In Review - July
August is nearly over! Can you believe it? It’s crazy to think about how fast 2022 is buzzing by - I’m still thinking back to things I did in July!
July was almost all about wildlife photography for me - no drones, no landscapes. Just wildlife. So for July’s In Review post, that’s what we’re going to focus on - some of the challenges with shooting wildlife photography, while also taking a look at some shots and how they turned out. I spent time out on the water on my parents’ pontoon boat, exploring Gordon’s Pond for the first time in several months, and checking out some bugs in my backyard.
While Delaware has so many other places to check out wildlife, these three were where I found myself most often in July - whether because of other plans or simply because I didn’t feel like getting in my car and going anywhere. That, to me, is one of my favorite things about wildlife photography - you don’t always have to go to far-off places to find things to photograph.
Of the experiences I had in July, my favorite had to be when I was out on Gordon’s Pond around the 16th or so. Most of the time when I am out on that trail, I only see birds - never any deer, foxes or other wildlife. This particular walk, though, was full of dragonflies! I had never seen so many dragonflies on a single walk - and when I say so many, they had to number in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands. It was a great time snapping photo after photo of the dragonflies!
While the dragonflies cooperated and sat still for me, taking photos on the pontoon was much less straightforward - the ups and downs of the boat floating on the water presented a new challenge I hadn’t really worked through before July. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve taken photos from a boat before, but generally it’s been in motion so I wasn’t fighting through wake while drifting or people walking around the deck.
What I absolutely enjoyed about working on wildlife photography from the boat, though, is getting different angles you may not get from a trail.
Take this photo to the left as an example - it looks like I was in the water and pointing the lens right at the gull, but I was actually laying flat on the pontoon deck and aiming down along the water line. This really helps give a sense of where we were, and what the spot was like. Plus, there are details that you sometimes miss when shooting from other angles, like the wet feathers on top of the gull’s head in this case.
But you can’t always look down when you’re out on the water - sometimes you need to look up, too. That’s how I was able to spot this osprey over the Rehoboth Bay, circling the same spot over and over as it looked for a meal in the next image.
The final part of July for me was focused on Fisher, my puppy! I’ve been working on setting up some social media pages for him so I can keep my photography socials focused on landscape and wildlife photography, though these pages will give me a place to share things he’s up to as well - because who knows what he’s going to get into next! Stay tuned for more on this front, as I can’t wait to start sharing some of Fisher’s adventures soon!