WildShots

2009 – My photo year in review plus a new contest

Posted on 11. Jan, 2010 by Paul Burwell.

I was sitting back the other day contemplating what a great year 2009 had been. 2010 is going to have to be pretty spectacular to upseat it, but I’m optimistic. My year, like my life, largely revolves around photography and I thought it might be useful to run through the time line and hit on a few of the highlights…

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Canon 5D Mark II Autofocus Sucks? NOT!!!

Posted on 21. Oct, 2009 by Paul Burwell.

I’ve recently had the opportunity to start going through some of my pictures that I made during my recent Spirit Bear Tour. While I normally prefer to photograph with my Canon 1Ds Mark II, I decided to take a chance and exclusively use my new Canon 5D Mark II for the majority of the trip. My original intention in purchasing the camera was the use it primarily for its high-definition video abailities, but I’ve been extremely…

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September Update – Wolves, Lynx and Leopards!

Posted on 08. Sep, 2009 by Paul Burwell.

September has returned all the daytime wanderers (school folks, their parents, folks on holidays, etc.) to their regular routines and my errands today took half the time they did during the summer. It was the beginning of August when I noticed the first leaves starting to turn colour here in Edmonton, and while the full fall colour season is still probably a few weeks away, the trees seem well aware that winter is on its way.

I’m very excited about my upcoming…

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What’s riding shotgun while you’re driving?

Posted on 08. Jul, 2009 by Paul Burwell.

It’s summer here in the northern hemisphere and it is a time when a lot of people decide to take a road trip. Summer’s a time when I too spend a lot of time on the road and I recently got home from about a 3,300 kilometre (~2,000 mile) road trip. Usually when I’m on a trip my timelines are fairly tight and I don’t have a lot of time to take a meandering path or wander too much. But, regardless of where I’m travelling, there is one constant about the trip, and that’s…

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Photog goes crazy, starts shooting video!

Posted on 22. Jun, 2009 by Paul Burwell.

I’ve been facinated by the new hybrid DSLRs that can shoot both still and video images. And the video I saw from the 5D Mark II was really, really impressive. It’s ability to produce high definition video at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (1080p) is really stunning. I’m a bit of a movie fanatic and I think part of me harbours a fantasy of…

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Learning wildlife photography – How low should you go?

Posted on 04. Jun, 2009 by Paul Burwell.

Whenever I teach wildlife photography, I go on at some length, about the necessity of getting your camera gear on the same level as your subject’s eyes. This concept doesn’t only apply to wildlife photography, it applies equally well to photography of children, pets or hobbits. When I teach this concept to a group of students, their eyes tend to glaze over until…

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Top Ten Wildlife Photography Tips

Posted on 30. Apr, 2009 by Paul Burwell.

Creating a tremendous wildlife photograph is an extremely rewarding pursuit. However, developing the skills and techniques necessary to create captivating wildlife images is more difficult than it might appear on the surface. Composition, lighting, equipment, natural history, and patience are just some of the areas…

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Learning wildlife photography – The power of simplicity

Posted on 01. Apr, 2009 by Paul Burwell.

I’m extremely fortunate in that my passion for wildlife and photography has evolved into my full-time occupation. As part of my work, I get to review and critique quite a number of wildlife photographs. When I think back over the images that stand out from the others I am reminded of…

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Learning wildlife photography – When to use manual focus

Posted on 11. Mar, 2009 by Paul Burwell.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog you know that I’m a big advocate of using your camera’s autofocus system whenever possible. While there are better and worse autofocus systems and the debate as to whether Canon/Nikon/Sony/Olympus/Pentax have the best autofocus performance will go on forever, in reality they all have very useful autofocus systems that will usually achieve very acceptable results. There are however, a few circustances where trying to use autofocus will cause more problems then it solves. Read on to learn how to solve this issue…

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Learning wildlife photography – Seeing with both eyes

Posted on 02. Mar, 2009 by Paul Burwell.

Learning wildlife photography – Seeing with both eyes – One of the great disappointments in wildlife photography comes about when we miss, or fail to anticipate some behaviour or action. And instead of ending up with a great behaviour image, we’re left with an image of half an animal or, worse yet, an empty frame. What can you do to help ready yourself for the action?

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