New to Photographytalk

Hello,

I am a professional photographer specializing in bird photography, but I  also photograph other wildlife, landscapes and all that nature has to offer.  I am self-taught and have been at it over 20 years.  I have been active with Photographytalk as a vendor for about 1 week, mainly posting images in the Nature and all Wildlife forum and adding images and descriptions to my portfolio page.  I also post in the Landscapes forum and B+W and General forums.  I share descriptions and many details on how I get special images because I enjoy sharing the experience and my thought processes when I find great opportunity. I share technical approaches based on the situation at hand.  I teach how to evaluate that situation and prepare camera settings in order to simplify the process of attempting to capture a great image.  

I approach bird photography from a somewhat different perspective than many others have in the past 20 years.  The phrase "less is more" has dominated bird photography, but for me "more is more".  More nature, more habitat, more connection to subject(s) environment.  And especially more composition. 


Here is a recent post:



In this post I will go through, in detail, my thought processes and my actions when a good opportunity is available.  I aim to demonstrate how a well thought out plan may pay off.  When this shot presented itself I was driving a back road which had little traffic.  The owl was on my left side (drivers side) when I first saw it roadside so I drove well past it  - almost 3/4 mile, made sure no vehicles were around, turned around and drove well past it again, and turned around again.  Then I slowly approached the owl.  After rolling the window down well away from the owl I placed a beanbag over the door frame and pushed my 600m IS lens into it and leveled the lens by loosening the collar and twisting the piece that attaches the lens to a tripod.  I rested that piece against the beanbag so my view through the viewfinder was level, then I tightened the collar.  This is very important for stability at low shutter speeds (such as 1/320 sec used here), eliminating a  possible twisting motion of the lens. I metered the snow with the van running, well before the owl. Then I added +1 compensation and set the resulting shutter speed and aperture manually.  I saw the composition of the photo as I approached, adjusted the focusing point accordingly, and made sure to stop and turn the engine off at the right spot so the scene pictured would be captured.  From a different angle the resulting composition would not be the same. If I restarted the engine the owl would fly away. Without looking at the owl I cradled my lens and put a lot of downward pressure on the lens with my forearm while smashing it to my face somewhat.  I took as many shots as I could while stabilizing the lens the best I could.  I knew the camera would have a difficult time "seeing" the owl because it was so close in color and lighting to the background.  That is the reason for taking many shots.  Few would come out.  I took 20 shots, 3 came out perfectly sharp with the owl actually looking my way.

The beanbag I used is similar to this one:  SkimmerSack II Beanbag

In a future posts I will go over my camera set-up for bird photography of still subjects and flight subjects.  Its important to have all settings correct.  I will post videos on these topics and others so you can see all details of my approach.

I intend to share all I know with this community of photographers.

"Some see nature all ridicule and deformity...and some scarce see nature at all.  But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself."        - William Blake

When you study nature as a scientist you see relentless imagination. But nature boldly and vividly displays imagination to us via birds. They occur in a mind-boggling variety of colors and patterns. They utilize an incredible diversity of behaviors to survive. They have adapted to virtually every environment on the planet. And they are highly visible to us, so we have been given great opportunity to witness and study these qualities, more so than with other wildlife on the planet. There is good reason to believe the “imagination of nature” is on display with respect to birds.
Birds have great freedom because of their power of flight. They are a prime source of inspiration for our power because they stimulate our imagination. No other group of living things on the planet has had more impact on man’s spirit and psyche than birds.



I strive to share my imagination and the Imagination of nature with you.

                            Paul Rossi


Workshop:    paulrossibirds.wordpress.com/workshops/
Book:     beautifulbirdseup.wordpress.com/home/
www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Birds-Michigans...insula/dp/1684180953
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/beautifulbirdseup/

Hello Paul! I have seen some of our shots already. They are really good. Welcome to the site and keep posting. 

Been digging your work here, welcome to the board!

Yeah! I have seen some of your posts as well! Welcome to the site!