Right at sunrise is where you’re gonna have the best opportunities.
That’s the timing of the day where you want to be out and you wanna get here before golden
hour even thinks about starting.
In order to get a good successful day out.
It’s the best time to be out in nature because you get that nice lighting but also those
opportunities for wildlife.
Eric Burson is committed to his craft…
So much so, he’ll often find himself driving several hours before dawn, just to get the
perfect shot.
Those have been some of my favorite encounters because you kind of see that intimacy of nature,
that’s not commonly too seen.
And I feel very fortunate that I’ve been able to witness some of those things.
There was a short eared owl that I was able to capture.
Very photogenic short eared owl.
Another one was a snowy owl, and it was a snowy owl eating on a rabbit that it just caught.
That was one of my favorite wildlife images.
I’ve had
plenty of images with deer but the one that stood out to me was the one that
was staring right at me.
When we came face to face with each other right on the trail.
So that’s kind of the beauty of looking at kind of the beauty of wildlife through
the lens.
Kind of you see them in a more intimate setting and you kind of connect with that wildlife
much more than if you were to see them with our own eyes.
Even when not shooting at dawn, Eric has found that patience and perseverance are the best
path to good results.
Sometimes you have to look for beauty.
It’s not always convenient.
You know beauty to me, in my opinion, is rarely ever convenient.
Sometimes you have to go out of your way to find it.
Oh this is beautiful
For today’s expedition, Eric has taken us to Stephen’s State Forest; a lightly trafficked
treasure in Southern Iowa that offers a great landscape to explore for wildlife
or simply fall color.
For me a lot of times this is just exploration.
And that allows me to kinda dive in and see
different parts of the park even after the second,
third or hundredth time.
Along his photographic journey, Eric has found himself exploring many corners of the state.
In fact, Eric has set a personal goal
to capture images in every state park and visit as many
county parks as he can.
Considering his penchant for travel, achieving this goal shouldn’t be too hard.
While I certainly go for those kind of destinations, it’s always kind of along the way enjoyment
of what else can I find,
what else can I discover,
what else success can I have?
I’ve always enjoyed nature photography.
I’ve been a nature, I guess in a way, geek
for many years of my life.
From hiking, backpacking, fly fishing,
regular fishing, you name it.
And that’s kind of the delicate balance
with wildlife photography is that, you want
to be ethical in a sense that you’re not
intruding within their lives or creating undue
stress upon the animal,
while getting a successful shot. So...
It makes the world of sense to me to photograph
nature, not necessarily in a studio but…
this is my studio.
Eric’s studio time has produced some simply
wonderful work; with much of it having been
showcased at the Iowa State Fair, county nature
centers and galleries across the state.
But his favorite recent project found his work
ending up on the cover of the DNR’s
Iowa Outdoors Magazine, capturing the annual
monarch butterfly migration
Last year I was out at the Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge and I believe I really lucked out as
far as capturing some of the monarch butterflies
gathering together before the sun
just had set over the horizon
and a cluster of them grouping around as far
as the tall prairie grass flowers and it was
a promising sign of their return but one of the
most fun projects that I did.
You know helping to document as far as their migration.
You know if you’re trying to find a kaleidoscope
or a group of them getting together before
the night closes, then you have limited lighting
so the sun is setting and therefore the lighting
is coming down and they are getting harder and harder
to find.
So that was the challenge, as far as photographing them
is that, you have to bring your shutter speed down
considerably low, that might create some blurriness
in their wings, but sometimes that can create
an element in and of itself, and that’s
just kind of the art of the photography but.
The conservation element of my photography
is that connecting of the audience and bringing
awareness and attention to and issue that
you know the monarch butterflies had suffered such a population
drop just due to loss of habitat
and other elements that had impacted their populations.
And this is what beauty of nature really is
and if we put our best foot forward, we can
restore a lot of that beauty.
So it just was very happy and kind of floored
that I made the cover and got the news.
So was a very nice touch that come this fall
to be on the fall cover of course.
Projects like the monarch migration are a
perfect example of what drives Eric’s artwork.
Making art, while pushing his audience consider
the world we all share.
To me photography is all about connection.
And what connection people have
as far as connecting with that photograph.
It’s kind of that difference between just
taking a photograph versus making a photograph.
But when you actually slow down and actually
frame up your photograph or you look
for something that’s not necessarily seen
by all, that to me is the difference between
just taking photograph whether that’s just
a vacation picture and you’re making a piece
of art.
I want to help bring attention, bring awareness,
and hopefully captivate some folk’s interest
in help conserving some of our natures beauty.