips out to this location. I was determined to get something really great.

Friends and family thought I was crazy for returning to the same spot day after day. Of course, this isn’t the first time they’ve had this concern and I’m sure they were wondering how many bajillion pictures I could take of the bluebirds and could I possibly expect something different each day?

Right before the chicks fledged, two magical things happened on morning.

Mountain Bluebird chicks peering out of a nest box

I was stalking the nest box as per usual one morning when I noticed something bounding through the field neighbouring the nest box. I guessed it was one of the gophers (Richardson’s Ground Squirrels) that inhabited the field. When I swung my lens around to take a look I was thrilled to spy a Long-tailed Weasel. This weasel was hunting the gophers and I caught some pictures as it stopped from digging in the dirt trying to catch itself some breakfast. I’ve only ever seen two of these critters and if I hadn’t had the patience to keep coming back to the bluebird site, I would never have had the opportunity for some unique images.

The second event happened later that morning. Perhaps spurred on by the weasel activity (both Bluebird parents were dive bombing the weasel to keep it away from their nest box) the activity of the chicks seemed to pick up as they prepared to fledge. The chicks were getting curious about their surroundings and that afforded me the opportunity to make a unique portrait of two of them peering out of their nest box.

The images of the weasel and the Mountain Bluebird chicks were made within half an hour of each other. Having the patience to make the 12th trip that summer to the bluebird nest box really paid off. And when I’ve been blanked on a photo trip for a few days in a row, it is always a morning I think back to.

How about you? Have a story where patience paid off? Share it with the rest of us.

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