A
Beginner's Guide to Wildlife and Nature Photography
The Gear
Ultimately, the
quality of your shots will depend on your thought, skill, and luck. It
is, however, undeniable that equipment will often make or break the
photo. The following is an introduction to camera equipment, and is
intended to make future research easier, and to help you become an
educated consumer.
One of my gear bags with
Rocoh Kr10-Super, 80-205mm zoom lens, 135 mm lens, 28mm wide angle
lens, 50mm standard lens, Auto Zoom Flash, Macro/Polarizer/Skylight
Filters
There is one rule you should keep in mind while
shopping for your equipment: You get what you pay for. Good deals
exist, and smart shopping certainly pays off. Generally though, the
price of a piece of camera equipment is directly proportional to its
quality and usefulness. In the following treatise, I will discuss the
option of cheaper equipment alongside that of professional, with it in
mind that you are just getting interested. Be warned, however: Once you
are hooked on this awesome hobby and great art, you will eventually be
forced to upgrade. With that in mind, let’s get started:
Film
vs. Digital
The great debate.
There are those who will adamantly adhere to film photography for their
entire lives, while there are those who are never looking back from
digital. The simplified reason: both can do the job exceptionally well.
I will point out some pros and cons as applies to a beginner just
getting interested, and try to not get bogged down in meaningless
details.
Film is an
essentially perfected and fully developed system. Film cameras from the
60’s will function just as well (and indeed sometimes better
than) those cameras manufactured today. The bodies are chiefly
mechanical devices with rather simple electronics. Manufacturers know
what they are doing, what they are doing is simple, and
they‘ve
been doing it for a long time. This means they can sell them cheap, so
film is a cheaper up-front investment.
Digital, on the
other hand, will cost more for the equivalent product (that is
comparing point-and-shoots to point-and-shoots and SLRs to SLRs). It
will give you the following options over film: No more buying film and
chemicals (or developing services); this could mean that you will be
free to use more creativity and take more risks since you
aren’t
worried about the cost. Immediate feedback; most digital cameras
include some sort of screen (typically an LCD display) which will show
you your photos just moments after taking them. This is especially
important for the beginner since it accelerates the learning process.
It also enables you to make corrections and adjustments (more detail on
how, later) so that you can take a properly composed photo immediately,
rather than waiting for your film to discover your mistakes. Within the
camera itself, there will be more options available than with film such
as the ability to set the tones of colors and to factor in
the
lighting source.
A 256MB CF Card next to 36 exp. roll of Kodak 400
Film will yield
high quality photos, which only recent digital technology has been able
to match. For this reason, if your decision is between a cheap digital
and film, I would recommend film since it will most likely give you
better results. The game changes when we begin to look at the higher
quality (read: expensive) digital cameras (such as SLRs and mock-SLRs
to an extent). At this stage, both digital and film can yield superb
photographs. At this level, the discussion of the subtle differences in
the two products of the two media are beyond the scope of this website.
If you are curious, just try a search (search bar at top of page), and
enter the world of heated debates, discussions, and photographic theory.
If you have one or
the other already, I wouldn’t recommend switching right away.
The
important thing is to get into the field, and see if you enjoy what you
are doing, before making a purchase. By that point, you will have
gained enough experience to make the right personal decision.
I happen to shoot
digital for color prints, and film for black and white or infrared.
This basically leaves my wildlife photography to be digital while most
of my landscapes and more creative pieces are film. The decision is up
to you, and frankly it doesn’t matter if the only
things
that you care about are having fun, learning, and getting some great
shots.
