So where do I shoot, er, that is, photograph wildlife? Where to find wild animals? In cemeteries! This is more convenient for me than going to the mountains since I live in a large city (Philadelphia) and there are scores of cemeteries in the area. While I’ve seen my share of wildlife in maintained, crisply clean cemeteries (like this fox shown below at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, PA), it’s the overgrown graveyards (and the ones with patches of woods) that offer more photographic opportunities. Why? Simply because they offer more cover to animals such as deer, fox, hawks, etc. The animals live there - the cemetery is their habitat.
Now, my hero of cemetery wildlife photography is my friend Frank
Rausch, who works (and yes, lives in!) Historic Laurel Hill Cemetery in
Philadelphia. Frank is an accomplished photographer and makes good use of the
opportunities at hand. In his off hours, he has been able to make some
magnificent photographs, not only of the monuments and headstones, but of the animals that live around (and sometimes under) them! I like to tell people that I’m lucky to catch a blurry
squirrel or a little bird on a headstone, but Frank goes for big game. My images pale in comparison!
I’ve
even gone so far as to jest with people by saying that Frank carries a stuffed hawk around in the back of his truck so he can perch it in the most unusual
place just so he can photograph it! Sadly, that is untrue - Frank is just a
better wildlife photographer than I am. The photos directly above and below are examples of his fine work. (Foxes, you'll notice, don't run away from Frank like they do from me!)
Hawk, Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia (photo by Frank Rausch) |
So I decided to ask Frank for advice. But before I even received his reply, I wanted to point out a few things I’ve learned on my own over the years. It should be interesting to see what I may have missed! You can compare the opinions (and the quality of the images) of both an amateur (me) and an accomplished (Frank Rausch) wildlife photographer.
Hawk in Mount Moriah Cemetery, Philadelphia/Yeadon, PA |
Ed Snyder’s Wildlife Photography Tips:
- Go where the creatures are.
- Have your camera (s) ready at all times.
- Scan your surroundings for critters while you’re photographing that tombstone.
- Consider video (if you're on Facebook, you can link to this video I made) to supplement your stills.
- Practice focusing through trees (if there are trees or bushware between you and your furry subject, this will wreak havoc with your autofocus system!)
- Be as familiar as possible with the habits of certain animals (e.g. foxes live in burrows, deer do not, that sort of thing).
Okay, that second one is easy to say, have your camera ready, but it implies that
you also know how to use it properly and you know how to adjust for poor lighting
conditions, rapid movement, and focusing challenges. Wild animals will present you with all these, and sometimes all at the same time! Take a look at the photo above of the hawk in flight. I saw this guy fly into a tree and made a few photos of him sitting on a branch. As he became fidgety, I figured he would take off - but in what direction? I caught him as he left his perch, but this was shear luck. A good habit to develop in such a situation is to not zoom in too closely on your subject! Shoot a bit more of the scene than you want in order to give the animal some space in your image frame. If you're lucky enough the catch the action, you can always crop the image later (like I did with the hawk).
Here's an example of the last item in my list - be familiar with the habits of certain animals. I was recently at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia, a formerly abandoned cemetery whose hundreds of acres are still about seventy-five percent either wooded or overgrown. My friend Bob Reinhardt and I were pushing our way through the waist-high dried weeds (this was December) in an area of the cemetery we had not explored recently. We were walking uphill along a deer run, and there were many fresh tracks and deer droppings all over. While Bob was photographing an inscription on a headstone in the weeds in front of me, I looked up past him and saw a ten-point buck standing about twenty feet away staring at us, probably wondering just what the heck we were doing in his garden! I whispered to Bob to slowly stand up and look at the deer ahead of him. I slowly raised my camera and grabbed a few shots (one you see directly above) before if slowly disappeared into the thicket.
A couple weeks later, when I was by myself at Mount Moriah photographing during a light snowfall, an enormous doe jumped across the road in front of me. I never saw her coming, so I totally missed the photo. This will happen to you. A lot. What plays on your mind when you’re in a cemetery is that you expect everything to be stock-still. I could say that cemeteries are good places to do still-life photography but that would be a cheap shot!
Now here's a wonderful image made by Frank Rausch where, I'm guessing, he exhibited a great deal of patience. There are stories behind every photograph, and Frank has them. He no doubt lied in wait for this turkey vulture to spread its wings for this majestic pose! I know for a fact that Frank does not digitally alter his images, so none of his work is manipulated in that fashion. He never even crops! So, without further ado, let's see what tips he has to offer.
Frank Rausch’s
Wildlife Photography Tips:Ten-point buck in Mount Moriah Cemetery, Philadelphia |
Here's an example of the last item in my list - be familiar with the habits of certain animals. I was recently at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia, a formerly abandoned cemetery whose hundreds of acres are still about seventy-five percent either wooded or overgrown. My friend Bob Reinhardt and I were pushing our way through the waist-high dried weeds (this was December) in an area of the cemetery we had not explored recently. We were walking uphill along a deer run, and there were many fresh tracks and deer droppings all over. While Bob was photographing an inscription on a headstone in the weeds in front of me, I looked up past him and saw a ten-point buck standing about twenty feet away staring at us, probably wondering just what the heck we were doing in his garden! I whispered to Bob to slowly stand up and look at the deer ahead of him. I slowly raised my camera and grabbed a few shots (one you see directly above) before if slowly disappeared into the thicket.
A couple weeks later, when I was by myself at Mount Moriah photographing during a light snowfall, an enormous doe jumped across the road in front of me. I never saw her coming, so I totally missed the photo. This will happen to you. A lot. What plays on your mind when you’re in a cemetery is that you expect everything to be stock-still. I could say that cemeteries are good places to do still-life photography but that would be a cheap shot!
Turkey vulture on statue (photo by Frank Rausch) |
- Stay observant. View your surroundings for any natural habitat.
- Stop every so often. Look and listen.
- Carry at least one Tele-zoom, preferably with at least 200-300mm focal length or longer because your shots might be from a distance.
- Carry a tripod for stability if necessary and for low light shots.
- Polarizer filters are helpful for sun glare.
- If you should spot an animal going into a den make note of the location and if possible return at different times of the day for activity.
- Research your favorite animals to photograph. Familiarize yourself with their breeding, living and possible migratory habits so you can be at the right place at the right time.
- When focusing remember the eyes tell the story.
- A wide aperture will shorten your depth of field and accentuate your subject.
- Be patient. I've waited near a fox den for hours to get the shot I wanted.
- Manual focus may sometimes be necessary if obstructions like branches are between you and your subject.
Cemetery Hawk (photo by Frank Rausch) |
My photo gear is not that sophisticated, but I still manage to get decent wildlife photos now and again. (The ones in this article not attributed to Frank Rausch are mine.) I shoot with a Canon G11 (a “DPS,” Digital Point and Shoot camera, as I call them in my book, Digital Photography for the Impatient) and a Canon Rebel XTs with a Canon 28-135mm F3.5 zoom. Regardless of the gear you use, wildlife is out there to be photographed! Try it and have fun!