PhotoWild Magazine + Podcast

22/09/2023

Did you know that bear spray has a 98% success rate at deterring bear attacks? Compare this to fi****ms which is only 50%. Are you a wildlife photographer who spends time in bear country? If so, you will want to check out the latest episode of the PhotoWILD Podcast.

We received a ton of questions about bears, bear safety, and bear biology in response to the last episode on bears. So, in this episode we dive into answering a bunch of those questions before diving into mastering silhouettes.

You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and, of course, directly on the PhotoWILD website.

Listen FREE here: https://www.photowildmagazine.com/podcast/episode-15-staying-safe-in-bear-country-and-mastering-silhouettes

12/09/2023

It doesn't matter how expensive your lenses are or how sophisticated your autofocus system is. I means nothing for you to be able to take "noise free" and "super sharp" images. It doesn't matter how fancy your photo editing skills are.

Why?

Because if you can't find wildlife, if you don't know how to approach animals and put them at ease with your presence in the wild, you are going to have a very difficult time being a wildlife photographer.

In today's world, so many photographers on Facebook and Instagram travel the "workshop circuit," hoping from one known hotspot to another photographing what are often situations where others did the work for them.

I think this creates a false impression of what it really takes to be successful as a photographer, however.

Despite what some marketers would have you believe, there are no shortcuts. There are not tricks. There is no easy way versus the had way.

As the old saying goes, "if you want to make better photographs, put yourself in front of better subjects."

I made this video a couple years ago. However, I think it's even more relevant today than it was when I first created it.

Want to learn how I find owls in the winter? How I photograph red foxes in the snow? Or why I have been so successful over the years at finding and photographing bobcats?

Check out the video by simply clicking the image.

Cheers,

Jared

https://photowildmagazine.com

04/09/2023

Got Noise?
Here's a question for you: Have you ever taken the time to look at the actual file size of your images? I am not talking about the pixel dimensions, but the megabytes. If not, do it. You might be surprised that the numbers are all over the place. It doesn’t matter that you’re shooting with the same camera, or that the images are all from the same day, or even the same shoot. Chances are, you will find quite a bit of variability in the amount of information contained inside each individual photograph.
One image might be 100mb. The next, 81mb. The following, 20mb. The maximum file size that you can capture with your images is, of course, dictated by the resolution of your camera. Naturally a 50-megapixel camera will have larger files than a 16-megapixel camera.

But sometimes it doesn’t.

So, why, if you are shooting with a 50-megapixel sensor in your camera, are you bringing home images that are sometimes the same size or less than those from your old 16-megapixel camera?
The answer to this lies in the thing that your camera’s sensor was designed to capture: light.

In digital photography, light is information.

Your camera is not capturing the life force of an animal, it is capturing the light reflecting off that animal.

Recording light is the primary job of our imaging sensors. The more light you have, the more information you have, the larger the file size you have to work with. Likewise, the less light you have, the less information you have, the smaller the file sizes.
But none of this has anything to do with the amount of available light you had to work with when creating the photograph. The fact that the sky was overcast or sunny, or it was dawn, or noon, or an hour after sunset is completely irrelevant to all of this. Instead, it’s about the amount of light you ALLOWED your camera to capture.

You see, all of this is a choice – whether you realize it or not at first. You make a choice every time you trip your camera’s shutter as to how much information you are going to record and therefore how big and clean your files are. Which, by the way, bigger file sizes are better.

This choice comes in the form of your exposure. How large or small is your aperture? How high is your ISO? What about your shutter speed? All these things come together to dictate how much light your camera’s sensor will record.

So, if we can agree that more information is better, why would you make the conscious decision NOT to capture the biggest and most information packed files possible? Why would you consciously degrade your photographs in the field?

Continue Reading:
https://www.photowildmagazine.com/got-noise

24/08/2023

EPISODE 13 of the Podcast is out!

In this episode, Jared and Annalise discuss some of the unique equipment that they always bring with them when photographing coastal brown bears. Far from being something that is only applicable to bear photography, however, this piece of gear is a vital part of how they photograph wildlife in many different situations. Since the release of the podcast, many of the questions that come through to PhotoWILD have to do with camera equipment and one question keeps coming up over and over again: how and why do we chose the equipment that we use? Jared and Annalise take a deep dive into answer this question, discussing exactly what they are looking for in cameras, lenses, and why they own the ones they do and why they consider them to be the workhorses of wildlife photography. Listen to learn why Jared does not like or use the new Nikon Z8 for wildlife photography.

Key Takeaways

- There are a few pieces of relatively inexpensive gear that can make or break your ability to capture the photographs you want and they have nothing to do with camera equipment.

- Working professionals prioritize very specific features in cameras

- The equipment we use for wildlife photography is always adapted from other genera of photography. Even 600mm lenses were created for sports photographers, not wildlife work.

- Autofocus systems and megapixel counts are NOT the top priority when choosing equipment

https://www.photowildmagazine.com/podcast/episode-13-prepping-for-bears-and-listener-questions

02/06/2023

ICYMI: On July 15, 2023, we are giving away a private workshop in Alaska with Jared and Annalise!

All subscribers are automatically entered to win:
https://www.photowildmagazine.com/brown-bear-workshop-giveaway

01/06/2023

We've dropped a new podcast like a moose drops his antlers!

Listen on our site below or via your favorite podcast platform!

Finding and photographing moose can be challenging even in the best of situations. But all of this becomes intensified in the winter.

19/05/2023

Spring will soon give way to summer here in North America, which means birds are on the minds and in front of the lenses of many wildlife photographers.

If you've ever struggled with birds in flight, check out Episode 4 of our podcast, where Jared and Annalise discuss some of the ways to overcome those challenges:

In this episode, Jared and Annalise discuss photographing some of the most endangered species of birds on Earth: pelagic seabirds.

17/05/2023

Episode six of the PhotoWILD Podcast is out today!

In this episode, we discuss the tremendous hurdles that must be understood and overcome to take advantage of the photographic opportunities this season offers the serious wildlife photographer.

Learn why they happen and how handle them in the field:

https://www.photowildmagazine.com/podcast/episode-six-winter-challenges

Also available on iTunes, iHeart, and Spotify

Winter brings a grocery list of challenges we have to overcome to be successful as wildlife photographers.

16/04/2023

Do you know about our podcast?

Jared Lloyd Photography and Annalise Kaylor Photography braid together the art and science of wildlife photography in this truly one of a kind podcast.

Listen on Apple, Spotify, iHeart Radio, or directly from our website.

https://photowildmagazine.com/podcast

15/04/2023

We are doing it again. We are giving away ANOTHER workshop.

Have you ever wanted to photograph bears in Alaska? On July 15, 2023, we are to select not just one but 2 (two) lucky subscribers to PhotoWILD Magazine to join us in the field for a PRIVATE photography workshop photographing bears fishing for salmon this September.

The workshop is unlike anything I have ever offered before. Not only is a private workshop for 2 very lucky subscribers, we will also be working in a remote wilderness destination that's completely off the usual workshop circuit - and the only way to get there is by float planes every day.

In addition to the private workshop though, each evening upon returning from the field, we will sit down, review images, and help you learn how to process them in Lightroom or Photoshop.

Want to know more?

https://photowildmagazine.com/brown-bear-workshop-giveaway

02/02/2023

To be successful at wildlife photography, we must go beyond the simplistic, the cliche, and the trite. We must create photographs that pull at people’s heart strings and capture their imaginations. But all of this comes with a price. In the proccess, do we invoke age old assumptions and biases?

When we photograph bears and snarling, tooth bearing, claw brandishing monsters, do we as wildlife photographers help perpetuate cultural biases and societal hatred and fear of bears? If so, should we as wildlife photographers, as artists, consider our compositions differently?

It’s time to transcend the cliche notions of monsterous beasts and instead showcase wildlife, especially predators, as something more than just tooth and claw photographs.

So many questions. So much to consider.

As wildlife photographers, we are artists, we are the bridge between animals and civilization. How we choose to portray our subjects impacts how the rest of the world perceives the natural world around us.

How are you helping to shape the way the rest of the world experiences, thinks about, sees, and feels about the natural world?

Learn more about our perspective on such matters here:

https://www.photowildmagazine.com/go-further/emotional-response

13/01/2023

13/01/2023

Using manual exposure just makes everything easier. Hard Stop. No matter the situation, no matter the light, no matter the subject, manual exposure simplifies everything and gives you full control over your art.

Check out this free article at PhotoWILD Magazine all about why manual exposure just makes life easier for us.

https://www.photowildmagazine.com/go-further/manual-makes-it-easier