One of things I love about wildlife photography is the serendipity part of it. Never know what you can get.

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

I hear you on that one. I love the lucky unexpected surprises 🙂

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Yes that makes it exciting for sure

@Noam_Kinrot

Ай бұрын

I also, from time to time get my best opportunities as a "present" - meaning unexpectedly, while driving from the 'hunting' area to the road towards home, or to the 'hunting' area, but before one might expect to get these.

In 1997, back in the day when I was working as a professional, using transparency film, I had loaded my car with all of my images in preparation for a move to a different location. It was locked and in the apparently secure garage of my apartment building. A short time later I discovered that the car had been stolen, and when it was eventually discovered, all of my images: that is about 16 years' worth of transparencies from both work and personal shooting, covering travel round the world and meeting and marrying my wife, had been burnt on the side of the road. I was in tears... When digital came along, I quickly embraced it for, amongst other benefits, the ability to make multiple back-ups of my images. BTW, I thought that I had lost all of my images, but a couple of years ago, I found an old box with a bunch of reject and duplicates that at least gave me back some images from that period. I had them professionally scanned and they are still prized for memories of that period in my life.

@mikeabc5355

Ай бұрын

You must have lived in one of the Democrat-run cesspool cities.:)

We hope you guys enjoy the show! Did you enjoy these little tips????

@cathco9

Ай бұрын

I always enjoy the show. You and Jan complement each other so well.

@ram9midde

Ай бұрын

Yes....very much

A bird feeder with seeds, a perch to photograph birds (near the bird feeder) and a photo blind in your backyard. Sometimes that's all you need and it's what I used and will continue to use.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Love it!

Cool stories from behind the scenes. Thanks for sharing and for the tweaks.

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Cheers!

Loved this episode. Your honesty is endearing and empowering. Keep it up!

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Thank you so much!

Thank you for making this video and sharing these stories. It is good to remember that even the professionals take thousands of photos and may only get a handful of ones that they are willing to work with.

Great to see the acknowledgement that an image cannot be captured 'in camera' but that perfection is achieved only by adapting what is initially captured.

The real secret is to be there. Watching videos is useful to a point . Looking at other people’s photos is helpful. This helps form a personal perspective on what you like.and builds a muscle memory in our brain.Then try to create your own personal versions of what you like where you are not where you would like to be. Now bad weather is not always a reason to stay away from photography in fact I live in Manchester England . I never get great light normally cloud over cast and rain are part of the picture not a problem to it. I really am impressed with you guys blogs and tips. So a big thank you . Some of my best photos are not always my sharpest or most planned out . What they tell me is to rethink what I am doing and give me alternatives for bad weather low light taking photos at a distance and most of all enjoying turning them into something interesting by just taking photos. This is what drives me do you see yourself in that comment. I hope so .

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Absolutely. The more time in the field the better!

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing. Clouds are the best weather tho! 😆

@mylucksmiles

Ай бұрын

@@jan_wegener in the uk they are a part of life. Learning to use the weather as it is in the uk for sure a learning curve. Look at the dramatic sky’s that bad weather brings. Really sunny days help the settings bring out great light photos if you want sunny photos. My point is not everyone lives I sunny a country. Don’t be afraid to sing in the rain . But thanks for your reply. Some of the great dramatic photos have images of dramatic weather . It’s all good when enjoying the craft of photography. Great channel by the way helps many people including myself

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

@@mylucksmiles I like shooting in clouds the most, but the sun can be nice, too of course

Thanks you guys. This video makes me feel normal. Seems no matter how many shots I take, sometimes I only come home with one or two keepers. And other times nothing, because reasons. 😄 Being out in the fresh air makes all the difference in the adventure.

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

I always think if I get one or two good ones each time I go out that's actually a successful mission 🙂

@jettysplash

Ай бұрын

I hear ya@@GlennBartley

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

It does! Thanks for sharing and the donation

Great video as usual guys :) I love "set-up" photography, as well as totally natural shooting in the field :) Although, sometimes even in the field, I might move a weed or two out of the way, or move a few leaves, etc.

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Yes! I agree. Both styles are great and is what keeps things interesting!

Another great episode of The Bird Photography Show. You need to plan on making mistakes in the field - with malfunctioning equipment or getting lost or not having ideal conditions. You can acquire great images in the field but editing images is essential. Proper editing is essential in bird photography. I've been using your prosets for quite sometime and it saves time in the editing of RAW images.It is the beginning of my editing process. I recently got your brush sets and I am getting a greater understanding of the value of using masks and brushes to take the image to the next level. I've also used your master class in workflow Jan and this is extremely helpful in the editing process. I plan to get your ebooks of processing Glenn. It's like you said in the video: everyone has a different style and a different idea on the perfect image. I can take steps from each of your editing processes and add them to my workflow to take my images to the next level. I appreciate each of you sharing your experiences to make bird photography a better experience and ways to take our images to the next level.

One of your best, thank you guys!

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

Interesting comment on reflections, something I have had trouble making decisions about,thank you gor your thoughts,great video

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

Oh Jan I laughed out loud on the ‘panic button’! Great stories and very entertaining video 😊

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Now I can laugh about it, too 🙈

Great video, with a lot of great tips. Liked very much the way you do it with the batteries and memory cards Jan. For sure will start to do that from now on. And as always, the photos from you guys are just amazing. What you said about the time using to get a photo, i know very well. Planning and persistence is very important. I managed as i have told you before, to be the first person in history to photographing the jaguar here in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. But it was a lot of work to manage it. Did go out every day for several months to look for footprints to find out how long time it was between his visits to this area to find a pattern in his movements. After that it was sitting and waiting and waiting until he finally showed up. But when you finally managed what you wished so much for, you forget all the time out in both rain, wind and cold, something that it can be here in the south of Brazil. Just so sad that around 5 month later a hunter did kill this wonderful animal. After that i managed to photographing 4 other individuals totally 14 times. But it was all because of the planning and that i never gave up. In total i used more than 2000 hours with this jaguars. Another bird that i used a lot of times to find, and photographing is one of the Ant Pittas we have here. After i managed to localise it, it did come people from all over Brazil to photograph it in this spot that i did find, so it was a lot of guiding in this time hehehe. Wishing you both a great week. Cheers, Bjoern

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Wow. What persistence for the Jaguars. Great job!

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Lots of dedication! Great work

Thank you, guys, for great video. I recently lost all my videos and photos from photoshoot because of corrupted Hard Drive. I cut all files from Memory Card and paste them to Hard Drive. Something happened during transfer, and I was not able to open any photo or video. Thanks, Jan, for advice about not deleting files from memory card immediately. Now I copy files from card to HD and test to see if I can open and see the files before I delete and format card. And, thank you both for showing your photos. They are amazing.

@garyholmes8515

Ай бұрын

Tough lesson. I try to have back up on two drives while on the road. However, I even had a nas drive fail. If you still have the drive you may be able to have it saved I had my nas drive fail and sent off all 8 discs to be recovered. It saved everything.

@miloradvujica5087

Ай бұрын

@@garyholmes8515 Thanks for advice. It was newly bought HD and I just return it. All files were from photoshoot at nearby park and I went there next day and reshoot everything. I was even able to post Video on my KZread channel. kzread.info/dron/oY3LxrbB7362D-SpsABa-A.html

Turning the SD card upside down in the case is a terrific idea, which I am going to do. Thank you Jan. I went to wetlands in Pitt Town NSW which turned out to be a really large area, but there wasn't a boardwalk around the water which meant you couldn't get any closer to the birds than the far away hide. Although I had a APS-C camera & a 100-400mm lens, it just didn't give me the reach to capture any detail at all of the birds, which was disappointing. Lovely choices for Photos of the Week.

I love the Mask Sharpening tip, that is really helpful,

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

For SDCard safety you can use the read/write lock switch to read-only to "mark" the SDCard as "do no delete". I also use a USB SDCard reader but it is a dual reader so I can plug it into my smatrphone and use some sync tools app like FolderSync on Android (such app may exist on iPhone) so I can continue to work on my main SDCard without fear and then use the secondary SDCard for whatever I want and plug it into computer back home, also when I extract SDCard from the camera I always lock it read-only before inserting into any SDCard reader / computer to reduce the risk of bad action.

07:42 Yes! And, even though I noticed while still having a few hours left on the location, those very good birdphoto chances never reproduced themselves... as they almost never does.

I despise set-ups (not against anyone using them, I just despise them) I prefer Wild Animals/Birds doing wild things - YES it's way more challenging then setting up to get "THE " shot - but that's what keeps me going - it's the "chase" Wildlife Photography is just like hunting to me, just with a different weapon.

@Noam_Kinrot

Ай бұрын

I hear you, but have found that ambush hunting" yields for me better results (calming oneself down while staying in one area with/without a blind - I use camo suite instead of a blind - and moving sporadically, and not in a direct "hunt" not to spook the subjects of my photos. For instance, when closing on s subject, diagonal moves or lateral moves will abate its FFF instinct.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

We all do it for different reasons and there’s no right or wrong at all. I think it’s just good to know how different images are created. For many people including me, having a few birds come to the backyard is great to see and adds a few extra photo opportunities

@davepastern

Ай бұрын

I'm not a fan of perches, baiting or calls either. But, different horses for courses. I do find it amusing that many wildlife photography competitions don't disqualify entries if they use perches/baits/calls, but will disqualify an image for ANY cloning...stupid really.

@Noam_Kinrot

Ай бұрын

More so - they seem colorful and beautiful - not a prevalent sight in my country.🙂@@jan_wegener

@TheWildlifeGallery388

Ай бұрын

@@jan_wegener - Totally agree with you - with an exception if I may - you say " there's no right or wrong at all" - I know there are many so called "rabbit holes" of every scenario and situation, and I'm not intending to take you down any of them. This might be a very good video idea as well? - how far is too far? I see nothing wrong with a set-up for instance in your back-yard - but conditioning Wild animals to feeders & perches tend not to turn out so well for the Wildlife we all profess to love. And I know some species are so timid and shy and rarely come out of a bush, so people attract them to a spot where they can get a photo. There are far too many people out to get "the shot" they totally disregard the impact they have on the Wildlife they're pursuing. For the record I'm not implying you guys are promoting this at all, I cringe when you guys show the amazing shots you get and then show the set-ups and how you were able to get that particular shot - then I think to myself, whelp there goes another thousand people headed out with bait, zip-ties and makeshift perches. Just my 2-cents and it won't buy you a cup of coffee. Happy Shooting.

Thanks for sharing. Would you mind sharing the software to recover images? My SD card stopped working and I am trying to recover the images. It gives an I/O error if I plug it in.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

They usually come with the better brand memory cards like Prograde. Maybe check the box if you still have it

Sometimes you just get lucky, at my local Nature reserve I just got one of the rarest birds here in the UK the Cetti's warbler, just off the path. But it still took years to get the photos and video as it only poses at this mating time of year . 🤔

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Nice!

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Well done

Thanks.......

I know you've had your masterclass out for a while now and I was just wondering if keep it up to date with any new steps/methods or tools in the workflow with the Adobe newest features. Cheers Jan (and Glenn), love your channel mate.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Hey, Most do the thing I teach in the Masterclass are pretty much timeless. Layers, masks etc. it does not include the latest AI, but will teach you a lot. There will be a new version at some stage, but I will make sure that everyone who owns the current class will be very much looked after

One very nice feature of Lightroom Classic is that it has the option of copying your images to a second location on import. It can be a real life-saver!

Thanks Jan & Glenn for this interesting episode ! The most silly mistake was dropping the RF1.4x in the mud the very first time I wanted to use it, being too hurried when a buzzard was nicely sitting .. The most annoying problem was my 100-500 being fogged internally for nearly 2 days. Lenscoat got wet the previous night, and room airco was 10 degrees colder than the still humid air the next day.

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Oh shoot...ya that fogging would be very annoying indeed!

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

That’s annoying! Now that you say it, I remember losing a 1.4x TC 🙈

@WernerBirdNature

Ай бұрын

@@GlennBartley exactly, it happened on the second day of our trip, and it was frustrating not to know whether it would be cured in time for the challenge Jan gave me, which was getting images of the Bali Starling. So I was overjoyed when getting them on 2 spots 🙂

@WernerBirdNature

Ай бұрын

@@jan_wegener I was "professional" in dropping it in soft and humid mud instead of on some rocks 😛

Hi Jan ! At 17:26 you show a very nice picture of a pink robin. In the description it shows R5 RF 100-200 with tc x2@1000mm. Did you mean R5 RF 100-500 ?

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Yes he meant 100-500

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Yes 100-500… fat finger… 😆

@steveparent8788

Ай бұрын

@@jan_wegener 🤣

Can you make a video discussing the different ways to make money in wildlife photography/videography?

Let’s find out 😎😃

Jan, not sure if you tried this. Canon EF600 f4 on R5 I run the adapter and have been using EF 1.4 or 2x between the adapter and 600mm. I just got RF 1.4 and 2x. I haven't tried it, but what do you think about using the RF say 1.4 TC then the adapter and then EF600. Not sure if that would work. If you have tried it assuming it works, thoughts about which way is better. Thanks Tom

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

You cannot adapt RF extenders to the EF lenses

My quiet thing was discovering that following Murphy's law, when I had only one battery - it died on me just when I had the perfect moment. Since then, I use the side-grip (with a quick release 2--battery "boat"). If I spend longer times away from my car (and camera bag) - I also have 2 batteries in a spare "'boat" ready to swap in one of my pockets.

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Always good to have an extra battery and memory cards that's for sure!

@Noam_Kinrot

Ай бұрын

@@GlennBartley S true. More so for us - wildlife photographers (pros and enthusiasts alike), since Murphy''s law also proves that when you come prepared, somehow - it doesn''t apply anymore.. 🙂

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Yes dying batteries can be very annoying!

@Noam_Kinrot

Ай бұрын

Notice that they chose to die on you only when the shot is critical and not before?@@jan_wegener

Love Glenn's vodka glass..!!!

Yup just now recently epic fail with the z8 after removing liveview in yhe viewfinder i had set the brighness in very bright…. Didnt realise it would show my image in very bright too … 200 shots underexposed after 😂😂😂 i felt solitude when i reviewed my shots on lr

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Well at least you probably wont do that again 🙂

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Yes the evfs and screens can fool you!

@scuba-people

Ай бұрын

@@jan_wegener in this case i ve done many test of the z8 underwater. I was shooting blackwater very cool but long story short using macro in a dark environment i struggled alot with the af.. a similar situation which i didn’t with the d500

You mentioned brightening just the eye on a couple of your photos. How do you do that only using Lightroom Classic?

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

You can use a small brush. Select just the eye and lift the exposure

Right now using Canon R8 with the RF 100-400 and RF 600 but have the 200-800 on order whenever Canon decides to make enough

I lost all my data from the eclipse…I was able to view all the raw and jpegs once and thought they were ok. Exhausted from weeks of prep, no sleep the night before and strung out from the road, I went to sleep. Next day, I looked at five that I marked as favorites and cried after viewing them because they were far better than I could ever imagine I was capable of achieving and completely exceeded my amateur goals. I placed my phone, connected to a card reader down, to grab a tissue and when I picked it up a few moments later- “message reading do you want to undelete data?” - pressed yes-… “data cannot be retrieved” popped up and……😢. Suckiest lesson I’ve ever learned from something I love and put so much time and effort into

@jan_wegener

26 күн бұрын

That's terrible, sorry to hear that. Did you plug the card into your phone?

@melanienolley

25 күн бұрын

Your card may still have the data on it. Try using a recovery software. As long as you don't use the card and write over it, you have a good chance.

Also, on a similar but not exact same note, from the analog time (1988). I was on a field, stalking a flock of Large Grey Babbler in NW India, and knew I was on the somewhat end of the film, so I had 2 empty films in my pocket. The film got to 36, so I put in the new one and the old one in my pocket. I was really making progress with the birds, and had gotten down low. Not flat on my stomach, but at least half-crawling. Got some nice shots before I got to 36 again. Had a second empty roll in the pocket, swapped to that (nope, not the wrong one, it WAS the empty one) and put that roll in the same pocket. Continued my crawling, but those film-changing activities maybe made them wary (or they were done foraging on that field) bcs they kinda melted away. So, I rose, brushed off my knees & elbows and returned to the group, beaming. As with all group-travel, the time was up and we had to move on. I groped in my (sadly too shallow) trouser pockets, to put the films in the bag for films to develop at home. Alas, only one film in the pocket, not two... You get only one guess which film that slipped out of the pocket while I was still crawling around on that field (Yeah, it was the good, close one). I still got some photos from the first film, but those were taken when the birds were quite far off 😞

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

In those film days even more things could go so wrong!!

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Oh, I am glad the film days are being us, changing the rolls all the time sure was a hassle and you never knew if something went wrong for a long time too

I'm about half way thru the video and I am betting there is one thing I assume you'll say that almost every situation involved: Patience

I'm an advanced hobbyist bird/wildlife photographer. I hear a lot of talk about photographing "a bird on a stick". I am wondering if there is anything wrong with that type of photography and is there a preferred way of photographing birds that is more liked and desired?

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Nothing wrong with that at all. The term is just being used by some people to say something else is more desirable or better. But in the end it’s most important to do what you enjoy the most

Theres something that i would really love to see in all the contents of the KZreadrs talking about wildlife photography : VIDEO TUTORIALS !!! I know that we mostly do photography but almost always in the videos of Jan or even others, there are some video footage that are really amazing ! Am I the only one who would love a few more videos about video settings, editing etc ? Cause personally I’d love to see more about this cause I almost never shoot video cause I don’t really know how to do !

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

If you scroll through my videos you will find a few good videos ones, but they usually do poorly, so there's not a lot of incentive to pump them out.

Yes, the recovery software works great. I have changed my method, but I once erased the card with about 500 photos before downloading any photos :( I got them all back with the software.

Great tips. My best/worst memory card incident. I happened to come across a BEAUTIFUL fox. I had the right lens, great lighting, fall scene, everything! .Took 100s of shots.. Looked at it on my computer, PERFECT. I needed to access the SD drive, so I took it out and then I think I had a quick bathroom break. When I got back, my dog had found the card and bit into it, cracking it and totally ruining it. I wanted to be mad at the dog, but it was totally my fault. Lesson learned.

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing!

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Oh no!

As a fairly new amateur wildlife and birding photographer, I’m still confused as to whether staging with food for birds is acceptable. If we baited wildlife it would be unethical and dangerous, but yet baiting birds with food seems to be ok. Also when entering wildlife photo contests, if you are a contender, they ask for the original raw image, would you be disqualified if the image showed staging? I a bit confusing. Thx for all your help ! 😊

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Hey, There's no right or wrong, there's people who like to have birds come to water in their own yard for instance and take some photos and other who say that's even too much. So it's just up to you what you like. There will be a lot of staged shots or shots of tame animals in photo comps, it's hard to tell most of the time.

Recently back from Southern Africa. Went during their "green season" for best chance of photographing birds. But due to drought, experienced a situation like Jan described, and very few birds in areas that were normally very active. The worst the guide had ever seen. These days very hard to predict when you have to set up a trip a year or more in advance. Still a great experience since I don't depend on getting great photos to make a living.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Yes, anything depend on water is tricky. We can have the opposite here, too, when you want to photograph bits coming to water and suddenly it rains a lot!

I label my memory cards and batteries so card 1 is used ill of Couse be on card 2 in camera, same with batteries I take 2 batteries with me in a day and of course battery labeled 1 will be in camera.. a simple DYMO Label Maker for $50 on amazon saves a lot of headaches, I also label my Hard cases one for canon one for sony one for nikon and label everything on the hard cases that is inside all lenses batteries and accessories.

One thing I also suggest is using a local guide. They know where the birds are.

I'm still using a 5DIV.

Since I do wildlife photography for my own passion and enjoyment and not for money, I'm not interested in staged shots any more than I would be interested in hunting over bait. It takes all the fun out of it.

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

To each their own!

Epic fail or mistakes, going out with a big long less, not using even a monopod, not having a flash or better beamer, and trying to get pictures of stuff that was way too far. Always looks ok in viewfinder, never in editing. At really long lenghts I feel cropping hurts the image way more.

People just starting out in photography don't always appreciate how much work goes into getting the finished images they see online or in the magazines. It's a shame, as some might leave the hobby because they can't get the same results.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Like with everything, hard work will get you where you want to be eventually

"Color casts" are one the always confuse me - what do you do when the ambient light is not neutral, ie during golden hour? Do you white balance it so whites are white, or leave the warm light as is?

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

That’s what I do. Too golden light is not something I enjoy too much in my photos

I'm a wildlife photographer if you know your subject and it's habitat and habits you will get the shot. It doesn't matter how long it takes, how many months, or years you must never give up.

Glenn that collar flipped in detracted me the whole show 😅Keep up the content love your guys work!

@TheBrad32

Ай бұрын

I stand corrected! That mid show fix at least was satisfying!!

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Haha....I had my mic there and then moved it and didnt notice the collar until mid way!! I need a wardrobe assistant I think.

@TheBrad32

Ай бұрын

I’m sure that a job a lot of people would take, especially if it meant free bird photo trips! You were just testing Jan to see how good his video editing is! 😂 hard fix but again you guys rock every episode. Thanks for the content, highlight of my weeks

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

I noticed it when editing and tried to ignore it 😆

It may or may not be a silver bullet but the one thing that has to happen is that there needs to be a reason for the birds to be there. It might be a clay lick in the Pantanal, a water trough in the Outback, a berry bush fruiting out of season, or a feeder in your back yard. But you must either find that reason or create it yourself. Without that reason, you rely on chance - you don't want those odds. Find the reason and a stronger reason is better than a weak one. As to creating the reason, many feel it is cheating, easy, or not even wildlife photography. These are often the same people that feel that all photography is journalism. But is it really? "The camera doesn't lie" is fiction in itself so unless you are actually working for a publication of journalism, we can put that false perception to bed. In fact, even the bigs in journalism have been and are exposed from time to time as not upholding their journalistic standards. My own bottom line is that if I choose to enter a competition where rules are laid out, I will follow those rules to the letter. If not, my own art is as free from restriction as I choose to make it as a creator of art. And my prerogative to do so. Creating a set-up is not easy either - only once you have made a successful set-up that the birds are responding to, then the actual photography becomes easier. But you build a set-up and that is work. To construct a proper one you need it to be not only attractive to the birds but beautiful as a scene, a stage that will support but not detract from the star of your production. And to attract, it not only must have something the birds want but be set about in a manner that the birds feel safe to visit. A situation that offers much reward with little risk. So building a set-up requires a lot of hard work and a good psychological understanding of your subject. When you consider all of that, does it still seem like cheating or easy? Did I mention that circumstances beyond control often have you leaving without the shot - yes, that happens too. One last mention of hard work, to make the point. Great video, kind regards to you both!

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Extremely well said Kevin. I couldn't agree more... 😎

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Well said. And I totally agree.

Spent a day at Dubbo Free Range Zoo in NSW Oz, Took over 2000 images, RAW and Jpeg, I cropped a few and posted them, but forgot to back up the card and lost the rest

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

That’s sucks

Jan, I thought you were going to show us the time your lens hood fell off the camera while inside a photo blind. All the birds on the perch flew away if I remember correctly. Many photographers there seemed to really get a good laugh at your expense. 🤣

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

Ouch...I'm sure some not so happy campers 😲

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

You have a hood memory! That was a good one too

I formatted a card full of wedding photos once. Luckily, I had a backup (almost by mistake!). Since then, I follow a protocol religiously: a card does not get formatted until I've *verified* those photos exist on two separate hard drives. I never want to go through that awful feeling again.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Yes, that’s the way to go!

You never know what may or may not happen... Where I live there are a dozen or more winter berry trees that attract a variety of birds. Every year for the past ten or more years, very large flocks of wax wings have shown up... sometimes earlier (late December), sometimes later (mid-February). The wax wings are usually accompanied by other birds in smaller numbers. As a group they completely strip the trees of berries in a week or less. Except for this year! As of right now, late in March, I've seen no wax wings, no robins, no birds eating the berries at all! The trees are still loaded with berries. I have no idea why.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

What a shame they have not come! I never managed a good waxwing shot!

I was still new to my DSLR in 2007 and a friend asked me to shoot some pictures of his proposal. I forgot to charge my batteries and when I got there I only had one bar on the battery meter.

@jan_wegener

29 күн бұрын

scary!

Hi fellas I’ve been watching you both for a while.. I’m a full time traveller around Australia so I can go to where the action is quite easily Its ok to put water out (especially in the 40C plus days) and this attracts lots of wildlife BUT I have also been putting seed out to attract birds for a long time, but I recently became aware that feeding ANY WILDLIFE in western Australia is illegal. Whoops! I totally understand why because people feed the wrong things to wildlife which can be harmful.

My worst experience and most annoying time shooting birds was thankfully quite a few years ago. Myself and my friend Christine had driven several hours from Cumbria to a place near Warrington to photograph lesser-spotted woodpeckers. They are very difficult to find especially in the north of England and on arriving at the car park it had just come light enough to think of setting the camera up. Christine said she was going to have her breakfast in the car and I thought I would get my trusty canon 600mm out and assemble it on my gitzo tripod when I heard her call out there's a woodpecker in the tree above the car and it looks small! I looked up to see a male lesser-spotted about twenty feet away. I could not believe it so I hastily grabbed and hand held my 600mm and thought I could grab some quick shots. I pressed the shutter and my camera went black with the shutter closed, what had happened, what's going on? I then realized I had been photographing a comet the night before and had set a 30 second exposure!!! several polite expletives later when the shutter opened I was able to set the camera up and take a few shots however the moment had gone as it had moved away. I always make a point of leaving my camera on the bird photography setting (custom function) as landscapes don't fly away! but not this time, we live and learn. By the way great video as always! Phil

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Haha, oh no! Leaving bad settings can happen a lot

@marcmurison

Ай бұрын

I've done the same thing, argh! I try to always remember to leave the camera in bird mode before putting it away, but every now and then I still get bit by this.

I have always kept my spare fresh batteries in a pouch, then when completed I keep them in a pocket so I remember to charge them when I get home. However the other week, I somehow managed to lose the pouch when I was out in the rain, and didn't notice until I got back home. I ended up losing 3 batteries. At over £100 each to replace I don't think I'll be going back to a pouch to keep my batteries in.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

That sucks!

... absolutely right, checkout e.g. Behind the Scenes of Planet Earth III

Drove 2 hours to shoot some waterfowl, set up my tripod and my blind, went back to the car and...I had left my camera at home😱 Another great show!

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Oh no! I did that once on a real estate shoot!

Not sure about staging bird photography, just go outside and see what you can find, it doesn’t matter if there are imperfections in the shot.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

In the end it's about what you enjoy the most

I really do not understand the assumption that a bird of prey with a kill is probably staged some how. I could not count on both hands, the times I have had a bird of prey, with a kill, make a kill and land near me. Or just out hiking, turn a corner and come across the scene. My own backyard has been a killing zone many times.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Just the way the image looked and how “dead” the squirrel looked without actually being eaten yet. I am not sure if I’m right but I have seen hundreds of goshawk shots from these hides, so that’s why I assumed it. It’s not necessarily a general assumption

Bad experience: Back in the film days I was photographing a cross country meet. I finished a roll, rewound and put it in my pocket, then reloaded. Later, I discovered that roll of film had somehow fallen out of my pocket. 36 images gone. Important images. Ones that could have made me some money. To this day I am very obsessive about securing memory cards so I don't have a repeat of this mistake. :)

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Yes losing photos sucks for sure! Glad we don’t have to swap cards as much anymore

The most interesting topic would be: how do I turn all my amazing pictures and videos into money in 2024

@GlennBartley

Ай бұрын

If only it was that easy...But not a bad idea for a future discussion...

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

There’s many ways to do it. The easiest way to make some money would be to catalogue them and send them to stock agencies. If the content is good and enough if it that will make a few thousand a year. It’s hard work to get in and prepare all the files, though, but after that the money just rolls in. Most other ways are a bit more involved and require a decent following

@d.g_photo

Ай бұрын

You don't, while some photographers make money with prints, majority make money doing photo tours and workshops

Formatting cards, my one and only trip to Australia, I photographed the fly foxes flying out of the Botanic Gardens, arriving home, down loaded the first card, second card the computer said was blank 😢 I formatted the car 😮 next card same but this time I closed the program and restarted it, there were the photos 😢 so I lost a full cards worth, fortunately the rest of the bat photos were safe on the cards. So the software completely tricked me, no the card was not recoverable

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

That’s annoying!

Biggest fail ever for me- Drove over five hours to a dark sky area and arrived without the base for my star tracking mount. No amount of clever field modification could overcome the lack of the proper piece of equipment.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

That sucks!

@Jcorban08

13 күн бұрын

How frustrating and disappointing!! Try another time 😊

My epic fail... As I've been progressively developing my techniques of filming wildlife at our home and camping ground (Grampians Paradise), I end up doing new things. The native birds don't really care, but the Eastern Grey Kangaroos notice novel behaviors. Anyways, I lay down on the ground (I'd not done this before) and was filming with my Canon 6D with 100 to 500mm lens. One of the medium sized males got really interested, came close and was really looking at me like "what the F... is he doing". The light was perfect (magical) only the Kangas head and ears in frame, all his whiskers were clearly visible, the reflection in his eyes beautiful, exposure spot on, I was succeeding in hand holding the lens rock steady and managing my breathing so that the sensitive mic did not pic it up... I was so exited, then he hopped off... That's when I discovered I'd not hit the record button...

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Oh no, I have done that a few times! Do you get Gang gangs at your place?

@GrampiansParadise

Ай бұрын

​@@jan_wegener Yes we do get Gang gangs. Their not here all the time, but come and go at different times of years, particularly when their favored seed trees are ready. Quite a few photos I've taken of them are from November over the last 18 years, though I pretty sure that I have been seeing them less often in more recent years. It's making me wonder if we have less food for them now, and that I probably need to plant more of the right wattles and more Port Jackson pines... We've slowly been removing the planted Acacia longifolia's as they are a serious weed species for the Grampians National Park, and I know the Gang gangs liked their seeds. I'll need to do a little research to find out what they need for food. We have quite a number of planted Port Jackson pines, Banksia longifolia and a tall Hakea (possibly Hakea salicifolia) that the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos love, and we have added more of the Hakeas over the last 5 years specifically to provide more food trees for them. Looks like some effort for the Gang gangs will be next. There have been some really beautiful photos taken in Pomonal (our local town that the was decimated by the Grampians February 13th bush fire) of the Gang gangs in the last week or so on Facebook.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

@@GrampiansParadisethey do seem to like a lot of weeds and introduced plants

@GrampiansParadise

Ай бұрын

​@@jan_wegener Oh no... I do see this a lot. While I and my family has put in a huge amount of effort re-wilding our 280 farm that my great grandfather, Harry Hill Banfield, purchased in 1911, the area where our 10 acer Grampians Paradise camping ground is, is a mix of Australian and overseas plants and shrubs. It's amazing just how much of the non natives are essential food for our native birds and wildlife. The emu loves the pair, crab-apple and other fruit trees as well as the seeds of the cape weed. The swamp wallabies and crimson rosellas absolutely adore the acorns of the oak trees. The brush-tailed possums are also into the acorns. The kangaroos think we built Grampians Paradise for them, with the all-year-round introduced grasses and lots of secluded spots to rest... Its a very long list of wildlife species that eat things that are not indigenous to here. Ironically it is part of why Grampians Paradise is such a strong rewilded ecosystem carrying so many native birds and creatures. The other is the 30 pond wetland ecosystem that I built around the camping ground between 2000 and 2012. Our Redman Bluff Wetlands is really the engine house of our rewilded landscape, but there are so many pieces of the jigsaw (both native and non native) that have made our created ecosystem what it is.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

@@GrampiansParadisesounds like an amazing place! I had some good Gang Gang spots in Melbourne but the councils have chopped all the hawthorns and they have disappeared

I will never stage photography

I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours at my bird feeder over the years. And the set-ups have been many. So the birds, over 20 different species in my back yard, Hawfinch, Bullfinch, Crested Tit and Eurasian Jay among others. Seeds and nuts at the right place. Blinds for some species, others don´t care.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

That’s awesome! Totally agree. Not everything will come to a set up

I almost snorted out my coffee when that guy said "we are professional bird photographers." 🤣 I am curious, who is buying your wildlife photos? Would you say that is your main source of income? No, of course not. The reason why the "pro" wildlife photographers have gone extinct is because no one is buying those images anymore. This is all done for social media content creation to the end of selling photo/video goods and services and/or to sell other goods and services. The term "professional bird photographer" no longer means anything.

Speaking of mistakes, was that residential address supposed to be included in this video? 😂

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

That house is long gone and it’s public info in the internet, probably doesn’t matter 😀

I had no idea anyone could actually make a living taking pictures of birds. I thought it was just something you did when you were wealthy and retired...

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

Not many do

Let's get real, lot of bird photography sucks because people buy a couple thousand dollar lens and go to their backyard and take the most boring photos. The most distance they will go is just to a park. No 1 secret to photography is good subject. You can take way better photos if you are taking photos of Miranda Kerr, as opposed to a TFP "model" from a facebook group.

WOW, you spent 8 years to get one photo，10k shots of 2 keepers, but you get sales in seconds. While, it takes me seconds to get a photo, haven't had any sale for 8 years.😂

A lot of photos and videos are more than just a little bit staged.

@jan_wegener

Ай бұрын

indeed

You will never be a recognized or a respected wildlife photographer if you setup your shots. This is a bad practice. Don’t do it.

@DyingCity

Күн бұрын

Why?!! Just making such a statement without explanation seems very odd.