Wildlife Photography : Experiences

Today I want to talk a little bit about my experiences in Wildlife Photography.

Wildlife Photography
^{Experiences - Successes}

Well, this story could be over after the next sentences because I have no real experiences in Wildlife Photography ;)

Sometimes I take my long telephoto lens or the macro with me with the intention of taking spectacular photos of wild animals or tiny insects in my area, but the sweet Lady Patience never comes with me. She prefers to wait at home 😉 So I go for a walk and I look for animals, but I can't wait any longer than a couple of minutes on one place and then I move on, of course without seeing any animals.

Most animals I see when I'm on my way towards the area where I want to take the photos: deer and foxes crossing the road, rabbits racing my car, birds of prey sitting in trees or flying above me, and many more. Most of these animals are long gone until I find a place to safely and legally (Zac 😉) stop the car or my motorbike. Some of them even wait till I roll my window down.

But sometimes I am lucky ... somehow.

About two weeks ago, I was on a ride on my motorbike when I saw two Birds of Prey in the cloudless blue sky and I found a place to park the bike almost immediately. My good luck was that I have had the telephoto lens on my camera and my bad luck was that until I was ready to take photos, they have flown much higher up, almost too high even for the 400mm lens.
The dark bird is a Red Kite and the lighter one must be a kind of Buzzard or a Hawk .. I have no idea about birds, but I am sure there's someone who can identify it ;)

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Last weekend I wanted to photograph the sunset from a mountain near where I live. The sunset wasn't very spectacular in the beginning, but when I turned around I saw 2 Roe Deer having grass dinner behind me. The male deer (roebuck) must have been in high grass or bushes before because there was still some grass or leaves on his antlers.

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After taking a few photos of the deer I turned around again and saw the sun setting behind dark clouds - the sun was a fire ball and the edges of the clouds were glowing. It looked somehow amazing but after a minute it was over.

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On to the next: yesterday morning I was on a morning walk at the reservoir nearby when I saw a kind of Robberfly on a Flower. I quickly grabbed my camera and wanted to take a macro photo of it, but no wonder, the fly was gone.
Fortunately, right behind the flower there was a leaf and on the leaf I saw a Red Bug. It looked even better than the robber fly and it didn't move.

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As many times with insects, I have no clue what bug or beetle this is - although I have found a few similar looking beetles, but none looked exactly like this one.

Last but not least: yesterday morning I had a coffee on our balcony when I noticed a movement in the tree a couple of meters away. Since I was curious what it could be, I put my telephoto lens on the camera and had a look: a Dove was cleaning herself - nice 😊

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So now, we are at the end of my post and before you tell me I will tell you what I think about my Wildlife Photograpy: whenever I get reasonable sharp photos of wildlife, it's all pure luck ... luck to have a telephoto or a macro lens on the camera and luck to see an animal or even an insect when I'm prepared for it. I better stick with my landscape and waterfall photos because they don't move away 😁

Information

All photos were taken with the Canon EOS R and one of these lenses: Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS II USM, Canon EF 16-35mm 1:4 L IS USM, Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 L STM, SIGMA 105mm 1:2,8 DG MACRO HSM, Sigma 100-400mm F5-6,3 DG OS HSM C.
If you are interested in the image data, I leave all EXIF and IPTC information stored in the pictures.

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take care, stay safe and healthy,

^{Photos and Text: @johannpiber | Johann Piber | All rights reserved - do not use without my permission}