Why Photography with Field Cameras

You may be wondering why I am going to talk about field cameras and wild animals? How is that related to my intended focus for this blog? Well, photographing wild animals with a field camera is completely new to me. I have used a field camera in my backyard to document ground squirrels and birds, but nothing of this size and certainly nothing requiring caution. The entire experience was humbling because I didn’t know what I was doing and I was learning on the fly.

I was lucky as a child to be able to have numerous opportunities to wander around a family friend’s farm. I explored orchards, climbed haystacks in barns, and wandering around horse corrals. My mother was an excellent horsewoman and was frequently asked to work with difficult horses. She enjoyed being around the farm animals but she enjoyed the horses in particular. My childhood experiences, however, in no way prepared me for encountering wild animals in the Sierras. Nope, I’m a newbie!

When we bought the house in Arnold, I had no idea how much work it was going to be. We would go up on weekends and work on remodeling, and then I’d go back to work on Monday and hope that I wouldn’t fall asleep. My dad was living with this at the time, and the house in Arnold provided vacation experiences for him. Unfortunately, he was not well and wasn’t a happy camper often! Nevertheless, the beauty of the location was quite a change for him.

While we were working on the house, I began noticing a number of animals were coming on a daily basis, so I began thinking about taking pictures. I’d seen adventure shows where field cameras were used and the programs always made everything look so easy. The camera/cameras were attached to trees, which resulted in perfect photos of animals. I purchased a field camera from Amazon, set it up, and the adventure began .

Prior to purchasing the camera, there were a number of question. Which was the best field camera for my purpose? How to set it up? Which location was the best? It was all trial and error, and because we were there infrequently, I’d have to wait to see the results of my efforts. The majority of my pictures early on were terrible, but over time, my skills and understanding improved, and the quality of the pictures improved. That fired my interest, and I bought another field camera and then another and then another, and I now have a total of five.

While working with the cameras, I was also learning about animal behavior. I needed to understand how to behave or modify my behavior so that I could safely take pictures of my beautiful wildlife guests. After all, I’m just a city newbie.

I’ll share each of these learning experiences in more detail with you in future blogs.