09/08/2026
Wildlife photography starts long before the animal ever steps in front of the camera.
Check the camera. Check the batteries. Check the memory cards. Make sure the lens is clean, everything is packed, and I didn't somehow forget the one thing I'll need when I'm already a mile into the woods.
Then I start walking.
Camera and 500mm over my shoulder, working my way toward a spot I've probably already spent way too much time thinking about. Watching the wind. Looking for fresh deer sign. Paying attention to the light, the trails, the cover, and all the little things that might tell me where a whitetail is going to appear.
Then comes the part that takes up most of wildlife photography.
Waiting.
Find some cover. Get comfortable. Sit still. Shut up.
Sometimes it's an hour. Sometimes it's several. Sometimes absolutely nothing happens and I hike all the way back out with a memory card of exactly zero photographs.
But every once in a while, the woods finally give you what you came for.
A deer steps out.
All those hours of waiting suddenly turn into a few seconds. Find him through the viewfinder. Watch the background. Check the light. Let him move into the frame. Wait for the head position. Wait for the moment.
Focus.
Breathe.
Shutter.
Sometimes you look at the back of the camera and immediately know.
Nailed it.
That's wildlife photography for me. The camera settings and the final photograph are only a tiny piece of it. It's the preparation, the hike, the fieldcraft, the patience, the hours spent quietly watching whitetail deer and learning their behavior, and being ready when a wild animal finally gives you a moment you've been waiting all day to photograph.
A whole day in the woods for a fraction of a second.
Worth it every single time.
