Free Wildlife Pictures Nature Photography

We love to find new places to photograph wildlife. Whether we are hiking through the forest and see a deer, fox or bear; or if we a visit a local wildlife exhibit, the challenges and scenes are always wonderful. Wildlife photography can be very fun and takes great skill. The greatest obstacle in my opinion is getting a sharp image when zoomed at a long focal length. The primary reason this is difficult is that images tend to be soft if they f/stop is not stopped down below f/7 or f/8 and this requires a longer exposure especially in low light situations. When there is a longer exposure animals tend to move and move a lot. When a subject moves this causes motion blur in the image.

Wildlife photography lenses that can achieve fast shutter speeds at long focal lengths can be very expensive up to and even above $10,000 for a 600mm or 800mm lens. These types of wildlife lenses can be very heavy as well and can be almost impossible to hold by hand and get a good shot. Canon however makes some really great L lenses that incorporate image stabilization to help produce a sharper image even when handheld at longer focal lengths.

The wildlife pictures that ForestWander Nature Photography has produced over the past several years have been with much less expensive lenses but with a very good camera body. The Canon 5D Mark II is a very good camera body for higher ISO film speed image quality. The higher ISO settings generally produce sharper images by allowing faster shutter speeds for even lower quality lenses. The higher image quality produced by the 5D does not generate as much noise as lower quality camera bodies. This allows us to use a much less expensive lens although we attempt to capture every image at the lowest ISO setting possible (usually around 100 - 200).

One of our my favorite wildlife photography experiences have not require very long focal length lenses. One experience in particular was when we found a beautiful owl perched upon a wire in the midst of a heavy snow storm. Typically an owl would have flown away in an instant when getting as close as I did, but since it was in the middle of a snow storm the owl simply watched me as I took its picture with my first SLR camera which was a Canon 350D Digital Rebel. I was able to actually get a couple of shots of the owl in mid-flight as it decided I had been too close for long enough. This was really a great experience and my little boy Rusty was about 4 or 5 years old at the time and can still remember this particular wildlife photo we took that winter.

Another great wildlife photo experience was one that I truly believe was given to me by the Lord to inspire and encourage our nature photography mission. One morning as a stepped out the door to walk to work, I happened to see a small animal about the size of a dog laying in the yard. I thought right away that it was an injured dog and did not really know what to expect as I walked up to it. However, as I got closer I realized this was a tiny new born baby whitetail deer. This was literally amazing in my eyes as I was very new to wildlife photography and had never seen anything like this, even when I was not an amateur photographer. Although I was limited in time in order to get to work, I knew this was the opportunity of a lifetime. I quickly ran into the house and grabbed my new Digital Rebel and prayed that the deer was still there when I cam back out. Sure enough this beautiful little creature lay motionless in the grass as I took many pictures of the baby deer over the course of about 20 minutes. I was so excited I could not stop shaking, so I must have taken 500 pictures in order to get one that was not blurred from camera shake. This is one of my favorite wildlife images and it the icon used for the wildlife category on ForestWander Nature Photography.

The most recent wildlife photography experience we have had the pleasure to experience was to visit the West Virginia Wildlife Center just outside of Buckhannon, at French Creek, WV. Winter time is one of the most beautiful seasons for nature photography in west Virginia and we contacted the DNR at the Wildlife center and asked if we could come visit during one of the largest snow storms of the winter. Capturing wildlife images during winter is not as common as other types of wildlife photography and it seemed that there would be few if any visitors at this time of the year. The DNR staff at the wildlife center were more than accommodating and welcomed my son and I to the center during a Friday and Saturday visit. This allowed us to capture some of the best wildlife images we have ever taken and has encouraged us to seek additional wildlife photography opportunities. I can certainly recommend that the West Virginia wildlife center is a great experience as we have been there in the spring and summer as well. This is a wonderful opportunity to experience the native wildlife of West Virginia up close and personal. The center hosts many diverse animals including black bear, elk, wolf, fox, bobcat and lynx, mountain lions, owls, whitetail deer, fishers, and various other beautiful creatures.

Hopefully, through the help of our visitors simply sharing our wildlife pictures website with their friends and family we will be able to continue our wildlife photography mission and provide you with fresh new wildlife pictures after each wildlife photography expedition.