I know what you're thinking.
How in the world did I manage to get a Canon supertelephoto lens
to fit on my Nikon camera? That seems kind of crazy, right?
Well, it turns out, you've been fooled. I don't actually have a Canon supertelephoto
lens. In fact [dramatic music], this isn't even a supertelephoto at all.
The longest lens that I have is a 70-200mm f/4, and I suspect that a lot of photographers are
probably in a very similar boat. Now, I admit, every year I do ask Santa for the 800mm f/5.6,
but so far all that I've ever gotten are some socks. And don't get me wrong; socks are pretty
cool. But it's not exactly the same thing. And I think there's a lot of photographers out there who
are interested in wildlife photography, but how many of them actually have a supertelephoto lens?
Well, probably a lot of them do.
But if you don't - if you're using a 70-200mm like this, or even an 18-55mm kit lens - you
can still take really high quality wildlife photos. This video is going to show you how.
So, I'm going to divide this video into five tips. Is it five?
It's five. You get five tips. Five and a half.
The first one is that you've got to get comfortable providing some context. You don't
always need to have the subject fill your frame. I know that's the classic rule, but just as often,
you could have a smaller subject surrounded by its environment in a way that actually tells a pretty
interesting story. I've taken a lot of wildlife photos where you might argue that the wildlife
is part of the landscape. Is it a wildlife photo? Is it a landscape photo? No one knows,
but you're the photographer, so you're always right. If you want this to be a wildlife photo,
then it is. This is a wildlife photo. These are all wildlife photos if you want them to be.
And you can take these at any focal length! You don't need to be using a supertelephoto lens.
You could be using a "nifty 50," or you could be using a kit lens. Once you provide that context,
the photo can be interesting even if your subject doesn't completely fill the frame.
Tip number two - and this is a pretty big one - is to try shooting close-up wildlife photography
instead of distant wildlife photography. And, that sounds kind of stupid when I say it like that. But
I mean that you could do kind of this semi-macro photography. It's not quite macro, because you
don't even need a macro lens for it. But if you get close to some subjects, like a crab,
or lizards, or anything like that, you can make that subject fill the frame.
You can get up close to it, and most of the time you're probably not going
to scare it away. I took this photo at 24mm. The crab takes up the whole frame.
And, some of these you might consider toeing the line with macro photography. But, again,
you don't need a macro lens in order to get these photos. Almost any lens out
there can focus close enough to get some pretty decent close-up wildlife photos.
This next tip is that there's actually a decent number of animals out there that
aren't particularly scared of people. Maybe they just don't see people all that often,
like on the Galapagos Islands. Or they see people way too much, like the squirrels at
Disney World. Either way, if you've got one of those animals in front of your camera,
you can usually get closer without startling them, and end up with some pretty decent photos.
That's how I was able to take this photo. And this photo.
These photos that you can see right here. And, of course, none of those photos required that I use
a super telephoto lens. In fact, there's actually some animals out there, if you approach them in
just the right way - like an alligator or a polar bear - they might even start walking,
even running, toward you. And that can make for some truly magical moments.
The next tip that I highly recommend is to become invisible.
So, what I mean is that you can do some things to make yourself stand out a little bit less and end
up approaching those subjects a bit more closely. You could use a duck blind. You could use a car;
a lot of animals aren't that scared of cars. I've even found that I've had good luck approaching
some birds in a kayak. Believe it or not, they don't seem quite as scared of the kayak as they
are of a person standing. Some photographers even go so far as to set up trail cameras that
are triggered automatically when the animal walks by. Whatever you do might take some creativity,
but you'll end up getting some really good wildlife photos, without a super telephoto lens.
This next tip is one of my favorites.
Although, the others are, too, which is why I put them in the video.
If the subject of your photo happens to travel in groups, then you can actually photograph
that group as if it's just a single subject. So, you could fill the frame even if you don't
have a supertelephoto, and even if you're not that close. For example, in this photo, I was able to
basically fill the frame with these pelicans even though each one only takes up a small fraction
of the image. And if you compare that to a photo where there's just one bird against an empty sky,
I really like the first photo a whole lot better. So, it's probably self-explanatory; if you've got
a big group of subjects, you don't need to have as long of a lens if you want them to fill the frame.
And there you go! This is the outro. I'm Spencer Cox. Like, subscribe, um, bell notification.
Comment if you liked this video! I always like hearing from you guys. And I'll see you next time.
Oh, and I'm Spencer. Did I say that?