My journey so far, as an amateur wildlife photographer..

I wanted to write down my origin story here and my journey so far as an aspiring wildlife photographer. It is in essence a love story I would say. A love letter from and to my husband. The first gift he gave me when we got married was a Fujifilm X100F — a beautiful point and shoot camera which I used extensively during our initial travels. While I love the outdoors and hiking and doing things that did not really have an agenda, my husband did not love it as much. The one thing that we both loved were animals and birds and he would not mind hiking up trails as long as it meant we could watch birds and wildlife along the way. So in essence, I became a wildlife photographer as a means to an end initially. I wanted him to enjoy going on hikes with me without complaining and the carrot was the birds and animals we will get to see. So yes, it honestly started with that — a means to find an activity that we both enjoyed. I did not know the complexity of what it meant to photograph wildife and birds at the time. If I had known, hmm.. I might have taken a pause that’s all. I enjoy it too much to even think I might have missed this wonderful opportunity to view the world in a totally different lens. Literally.

Though I loved the X100F, it was not something suitable for bird or wildlife photography. Our first challenge was deciding on what camera to choose, which brand, make and model. We evaluated various options from Canon, Sony, and Nikon. I will be honest here - neither of us knew much about what we were doing. I remember that the things that made me decide on the Sony A1 were the AF tracking capabilities and my affinity for the brand itself. Not sure if anyone remembers they used to make Walkmans years ago. It was my constant companion when younger and I have often purchased Sony gear, so you could say I was biased as well. And I do not regret the choice at all. Of course, it is not a cheap camera. Let’s just say it took a while for me to finish my payments on it. Now, this does not in any way mean you need a high-end camera body. If you are someone who is looking to just explore and are not very familiar with the technicalities surrounding wildlife and bird photography, you should start with whatever you can afford. These days the AF and tracking capabilities on most established models are excellent and with a good zoom lens, I would suggest 100-400mm as a starting point, you are good to go. I started with the Sony A1 and the 100-400MM f/4.5-5.6 GM lens. The weight is optimal and the combo is very easy to carry around.

I should also point out that I started photographing birds initially. This was also because the area accessible to me then and now is more abundant with bird life than say big cats or predators. And we both enjoy bird watching, so Shankar with his binoculars and me with my camera, that is how it went, goes.. While I will still recommend photographing birds initially, especially if you want to fast-track your growth as a wildlife photographer, I would also say this is not for the faint of heart. Challenges are all you might face initially. I mean, I cannot count the number of times my frames were empty because between the time I decided to click and actually press the shutter button, the bird had flown. I also had lofty aims or just wanted to punish myself or was mostly simply stupid - you ask why? My first bird of choice - Hummingbirds. * Face Palm * Sigh * If you know you know, else you will know >_<

One of my first images of a Hummingbird captured at the San Francisco Botanical Gardens. Sony A1, 100–400mm

I’m resilient however, and learned what AF-C and focus areas meant, and became the amateur who clicked pretty much everything I saw. I do cringe at that thought now, but it is a necessary step in the process. What came next, burned my wallet even worse. I’m surprised I still have a wallet . So you shoot all these pictures at easily 15-20 frames per second, and shoot them in the RAW (this is my preference) - my poor old age laptop would take 10 seconds just to open a single RAW image. You need something powerful enough to flip through all these images you shoot, and then delete. Only then do you realize you have opened a pandora’s box that is going to drown you and your bank balance >_< You need a new PC powerful enough to quickly process thousands of large images. Then comes the question or multiple questions of where do you store all these images, how big should my storage be, where do I backup, do I need a new laptop because when I travel I need to transfer my pictures, how many external disks, how large, how many cables, please kill me already!!?? * faints *

So you see, we were as ignorant as anyone you can ever find and we did not know any of this when we got into this. It was sheer frustration initially with pretty much everything - since you need a lot, and I mean a lot of parts to work smoothly. Yes, you could manage with lesser, but for things to work a certain way, you need certain things and I’m someone who likes efficiency, so I needed things to fall in line. Tripods, ball heads, gimbals, camera bags, hardware, software, and what not. And no, they did not. It took me more than a year to simply figure the parts that worked for me (I will write down all the accessories I have tested and found to be working for me in another post). Not to deter you from reading further or pursuing your passion, but you get the drift. It was exhausting and defeating at so many stages. Not to mention friends and family looking at the pictures clicked on this fancy gear and questioning why the picture is not clear or close enough! Oh god, I’ll not even go there. It was torture, since I myself did not have the answers or the skills.

Being self taught like many out there, helped by photographers sharing their learnings and experiences on YouTube videos, books, product documentation and personally having lived through taking and deleting close to >50k+ pictures (and I don’t see that reducing anytime soon), I’m at a place where I can say I know a little about what I’m doing now. I’m still not that person who can vow you with specifics. I’m that home cook who cooks great, their food tastes excellent, but they add ingredients without measuring, so asking them how much of anything is a waste.

But here is the thing - just like with anything new to learn and master, there comes this one fine day after months or years of struggle, It all miraculously fits. You just know.

The sun comes out of the clouds and you adjust the exposure and the ISO and the shutter speed without thinking. Your fingers are like an extension on the camera and everything just works! Blood, sweat, tears all culminate onto that moment where the image your dreamed of capturing materializes. I don’t mean those fairly decent images in the 50K that you processed and deleted or kept. You get to a point where an image you wanted to capture - ‘Dream shots’ - is no longer impossible, definitely not because of your lack of skills. Of course, I will have to write about how you even get to conjuring images you want and the challenges in another post - conjuring in the sense that initially you have no clue, but later it evolves, you want your images a certain way, you want certain images and for the challenges, well so many factors that are not under our control that can prevent a picture from being picture perfect or the factors that you should consider before even picking up that camera.. but that is for another day.

All I can say is, if you have an opportunity and passion to photograph, you should give it a try and not be deterred by the technical challenges. They can be learnt and once you learn them, that is when the real fun begins, that is when you actually bring your imagination onto film, into processing, no matter the subject. So, do what it takes if it motivates and engages your imagination. Every picture bad or good is a way forward to learn how it can be done better, and an opportunity to better observe and document a wild life, and we continue our journey along that path!

Feel free to let us know of any questions or any other information that might help you in your journey as well. Stay Wonderstruck!