Patience
A yellow rumped warbler sporting its non-breeding plumage as it makes its fall migration
A yellow rumped warbler in its breeding plumage during spring migration
One of the key lessons you learn when starting wildlife photography is animals don’t like you. You may love them, find them beautiful, want to sit and watch them, but they do not share the sentiment. If you do happen to come across some creatures that don’t immediately run away when they see you, their trust is still very tentative. My first attempts at photographing birds were wrought with frustration and failure. Every time I saw bird, I would walk straight at it, slowly mind you, but if you saw a stranger slowly walking towards you with a camera, would you stick around for very long? I sure wouldn’t. The birds shared this sentiment and always flew away before I could get any decent photos, and the photos I did manage to snag were either blurry or too far away to truly capture the beauty of the bird. How am I supposed to take a photo if my subject won’t let me get close? I would think to myself. Patience. The key is to sit still in one place and wait; sounds simple enough. I love to sit for long stretches of time doing nothing but thinking quietly to myself, but even I have had to learn what true patience is. A normal day in the field for me looks like sitting for 40-45 minutes with very little activity, followed by 5 minutes of photographic opportunities. Add on the fact that I normally spend 3-4 hours out in the field, and you can see how much downtime I truly have. Now it’s not always just staring off into space; I listen to the bird calls around me, I look at the scenery, I monitor the light and adjust my camera settings accordingly, but I’d be lying if I said I never got bored. Many times I have just wanted to call it a day, go home, play video games, read, watch TV, sleep, anything but continue to sit and wait for birds to show up. I’ve had to learn how to push these feelings aside and be present in the moment. Take the two warbler photos as an example. The top image took me a solid hour and a half to capture. The bottom one took one day of failed attempts followed by another day of success, both times sitting for 4 hours. Both required patience, but without it I would not have been able to share these beautiful little birds with you. Whatever your goal in life, remember to be patient; the time will come when your patience is rewarded.
