The Beginning... — Warewardson

October 9, 2022

Today is the day. After having spent about seven months focusing on event photography, I finally asked myself, “Why am I not spending any time doing the type of photography that I love best?”

Well, money, of course. But that aside, the spirit of the question was still there. I had bought my first camera (a nifty Sony a6000 back in 2017) with the express purpose of capturing my adventures around the States and beyond. That camera would be in for years of photographing buildings, landscapes, family, pets and everything in between.

As a guy with just a passing interest in photography at the time, I started a very slow process of learning the ins and outs of the mythical “Manual” mode. Even then, it didn’t take long before my love for animals had me wondering about wildlife photography. But with no real drive to pursue it and having nothing but the little 16-55mm kit lens, that thought fell to the back burner.

One of my first wildlife photos taken in the backyard of my childhood home.

Fast forward a couple of years and my interest in photography reawakened. It was in 2019 that I spent six and a half months on the road. My camera came along (still the Sony a6000 with the kit lens) and I got used to holding it in my hands. Fast forward again to the beginning of 2022 and I got my first paid job, photographing a local road race, this time using the other kit lens, the Sony 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3.

As I slowly added a few more events under my belt, I upgraded my gear. By July I was settled in comfortably with a Sony a6400 and using the Tamron 17-70mm lens for most of my events. I stayed moderately busy, chasing paid jobs and filling the downtime with photographing the odd unpaid event to get out into the community and strengthen my portfolio.

It wasn’t until recently – less than a week ago – that I found myself asking the question about wildlife photography again. And this time around, I found myself ready to give it a shot. At the moment I have (what I consider) very modest gear for shooting wildlife. My setup today is the Sony a6400 with the Sony 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS.

When thinking about pivoting to include this aspect of photography into my day to day, I decided that I needed a challenge of sorts. A goal to strive towards and to help keep me motivated. The first thing that came to mind was to photograph every single animal species in the state I live in, New Hampshire. I quickly scratched the idea when I realized the number of bugs and reptiles, not to mention that I do not have any interest in photographing fish.

I then thought about photographing every mammal in New Hampshire. That was an interesting prospect. But when I really thought about the various types of mammals like field mice and voles, the idea seemed less plausible. Okay, what about birds? Google said around 200 species of birds lived and bred in New Hampshire.

Being a man of simple mind, I chose to go with the birds. I am using the NH Audubon’s State of the Birds report that can be found here.

While looking through the report and setting up this website, I decided to expand my goal to photographing all the species - both native and non-native to New Hampshire.

My first day out photographing birds wasn’t a huge success but I suppose that was to be expected. Out around 7:30am, I found myself walking along the edge of a wood line and a small field. It was fairly cold out that morning – 35 degrees Fahrenheit – and the leaves were vibrant yellows and reds. I had the property to myself and I was excited with the prospects because I could hear several birds calling out. At this stage in my journey, my knowledge of bird calls is limited to that of the chickadee. And I’ll be honest, sometimes that’s a stretch.

After a slow 5 minutes of walking along the tree line, I began to wonder why it was that I wasn’t seeing any birds. I sat down on a bench and waited. The sun was just starting to peek over the trees, gradually bathing the one side of the treeline in light. I enjoyed the colors in the morning cold, and the promise of the sun coming up was a very welcome thought.

A few more minutes ticked away and still no sight of the singing birds. A series of quick thudding came from somewhere deeper in the woods. Okay, maybe I know two bird “calls”. I looked around and thought that I might get luckier if I walked back the other way to where a few apple trees stood. Once there, I sat down on a bench and waited once again. I had finally seen a few darting birds nearby and I found myself with my nose in the air, anticipating the chance for a shot.

It never came. The little birds (which were much too fast for me to even begin to photograph) hopped around for a bit before flying away back to the tree line. Stumped, I sat back and looked around, beginning to realize that this challenge was going to probably take a lot longer than I had anticipated. I stayed at the spot for a short while longer before deciding to drive a little way to a nearby track field.

You always see flocks of little birds at soccer and track fields, right? Once there, I got out and was happy to see that I had been right. A little bird was hopping about a low tree branch filled with beautifully colored leaves. I silently willed it to not fly away as I inched closer. I raised my lens and snapped a shot. Looked down at the photo quickly. Blurry. Realized that my shutter speed was at 1/250. I cranked it up to 1/500 and fired off a few shots. The bird, which I now realized was a chickadee, flapped around a few times before flying off. I walked up a small hill by the trees with the hope of getting a better shot, but none was forthcoming.

My first capture! A black-capped chickadee.

I looked down at my camera and couldn’t help but be a little proud of the shot. Granted, it was no piece of art, but from where I’m coming from, this is new ground I was treading on. Happy with the small step forward, I head back to my car. Off in the distance I spotted another small bird land on top of a utility pole. It was probably a few hundred yards away and a good forty or so feet up, but I took the shot anyways.

Over the coming months and years, I am sure to capture more photos of chickadees and whatever bird this other one is. I hope to see vast improvements in those future photos as I continue this journey and learn more about the birds themselves as well as the art of wildlife photography itself. Here’s to the next one.

The Beginning…