My Journey In Wildlife Photography

It all started in March 2020, a few weeks before quarantine, as a small biology assignment to identify birds in my backyard for a week. It might seem like a trivial task that a high school Sophomore would gloss right over, only to say they did it. However, this project sent me down a life-altering path, that has led me to discover a passion for photography and birds that I never knew I had. 

Below is the first photo I ever took of a bird with a DSLR. It shows an Oak Titmouse, (one of the common species of birds in my yard) perched on one of the nest boxes that had been set up in the yard before we moved in.

During the week of the biology assignment I spent hours outside walking around my yard looking for birds and learning how to use a camera. Each new species I saw and photographed filled me with excitement. After the assignment was over I continued to photograph the birds in my yard and set up more bird feeders. Towards the end of the summer my dad bought a new camera and lens and allowed to use it regularly. Below is one of my best photos from that summer of a Western Wood-pewee at a local park.

As summer turned to fall my photography stagnated a bit with less subjects and school taking up more of my time. At the end of January 2021 I took an image of a Red-winged Blackbird’s breath which was my best image from that entire slow winter.

As summer arrived and I finished my junior year I started looking much further from home for wildlife. One of the biggest changes that effected my life and photography was getting my drivers license. This allowed me to drive to new locations earlier in the day and stop relying on my parents to drop me off at parks and trails. I started exploring some roads that led up the mountains shadowing my yard and discovered wild beautiful places close to home. Below is a photo of a mountain top poking through the fog. The roads led all the way up to a ridge-top at 5000 ft which led me to discover many new species and amazing opportunities with the sunrise and sunset.

By this time I had over a year of experience photographing birds and I began to try more creative techniques and started manually exposing nearly all my images which gave me complete creative control. At this point in time my biggest growth was in really learning about my camera and exposure and how to use that knowledge to capture more technically difficult images. For example the image below is a mountain Bluebird silhouetted inside the sun seconds before it set. It took both a good knowledge of how my camera worked to expose for the sun and to manually focus in the bird.

Over the course of the summer I gained a lot of independence and was able to drive to many new places further from home. At this time I also joined a community of young wildlife photographers on social media that gave me tons of feedback on editing along with many other things. This along with being able to drive boosted my photography to a whole other level. Below is one of my favorite shots form late summer 2021. A Violet-green Swallow stretching its wings after a long tiring flight during migration.

By the end of the summer I was very deliberate on where I chose to photograph and would spend several days on a single subject. The photo below is a Blue Heron that I spent many mornings photographing at a pond a short drive away

During the fall I began using elements like foreground and bokeh in my images intentionally and this helped make my images more interesting especially since the weather was rainy and cloudy for months. Below is an Image of a Great Gray Owl. I used foreground to pull the viewer into the frame and I’m still very happy with the resulting image.

The next big event that helped me grow both as a person and a photographer was going on my first trip alone for six days to central Oregon and then the coast right at the start of 2022. During this time I was able to focus all my attention on photography and participated in my first Christmas bird count. The image below was taken on one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve ever witnessed and shows a Black Turnstone walking along the top of a massive rock jutting out of the ocean.

At the start of February I traveled with my family to Hawaii for two weeks. During that time I had some of the most amazing experiences with wildlife ever and encountered many new species. Below is a long exposure of a Laysan Albatross roosting on a hill overlooking the ocean and the Milky way.

After my trip to Hawaii I became even more dedicated to wildlife photography and spent everyday photographing local birds. Finally in May I graduated from high school and was able to devote even more time to photography and had a spring full of new opportunities and beautiful places.

Looking ahead I anticipate that the summer of 2022 will be full of amazing experiences and adventures. In the fall I will be attending Oregon State University for Wildlife sciences specializing in Ornithology.