WildShots

Learning wildlife photography – Equipment considerations

Posted on 22. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.

Equipment – Photographing wildlife is often characterized by long periods of inaction, followed by a short period of action and then a return to inaction. If you need to fumble with your equipment to get your subject in focus, or to dial in the correct exposure, you’re going to miss opportunities and those unique shots. Practice and more practice is the prescription for improving and maintaining your skills.

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Photoshop Tutorial-Straightening images with reflections

Posted on 18. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.

I try to keep my horizons level. Really I do. But I’ll be the first to admit that I must have a crooked way of looking at the world because more often than not, many of my wildlife images require a bit of straightening. I do have a bubble level and use it on my landscape shots. But when I’m photographing wildlife I find I’m concentrating too much on the viewfinder to check the level.

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Photoshop Tutorial-My favourite plugin

Posted on 16. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.

Do a Google search for Photoshop plugin and you’ll come up with literally thousands of possibilities. For the wildlife photographer, finding the plugins that can truly enhance your workflow can be a real time saver. A friend introduced me to a plugin called Viveza from Nik Software. It isn’t very often that something comes along that really improves your productivity, but for me, Viveza is one of them.

I put together a short’ish Photoshop tutorial on Vizeza to show how I might use it to enhance a wildlife image. What makes Viveza great is how fast you can accomplish making adjustments which would otherwise involve numerous selections, layers and layer masks. To say I don’t miss those is an understatement.

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How quickly they grow up…

Posted on 11. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.

Back in the spring of 2008 I was very happy to learn that the Triple “D” Game Farm had added a young Grizzly cub to their team.  As soon as I was able, I made the trip down to Kalispell to photograph this cute little bundle of energy.  Her name is Rosie and she’s become [...]

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A Red Fox of a different colour

Posted on 03. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.

Do some research on the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) and you’ll quickly discover that this relatively common canine comes in an amazing number of colour varieties. And this past Thanksgiving weekend, I got to photograph a silver coloured red fox at the Triple “D” Game Farm. Amazingly, at least to me, this strikingly beautiful fox is the offspring of two, very red coloured Red Foxes. From what I’ve read, only about 5% of Red Foxes have the silver colouration.

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Do you need every grass, leaf and branch in its place?

Posted on 02. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.

One thing I’m continually amazed by is how some people seem obsessed with having the animal trainers prune the shooting location to remove every last element that might possibly creep into their view finder and provide a distraction. This can drive people to distraction and instead of working on their photography, they distract themselves worrying about the environment. I’ve even seen photographers miss great shots because they were worried about a grass or leaf.

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Getting low to make eye contact

Posted on 01. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.

I was fortunate enough to visit the Triple “D” Game Farm this last weekend. In addition to enjoying my first US Thanksgiving, I was able to get some personal photography in.

One of the critters I got to photograph was a Fisher. Fishers are members of the weasel family and known for their ferocious hunting abilities. They are particularly fond of hares, rabbits, squirrels, mice and even porcupines. They are one of the few animals who regularly, and successfully, prey on porcupines. Fishers are between 29 and 45 inches (65cm – 125cm) in length and males can weigh up to 20 pounds (9 kg).

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Meet Piper, the River Otter

Posted on 29. Nov, 2008 by Paul Burwell.

I’m just visiting the Triple D Game Farm to do some photography for myself (I don’t photograph during my workshops) and have finally had the opportunity to photograph their River Otter.  Ever since watching a documentary a few years ago about River Otters in Yellowstone National Park that really showed their playful spirit as they [...]

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Simple Photoshop Colour Balance Tutorial

Posted on 24. Nov, 2008 by Paul Burwell.

I put together a short tutorial on a simple method of colour balancing an image in Photoshop. This method should work in most versions of Photoshop from CS to CS4.

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Speaking of workshops

Posted on 23. Nov, 2008 by Paul Burwell.

I vividly remember the very first photography workshop I attended, and it wasn’t a good experience.

It was with a now defunct “school of photography” and featured a self purported “expert” wildlife photographer. The workshop was held at the Triple “D” Game Farm in Kailispell Montana. To maximize my time, I decided to sign up for two back-to-back workshops with a horse roundup photo shoot in between.

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