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National Geographic : 1970 May
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winter because so many people asked the park rangers to point me out and then stopped to ask questions. I finally moved far out into the mangrove wilderness. Two prominent surgeons from Washing ton, D. C., came down to visit us. They didn't know much about photography, but soon fell under its spell. Now one of them goes out year after year to photograph wild flowers in the Rockies. The other takes an hour off, when ever he can, to make pictures at the National Zoological Park in Washington, and photo graphs everything from spiders to birds on weekends at his farm in Virginia. This is an activity that these doctors, and I, can heartily recommend-not only to people more or less close to retirement but to anyone, at any age. You can adjust it to fit your sched ule and your circumstances; you can spend a few hours on weekends at a bird feeder in your backyard, in a park, or at any place that attracts birds. Plenty of Subjects Close to Home In short, you don't have to travel all over the world, or all over the country, to do good wildlife photography. Nor is this something only a few experts can do. You don't need an awful lot of high-priced equipment either. Let's be specific. Besides film, you need just four items: a camera body, a lens, a tripod, and a blind to hide in. Then it's up to you. The camera body I use is a 35-millimeter reflex type. You needn't buy an expensive one, just a good one. The camera I used for five years can be purchased for about $130 (the camera body alone, without lens). Good lenses are expensive, but fortunately you don't need a whole lot of them; one will do-a 16-inch, or 8-power, telephoto lens, called a 400-millimeter. I do 90 percent of my work with this lens. There is a lot of turnover in lenses, and if you are not in a hurry you can pick up a top-notch secondhand 400 mm for about $300, or less than half the original cost. By the way, mention a telephoto lens and a lot of people get the idea that you can just sit in your living room and photograph what's going on far, far away. You could try, but you wouldn't get much; your birds would show up as tiny specks. But you want the frames of your pictures pretty much filled with your birds, to get all the detail you can, for enlarging. Thus the four spoonbills on pages 656-7 -big birds, about 30 inches in length-were shot at 25 feet. The barred owl 648 feeding her young, on pages 668-9, was taken at 15 feet, and the nest full of little Traill's flycatchers on page 658 at six feet-all with a 400-mm telephoto. Buy a good tripod, sturdy and easily ad justable. That might cost about $45. For a blind, I use a Pop Tent, made for hunting, with extra zippers sewn in. It costs somewhat less than $60, or you can make your own. You can get pictures without a blind, but you have to be extremely lucky or you'll never catch truly relaxed, natural action while your subject watches your movements. Once you enter the blind and stay in there long enough, you are completely outside his mental picture, and he will relax and act naturally. I have photographed an adult eagle dropping off to sleep only 35 feet from my blind; without a blind you couldn't get within half a mile before he would take off. The cost of all this equipment adds up to less than $550, the price of a mediocre second hand car. You'll have to buy film, of course, as you go along, but this will hardly be more of an expense than gas and oil would be for the car. If you can't afford that, you'd better forget about serious work. English Sparrows Come Before Eagles After your initial investment you need time, patience, and, above all, experience. For the beginner, it's best to start at a bird-feeding station, or at a place where birds come to drink. You'll learn to manipulate your equip ment fast, until you do this almost automati cally, without worrying about it at all. You must also learn all you can about your sub ject's behavior, so that you can anticipate what he is likely to do; otherwise-except for a case of sheer luck, which doesn't happen often-the action you want to photograph will be over before you can squeeze the button. To improve your timing, you can't do bet ter than to focus on common birds, say ordi nary English sparrows at a feeder. After all, you can't expect to work eagles the first day. Eagles don't come to feeders, of course, nor do any of the big predators, nor the trum peter swans or whooping cranes. These are among the wariest of birds, and must be ap proached most carefully. The first time, don't go directly toward them. Head for a point nearby and sit a while. Or just walk away, come back later, and go a bit closer. Before a bird flies off, he will start to fidget, a tip-off that he is becoming agitated and may take off in a rush. You don't want to reach
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