The other day I was out testing an old camera I haven't used for a while and came across this groundhog. It's not a great picture, but it provides a very useful lesson.
At the time I had a 35mm lens on my camera. In plain English, this means I had about the worse lens you can imagine for photographing wildlife. A 35mm lens won't bring your quarry any closer, in fact optically it will push your subject farther away! So how did I get this picture?
The groundhog was a good forty feet away when I first spotted him, merrily chomping grass. If I had just started walking toward him he would have taken off. What I did instead was stand there, waiting. Every minute or so I took a couple of slow steps forward, usually when the groundhog had his head down. By approaching this way and never making any sudden movements, I didn't alarm him. He was relaxed enough that he ate his way in my general direction even as I continued to edge my way toward him. It took maybe ten minutes all told but eventually I got close enough to take this picture. I then blew it by getting down to get an eye-level shot. The groundhog didn't like that and promptly ran away for good.
But the moral still stands: even if you don't have the best equipment for the job, you can accomplish a lot with a little know-how and patience. Be sneaky. And if you're approaching birds don't just be slow and careful. Be indirect. Approach like this, with X being your bird:
For whatever reason this kind of route doesn't seem to set off a bird's internal alarm as much as walking straight. Try it. You'll (sometimes) be amazed how close you can get.UPDATE: As several astute readers have quickly pointed out, the above zig-zag pattern can also be effective when you are being chased by wildlife.
