Interesting Stories
Photographing your subject can be divided into three categories:
In category one, I would place the snapshot. This is the kind of shot, that you have one chance in a life time of taking. Should you miss that moment, then it will be gone forever.
In the second category I would put the taking of pictures. We have all seen these at family gatherings. Your relatives show you pictures of where they have been. In some of them, all you can see is a finger, or they snapped a picture of uncle Charlie's face, while he took a bite off this hamburger. Looking at it you end up thinking it's the Grand Canyon. When they show those pictures, you would rather be somewhere else,
Now in the third category, I would place taking a photograph of your subject. Those are the kind of memory savers which your friends love to look at, and for which you get many compliments.
How do you go about taking those kind of photographs? Taking good photos is not very hard, all you have to do is familiarize yourself with your subject.
The way you do this is, when you to photograph some scenery, take the trouble of looking at it with a very critical eye, as to what you are taking a picture of. Is there a better spot for you to take it from? Can you take the photograph without those ugly looking wires in the scenery? Look for lines of directions, so they may lead your eyes into the photograph instead of taking you out of it. If there is a stream in the picture, use it like a directional arrow, point it into the photograph and the point of interest. Also remember that your eyes will be attracted to anything bright. When you look at something, your eyes will move over what you are looking at from the left to the right side of it; keep those facts in mind also.
Once you have decided from where you can take the best looking photograph, then you will be ready to compose it in the view finder. Too many
You just bought yourself a new 35mm camera, and you decided to take up wildlife photography. Now you are wondering what kind of equipment you will need. Most cameras come with a standard 50mm lens. If you are going to photograph anything as dangerous as bears, I suggest that you get yourself the longest lens that you can buy. Any camera lens above 500mm should be fine for photographing wildlife. What is a long lens you wonder? This is a lens with a focal length of, lets say anything higher then 50mm, while a short lens is anything under that. Long lenses bring the subjects that you wish to photograph, like the bear, closer to you. Using a long lens won't disturb the dangerous animals. ( And they won't disturb you.) You can take your photographs of them without any risk to your life and limb.
A number of years ago, I was staying at the Jasper Park Lodge, in Jasper Alberta. There is a lot of wild life in the area. Someone told me that there was a bear asleep by the lake. So, I went to see it.. I took my 35mm camera along, just in case I would be able take a photograph of him. At that time all I had with me was a 50mm lens. Sure enough, there was a black bear, Ursus americanus, sleeping under the trees. Since I was totally ignorant of a bear's behavior, I carelessly walked towards it. When I entered his "personal" place, or what is referred to in biology, as his "territory," the bear lifted his big ugly head, and growled at me. Let me assure you that never before in my life, have I run away from anything as fast as I did then.
Even though I managed to get only a few snap shots of the bear, to this day I consider myself very lucky to get away unscathed. Although this event did scare me out of a years growth, I learned a very valuable lesson from it. From that day on, I have never photographed a wild bear with anything less then a 200mm lens on my camera. I have had a few more narrow escapes since then, but it was because of the long lenses that I use now, and my fast legs, that I am still here to tell you about it.
This is why getting to know your subject is so important. On many occasions, it comes in really handy. Almost every year there are a number of tourists that get attacked, and mauled by bears in our local parks, because the people insist on getting too close to them. Remember these 'teddy bears,' may look cute, but they are wild animals, who would literally love to have you for their lunch.
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