Digital nature photography.

Yesterday my new digital camera was finally shipped to me and, when it arrived, I instantly took it out and got it up and running. I love taking pictures and I also love doing digital nature photography. My wife and I go to the Drive In movies once a week and one of my favorite things to do while waiting for the movie to start is to do some creative nature outdoor photography and take a picture of the sunsets. Where our Drive In movie theater is located offers some incredible sunsets and, now that I have a real digital camera, I will absolutely be taking some pictures of the sunsets at the Drive In. My hope one day is to take a picture that looks like the stock nature photography you see on the internet. The ones where you look at it and think of how great that would look on a postcard. It seems like such an easy thing to do but taking a quality wildlife photo is not as easy as it sounds.

I have entered a few wildlife photography contests in my day. Of course these were long before the days where all cell phones were also cameras. I used to take my Polaroid One Step camera out there and take some pictures of the great outdoors and submit them for judging. I never won anything but I had a blast taking the pictures. Now that the digital age is here I fully intend to get involved in some digital wildlife photography and start submitting them to photography contests as well. The only thing I have to work out is whether or not a picture of one of my cats attacking a bottle cap is considered wildlife photography.

I have a great deal of respect for the professional photographers that do wildlife photography for a living. However in some cases I am like most people and I wonder how many times you have to hit yourself in the head with a hammer before you consider getting up close and personal with an alligator just to get his picture a good idea. But getting just the right shot of wildlife is definitely not an easy task and it can be downright dangerous. When you have a moment, just watch one episode of any of those nature shows where they go to the far reaches of the planet just so that the world can see a rare snake or an endangered lizard. It may seem crazy to most of us but it is a craft that requires a great deal of knowledge, a great deal of ability, and more courage than I could ever muster. Next time you see a photo of a charging rhino just remember that some wildlife photographer had to risk his or her life to get that shot.

Nature photography is also an art and I would love to be good at it. However the ability to take a picture of the perfect sunset requires more than a $100 digital camera and a good seat at the Drive In movies. Quality nature photography requires an extensive knowledge of lighting, photography, and geography. It is entirely possible that the best sunsets to be featured on a postcard do not happen at my local Drive In theater. But for now that is what I will use to practice my photography skills.