The Wild Photographer

Mastering Wildlife Photography: Insights from Pro Photo Guide Mike Hillman

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In this episode, host Court Whelan sits down with professional photo guide and Director of Photo Expeditions at Natural Habitat Adventures, Mike Hillman. Mike shares invaluable insights on wildlife photography, from mastering perfect pawsture in bear photography to the art of bird photography and finding your personal photographic style. We also dive into intentional camera movement (ICM), editing techniques that harness the psychology of the eye, and the logistics behind planning the perfect photo expedition. Plus, Mike gives us expert advice on photographing in the dramatic landscapes of Canyon Country. Whether you're a budding wildlife photographer or a seasoned pro, this episode is packed with tips to elevate your craft!

Show Notes:

Episode Highlights:

  • (02:26) Mike Hillman’s journey into wildlife photography and guiding
  • (06:49) How zoo photography helps develop wildlife photography skills
  • (12:06) Bear photography tips, including the concept of perfect pawsture
  • (15:56) Bird photography techniques—capturing behavior, using depth of field, and composition
  • (26:49) Defining personal photography style and the creative potential of intentional camera movement (ICM)
  • (31:37) Editing workflows—masking, vignetting, and the psychology of the eye
  • (38:13) What makes a great photo expedition? Planning, subject selection, and guiding philosophy
  • (41:07) Photographing in Canyon Country—handling contrast, night photography, and essential gear
  • (46:17) Mike’s favorite lenses for wildlife and landscape photography
  • (50:40) Must-have photography tools—including an unexpected use for a toothbrush!

Resources & Links:

Sponsors:

  • Art Helper AI – A game-changing tool for photographers to market their work. Use code WILD for a free 30-day pro trial at ArtHelper.AI
  • LensRentals.com – Rent specialty camera gear with 15% off using promo code wildphotographer15 at LensRentals.com
  • Shimoda Designs camera backpacks. Perhaps the best camera bag designed to-date.  My new go-to!

Thanks for Listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and share it with fellow photographers. Stay inspired and keep capturing the wild world around you!

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Wildlife Adventures
05:03 The Journey into Wildlife Photography
07:53 The Role of Zoo Photography
10:42 Mastering Bear Photography
15:37 Bird Photography Techniques
18:50 Talking about Gear
25:43 Embracing the Moment in Wildlife Photography
26:37 Defining Personal Photographic Style
30:21 The Art of Editing: Techniques and Tools
37:16 Directing Photo Expeditions
37:33 New Chapter
37:45 Planning the Perfect Pho


Court:

Welcome back, friends, to another episode of the Wild Photographer. I'm your host, Court Whelan, and today we have none other than Mike Hillman joining us. He is a pro photo guide that specializes in everything from bears to photographing landscapes in the desert southwest. He's also the director of photo expeditions at Natural Habitat Adventures, a nature travel company that excels in planning and guiding these photo journeys around the world. But before we get into today's episode, a quick shout out to our sponsors and those folks that help make these episodes possible.

Court:

I want to tell you today about a tool that photographers are really going quite crazy about in the circles I'm around. It's called arthelperai. You know how photographers would rather be shooting than promoting work. Well, this is kind of like having a marketing team in your pocket that truly understands photography. I've been using Art Helper for the last month and I got to say I'm really quite hooked. You upload a photo and it instantly creates professional content for you. We're talking about social media posts, email newsletters, even entire Substack articles, all in your authentic voice. This is the beauty of AI and get this. It automatically generates professional mock-ups for every image you upload. But here's what really sets it apart Art Helper was built specifically for photographers and artists. It helps you find the right buyer groups for your style, suggest optimal pricing for your market and, unlike a lot of other AI tools out there, they have an art project protection guarantee. This means your images are never used for AI training, something that I know we all care about. The interface is super intuitive Trust me, if I can use it, anybody can and it actually makes marketing fun, which you know is a challenge sometimes.

Court:

Right now they're offering a super special deal for our listeners. Just head over to arthelperai. Use the code WILD that's just W-I-L-D After you create an account, to get a free 30 days of the pro version. That's arthelperai. It's really a secret weapon for growing your photography business. The other sponsor I want to acknowledge is lensrentalscom. They are a great help when renting gear that I like to take out in the field. Specialty lenses, lenses that I may not know I want in my kit, necessarily for a certain trip, or it might be just a really unique lens is ideal for a certain type of photo expedition. I'm guiding If you head over to lensrentalscom, you can use the promo code WILDPHOTOGRAPHER15 to get 15% off at lensrentalscom. Now, without further ado, help me welcome Sir Michael Hillman.

Mike:

I don't know if I've been knighted just yet. That's a little bit ways down the line.

Court:

I was hoping you'd say gosh, you knew Nobody's ever acknowledged that I've been knighted.

Court:

Yeah, that's something to aspire to for sure. Well, let's get right into it. So you lead some of the most epic nature and wildlife adventures around the world. I don't need to tell you that, but telling folks in the audience from bears to Iceland, to Greenland and not just bear, but like polar bears, grizzly bears, all sorts of stuff and these are some of the areas most coveted in the world for wildlife, nature, travel, photography. How did you get into it? And with that, what advice might you have to those that wish to follow in your footsteps?

Mike:

Yeah, I think it's kind of an interesting path because it's not the one you'd expect or a very typical direction into getting into traveling across the world and photographing all these unique wildlife and being a bear guide in places like Alaska. I grew up in Michigan, in the north woods of Michigan. I thankfully still had one of those childhoods where at dinnertime my mom would go out into the back porch of the house and just yell into the woods for me to come home for dinner. So I spent a lot of time in the woods lifting up logs, looking for salamanders, catching fish and turtles in the ponds behind our house, those kinds of things, and so I really much was drawn to nature photography and nature in general. I watched a lot of Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin, david Attenborough. Those are big inspirations early on in my life.

Mike:

So I went into college knowing that I wanted to do something with animals. Now, to that point I didn't really want to be a veterinarian because I wasn't big into blood and guts, those kinds of things. It wasn't great for me to see. I didn't want to necessarily be a professor, because one of the things I hate most in the world is homework. So I did not want to just add that to my life professionally. And on top of that, then the next logical realm was something in zookeeping working in zoos, and to date I had had a lot of pets but my least favorite thing was cleaning up after them. So I was left with this idea of I wanted to do something with wildlife and animals, but I didn't want to be a professor or a zookeeper or a veterinarian, those kinds of things, and so I wasn't sure where that was going to take me. But I knew I wanted to do wildlife.

Mike:

So I got my degree from Michigan State University in zoology and during that time I thankfully lucked into this side of zoology I hadn't heard of previously, which was zoo education, wildlife education. My parents can attest that I spent a lot of time in my youth teaching them about the wildlife I was learning about through Jeff Corwin, steve Irwin, those guys, and so I realized that I could get paid to talk about animals for a living, and so that was kind of my lightning rod moment and so started in that realm within the zoo world. I was in the kind of education departments in various zoos around the country, bounced around with that, and at a certain point I was ready to see those animals I've been learning about so much seeing in the zoos. I wanted to see them out in the wild and start traveling, and that's when I started learning about guiding and going out into the field looking for these animals. And so that was my next kind of big career change, still within the realm of animals, but into a new area that I didn't know existed professionally until well after I got out of college.

Mike:

From there I was a quick step obviously over into photography and being able to not only talk about this wildlife but also capture those images I can bring home and then share with audiences out in the field, and I've enjoyed it a lot. As you said, I've spent a lot of time working with bears. Polar bears in Northern Canada, in Alaska, with brown bears Also have a very special place in my heart for the trips I've led in Australia. I really love those animals because they're so unusual to Americans to be able to talk about how different marsupials are to the wildlife we typically see here in the US, and so it's a lot of fun to be able to kind of walk in Steve Irwin the crocodile hunter's footprints, as I'm talking about some of the same wildlife he talked about when I was growing up. So it's been a fun ride, but certainly a very circuitous one to get to where I am today.

Court:

So when you were at the zoo and doing your education interpretation, was there photography involved prior to that, or was that kind of your closest access to start doing wildlife photography? Where did that get woven in?

Mike:

Photography has always been something that I've picked up and set down over the years. I got my first camera from my father. He got me a Nikon d50 back in the day Very early stage digital camera, but I got some kit lenses that came along with it from a family friend and I had a lot of enjoyment with that. In high school Into early college I actually my first one of my first interviews I ever did for a job was in college to be the staff photographer for intramural sports at our university. I never got that job because it's a sports photographer and I was giving them an album of wildlife photos to show them of my skill set. So I completely understand them not hiring me.

Court:

But look at the running cheetah. It's perfect.

Mike:

It's crisp focus I should get a running football player, if that's what you're asking, piece of cake.

Mike:

Yeah. With that I set the camera down for a while. It wasn't until after college. I kind of picked it up again and then set it down. I had a roommate for a while when I was in my zoo days.

Mike:

That was a strong photographer.

Mike:

I kind of picked it up again in learning from him and it was kind of another one of those moments where I'd taken some wildlife photos and taken some nature photos growing up.

Mike:

But when I was at a zoo and seeing these animals I'd see day in and day out and try to capture those unique behaviors. I'm not just not kind of hanging out in the corner or eating, but now running around and looking into the camera. That really excited me again because it's that moment of getting that one image you had in your head. I was like I just wanted to turn its head a little bit to the right, look down at my lens and then get the photo, and so that sparked me again and then I haven't looked back and then of course it's served me quite well in my guiding career, because everyone who goes out looking at all these beautiful places and finding these interesting animals, they want to be able to capture an image and then bring it back home with them and so learning my camera, learning what they can do to increase their photography skills. It's been a strong component of my guiding With zoo photography.

Court:

I know personally that it's oftentimes an entry point for a lot of wildlife photographers, especially those kind of looking at kind of serious hobby or even second careers. I see a lot of workshops that go to the Denver Zoo or the Tampa Zoo or wherever it might be. Any thoughts or takeaways from like what you've learned with zoo photography that might translate to wildlife? In the wild photography you know, other than the obvious, like okay, that that's an animal, here's some things. But yeah, anything that jumps out to you of like this is a really, really great way to practice, because xyz I love going to zoos to practice photography because, as they say, it's a target rich environment.

Mike:

there's a lot of interesting animals that you can take photos of and certainly like going like hi hey, I'm gonna do an african safari in six months.

Mike:

Let's go to the zoo and take some pictures of elephants and zebras, because that gets you at least some basic ideas of your camera settings you're going to use with those same animals, because the lighting conditions may be similar, the trick of taking a picture of a black and white zebra. You're going to have to learn those things and if you can get good at it at home before then going out in the field, you're going to get much better images when you're out there and be much happier with what you're getting, so you're enjoying your trip while you're out there. So it's a fantastic place to practice in that regard and kind of learn those quirks and maybe even, in some cases, learn the behaviors of some of these animals that you want to capture once you get out into the field. So I think it's a fantastic place to practice and hone your skills and get good with your camera with those animals before you go out into the field to try to get the wild cousins of them.

Court:

Yeah, I fully agree. I think some people might look at it as you know prepping for a Botswana safari or what have you Going to the zoo might be, you know, sort of a pre-trip letdown, because you know what's going to be happening to you and around you in the coming weeks or months or whenever you decide to go. However, it goes back to that whole practice, practice, practice thing. I mean I think that you can probably agree. However, it goes back to that whole practice, practice, practice thing. I mean I think that you can probably agree.

Court:

You know, most of the reason why I'm a decent photographer is because you know, taken a million or 2 million photos over the last 20 years. So the more you can add to that great way to dial in your settings, great way to get familiar with their camera, even if it's just the challenge of toting it around, the challenge of changing lenses when there's a flurry of activity or waiting patiently for a certain behavior yeah, love that advice. So I'm in a unique position in that I have guided alongside you on trips and I've also been guided by you on some trips trips that I wasn't guided, but going along as a photographer, collecting images, and so I know that you are an absolute maestro at bear photography, so I want to zero in on bear photography for the next little bit. What are some tips and tricks? You know, mike, putting yourself on the shores of Chinitina Bay in Alaska or elsewhere? What are some tips and tricks that you'd like to offer when photographing bears and maybe even other big, charismatic wildlife?

Mike:

I absolutely love photographing bears. They're very expressive and understanding their behavior is an instant reward when it comes to being able to capture the types of images that you're hoping for. I think being out there in the field and watching their behavior is super important. I think with wildlife photography in general I think if you ask that question to a lot of wildlife photographers it's going to be high on their list is understanding the behavior of that animal. And the reason why they're saying that is be able to predict what the animal is going to do next so you can set yourself up for the right image and so getting your settings just right, aiming in the right direction those kinds of things. You can predict that behavior and with bears being so expressive, you get that opportunity to actually predict their behavior, understanding what their needs are. So are they going for food right now? Do you think they're looking for a mate? Are they worried about their safety? Are they traveling along the shore? Those kinds of things are the types of behaviors that are running through my mind to then understand what to do next with that bear.

Mike:

While I'm out there, with bears in particular, another thing I always look for compositionally is a term that my wife coined because she's also a bear guide and photographer.

Mike:

She coined perfect posture, but that's P-A-W-S-T-U-R-E and that's where, with a four-legged animal, you want to try to get that beautiful silhouette where you get all the legs in um separation from each other so that you don't have any crossover and doesn't look like you have a three-legged or a two-legged animal. And with bears in particular, they, the way they walk, their front paw will actually come up and curl in just slightly as they take that next step. And that moment, right there is what I call perfect posture, and so getting that image is something I always look for and I encourage my guests to try to get while they're out there too, because that's kind of one of the best silhouette images or the best kind of three quarters image on a bear when they're walking. It was that paws up, you can see the claws, you can see how big the paw is and you see them moving through the frame. It's always something I look for with bears.

Court:

I love that. And just a note to the audience it might sound super nitpicky in terms of getting that perfection, but I'll attest from the point of view of sitting in front of and photographing bears at close range. You are around bears like a lot not just you, mike, but a person photographing bears and it does get to the point where you kind of have to maybe not achieve perfection, but you have to at least have some sort of goal in your mind right? I mean, if you just took every photo every second, you'd come home with 100,000 photos and it would take you a year to go through them all. But that's the beauty of some of these wildlife trips, especially the ones that you're talking about here, is that you kind of can go into the trip, you can go into that moment with a bit of a bit of a goal, even a lofty goal. So I love that concept that you you mentioned. Uh, hats off to Jess, uh for the perfect posture. I'll have to mention that next time I see her. That's great.

Court:

I think you know, as a side note, thinking about and maybe doing some research ahead of a trip of like you know what are the opportunities, what are the photos that you like best, because if you are interacting or maybe interacting is the wrong word but if you're close to brown bears, you're likely to have a huge array of possible photos. So having the ideal, having that, that perfection, uh, so to speak, in your mind to to try to get, is probably a really, really great starting point. So, yeah, I appreciate you mentioning that. So you're also a birder and bird photographer. I'm wondering what is, what is your style or approach to bird photography? Is it kind of like a snap and document? Are you trying to more create art with it? What are some of the like, the settings that get you to where you want to be with your, your bird photography?

Mike:

was birds first. Even growing up in Michigan and living in other parts of the US, I wasn't seeing bears regularly, so that came a lot later in my profession. But with birds they're easily accessible to anybody, and so going out there and trying to get some unique images of some of the common birds, I think is a key approach that I always look at with bird photography, oftentimes the situation is going to influence those settings. We may have those kind of basics of like okay, if the bird's going to take off, I want to have a shutter speed that's one over a thousand, one over 2000,. Somewhere in that range to kind of start with. But you also want to try to find ways.

Mike:

Because they aren't mammals, it's difficult for them to translate personality, and so trying to find ways that you can get that personality out of a bird by their posture, the angle of the way they're looking, if they're looking into the open part of the frame that's a big key component for me is trying to add that little extra. So you're getting that portrait shot which I always call like the safety shot. Try to get a good like. Okay, that could go up in the field guide and I'd be happy with it. But then then try to push yourself that next level of getting that angle, getting some wing movement, some feather movement, understanding how the light's hitting the side of their face, you're not getting too bright or too dark. Those are all key characteristics when I look at bird photography.

Court:

And are you trying to generally shoot wide open with an open aperture to minimize that depth of field, or are you playing around with a deep depth of field sometimes? I know it's very circumstantial.

Mike:

But what?

Court:

goes through your mind, kind of oscillating between those two ends of the extreme.

Mike:

Yeah, I think, with a narrow depth of field. That's usually where a lot of bird photographers and even I go to most of the time, because a lot of birds, of course, are going to be up in sort of some sort of plant life. I'm living now here in Arizona and so they're up in cactus and some mesquite when I was up in Michigan, pine forests and oak, those kinds of things. There's a lot of branches and leaves, and so that narrow depth of field is super important to blur that out, because you as the photographer, the artist, are trying to highlight your subject most, and so you want to draw your viewer's eye to the subject which is going to be in sharp focus, and all that busyness of the forest in the background is blurred out. So that's, uh, usually the way I I do my photography.

Mike:

But there are those instances where you do the animal scapes, the, where you put that animal in the landscape and highlight its environment and its habitat as part of that overall story. You're going to teach and show about your subject the bird in this case and so in those instances that's where I'm going to get a deeper depth of field so you can show some of that background. But you have to be very careful because you can't really do that if that bird's just right into the woods. You need to find some opening where there's a little bit more of a separation, so you can add that sharpness to the background, but it doesn't detract from your subject, your bird in this case.

Court:

We're going to jump over later in the conversation to the gear you're currently using, but before we go away from bears and birds, just quick question favorite lens you're using right now for each Favorite lens for bear photography, favorite lens for bird, favorite lens you're using right now for each favorite lens for bear photography, favorite lens for bird? Uh, and then I'd love to hear, just personal curiosity, what would be your dream lens?

Mike:

you know money. If money were no, object.

Court:

If size and weight were no object.

Mike:

Dream lens for for both or either I would say my go-to for any wildlife photography is my sony-600mm f5.6-6.3. That is the usual lens, that's my carrying lens, even though it's on the heavier side. Something that I learned from one of my photography mentors early on was that with regards to what lens to have on your camera, what to have ready at any moment and he goes landscapes don't move. You have time, but wildlife moves. So always have your camera set up for wildlife and you can always switch it. You can change your lens when you're doing landscape photography, and so that's in those moments where I'm like, okay, now it's a sunset or sunrise, I can switch those lenses. But otherwise, if I'm just out on a hike, if I'm out walking, exploring, I've got my wildlife lens because that bird or that other animal is going to pop up for 10, 15, 30 seconds if you're lucky. So you want to be ready for it. So the 200 to 600 is what I use most of the time, because, as a photography guide as well, I can't spend too much time with changing lenses or getting just exactly the right equipment. I need to have something that's a good workhorse that can get me a little bit wider with a 200 millimeter or get me that far distance, at 600 millimeters, which is super important when you're photographing over your guest's shoulder to get that same environment. So that's usually what I use, I think.

Mike:

Of course, when we talk about our wishlist lens, what lens would we want? If weight and expense was an issue, getting a 600 prime would be glorious, because, uh well, this one at 5.6 it's not bad where I'm photographing a lot. When you talk about alaska, where it's oftentimes cloudy, you're sometimes in some thick spruce forests or bird photography when you're often in the forest as well, I mean that any little bit of light is super important. So if you can get a smaller aperture in the 4.5 range or lower than that, that's um doubles the amount of light, if not quadruples the amount of light, and so that's super critical in those moments because, um, I suffer from the pixel peeping a little bit. I'll spend too much time looking at the, the noise level in my photos and seeing if it's good enough quality. Even though I'm not planning on printing every single photo I ever take at 36 inches or something like that, I still want to make sure that quality looks good, and so being able to drop that noise down because of that aperture change with a 600 prime. That would definitely be my wishlist.

Mike:

Lens.

Court:

The 200 to 600. Yeah, I feel like for just about every camera platform out there, there's one lens that would get me to switch away from canon and the 200 600 is such an extraordinary range um. Was it's 4.5 at 200, which is pretty darn good, or is it 5.6? It starts at 5.6, then that's fine too. But like the fact that it's 600 at 6.3 is awesome. Like my canon 100 to 500 tops out at 7.1 at 500. So I can only imagine how much nicer the blur uh might be 600, six, three yeah.

Court:

Yep, I've, I've considered it, I've considered it, um, and then, yeah, 600 prime I. So I want to ask a little bit about that again for personal curiosity sakes. Fun, fun fact I rented over kind of like the holiday time period, um, like a 400, 2.8, uh, like, yeah, it's, that's been to date, my dream lens. Like if cost and weight and size is no issue, like because I just love 2.8, it's insane. So, um, shout out to lens rentals for hooking me up with that. Lensrentalscom sponsor this, this podcast.

Court:

Um, I got to get my hands on this 400 to eight. It is as big as they say. Like it is, it is a bazooka, it is heavy. I'm pretty sure it's the size and weight of the 600, um, 600 F4 to 400, 2.8. They don't make it 600, 2.8, uh, to the best of my knowledge, maybe in like cinema for $75,000 or something. But either way, I, you know, if I were to ever, um, you know, find an extra kidney that I could sell and get that lens, I'm always wondering, like you know, you can have one chance right At that range. Is it 402, eight or is it 600 F4? And in the wildlife world is like, yeah, why wouldn't you want more reach. Yes, 2.8 is twice the light, but F4 is pretty darn good and I'm just wondering you know cause you you are shooting at 600.

Court:

There's no difference in the focal length between that and this big fancy prime that we're talking about. But I'm always a little bit worried that I'm going to have too much telephoto, like what what's your opinion?

Mike:

Is it kind of like you know what more the merrier. Let's go big, because you're probably still going to crop in even after that in places where the temperature changes can vary quite a bit? In Alaska, you may have cold air and you're on a gravel bar, but then there's this grassy metal that's heating up and you're going to have heat waves Anything over 600, I mean sometimes at 600, I'm seeing those heat waves and it can be quite annoying. So getting too much range is certainly an issue. I've found that in those situations where, oh shoot, I'm at 600 prime and I couldn't go back down to 200 millimeters, I oftentimes will use that as a couple different experiences.

Mike:

One either I start thinking about OK, what can I do with my lens at this range, and that's the isolations or the abstract photos. So for a bear, there are all these features of the bear that are really interesting. So getting that fluffy bear ear, or getting a snarl in the mouth where you can see the nose and one of the teeth, getting just the eye, or getting an abstract of just the fur on the side of the body or, of course, the bear claws, those are situations where, like if I'm just too close. Those are the images I'm getting and I'm happy with those, because when we talk about telling the story, it's not always that perfect bear silhouette or that bear walking through frame. You got to have all these different angles, these different zooms, zoom out, zoom in those kinds of things, and so those situations where I'm too close to the bear, so to speak, to get the usual shot, take an opportunity to do that, so to speak. To get the usual shot. Take an opportunity to do that.

Mike:

But at the same time, as a photographer, there are instances where you spend so much time behind the lens that you forget to enjoy the moment. And I think having a lens that's too big means that when that bear does get close, you get to enjoy that moment, because you have to put your camera down, you're not going to get the image because you're outside of your focal range, and you can just sit back and enjoy and you may feel a little lament that you're losing an image, but I mean that's where you can use your smartphone to get some video, or you can just sit there and just soak in that experience, because as a photographer, you're thinking about all those images constantly you want to try to get, and you put so much pressure on yourself that you're not enjoying it sometimes, and so that's a way to force yourself to enjoy that moment when those animals are that close, which is great.

Court:

Man, that is super interesting to hear. I've not heard nor thought about that perspective, but it's truly a beautiful one. Well, now I'm even more on the fence Again. I still got to locate that third kidney, but uh, if I do, maybe I'll once again consider the 600. Uh, so I am very borderline obsessed, but very curious and very interested in photographic styles.

Court:

Um, you know, we talk a lot about settings and the shutter speed and the aperture and there are differences in what the photo is going to look like with those, of course, and between camera makes and models. But most of the difference comes from the eye and, dare I say, maybe editing work. But it all is mixed together to form the individual photographer's style. I'm wondering, what is the Mike Hillman style?

Mike:

I think every photographer at a certain point sits back and you go do I have a style? What is my style? And that's a tricky one for me. I think if you were to look at my website, look at my Instagram and start kind of going through, I think what you'd see is that generally, I like kind of big, bold animals with strong colors, of course being very careful not to oversaturate or make things look unnatural. I think I still want to lean towards that photojournalistic side of editing and how I'm presenting my work, but those bigger animals, those bolder colors, and then trying to show some emotion or expression in the animals. You don't ever want to anthropomorphize them because we don't really know what their existence is like, but giving those expressions, those angles for looks, the behavior, sticking their wings up for a bird or putting them in an environment that really shows off what they have to survive day in and day out, to thrive in their environment, I think those are key characteristics for me.

Mike:

And, of course, I'm not just a wildlife photographer. I like to dabble in a lot of different types of photography and so that's where, when it comes to style, I try not to put myself too much in a box, because you have a tendency. A photographer has a tendency, if they're thinking about their style too much, that when they enter in a situation where they can't get that photo, they're just stuck, they don't get the, they don't try something new, they don't push themselves to the next level or at a different discipline within photography. And so understanding there are different styles and maybe dabbling in them, I think is super critical. I think for me the eye-opening moment for that was actually I was guiding in Alaska, in Denali National Park, and to that point I'd taken a lot of landscape photography, wildlife photography, with the grizzly bears that are in Denali, the caribou, but for some reason I had my settings on a slower shutter speed.

Mike:

I think it was taking pictures of slow moving water at the time and I set my camera down.

Mike:

But as I did it, I pushed the camera shutter by accident and I was like, oh, shoot, but digital digital film is cheap, I can just delete this photo. And so I hit play to look at it, to delete it, and realized I had done an abstract photo called ICM, or intentional camera movement, where I'd actually moved the camera while taking the photo, and so I get these beautiful streaks of green and yellow from the tundra grasses that I was standing on, and it was one of those light bulb moments where I realized that, even when I think a situation is done, I've got all the photos I think I can get. There are options out there for macro photography, for unique lighting settings, for people photography and these abstracts which I really enjoyed. And so it just goes to show that, like, don't always put yourself in your style box, because jumping out of your style box allows you the opportunity to continue to use photography. Even when the moment doesn't seem like it's best for your usual style. You can do something different with that moment and still enjoy photography.

Court:

Walk me through a couple of your sliders and settings that you're going to use, or at least consider for most every photo, and then, if you have anything kind of in your recent bag of tricks, like like things that people may not know about, or their new features.

Court:

I'll give you an example of of one of mine. These are not new features, but it's a new thing that I'm really using a lot. So we all know about masking and I used to use a brush mask a lot where I would like, you know, brush a little bit of light on this part of the photo if I thought it was too dark or the shadows were too strong. But I've started switching over a lot more to gradients and radial filters, irises or these ellipses, circles, more or less, versus harsh paint you know well metaphorical paint, the brushstroke with a masking option where you can light and dark and saturate, desaturate based on a brushstroke. Just wondering again, kind of your go-to editing thoughts, tools and then anything that sticks out as maybe something that people aren't aware of or haven't experimented with that you think they should.

Mike:

For me, when I approach my editing again, I always try to think of it from the perspective of what did I see out? The environment, to make sure my editing stays within that realm of photojournalism. I'm, of course, putting that polish on the photo, especially when you're photographing raw. You're going to have to do some of that polishing from the get-go. But I always try to make sure that if I'm having these bold colors, they aren't looking unnatural. So making sure I'm keeping an eye on the vibrance and saturation sliders, in some cases actually desaturating just a touch just to make sure that those reds and yellows don't look too crazy. I am a big sickler about white balance. I want to make sure that my white balance looks normal. That's one of the first things I notice on other people's images because within my job I a bit of a photo editor in addition to the other things that I'm working on, because I'm looking at other guides photography and then utilizing it in our marketing. So I'm always doing tweaks to their photos to kind of put them out at the best quality they can be. So one first thing I notice is is it just a little too cool? Is it just a little too warm? So I'll oftentimes do that. In some cases, with regards to masking, I'll actually do a slight mask difference between the background and the animal. With regards to, um, white balance a little cooler in the background, a little warmer on the subject I think that helps to kind of again make your subject stand out. Uh, some cases I'll use clarity, but I've got to make sure that that contrast tool is used sparingly so it doesn't look too crispy, as they say. And one of my go-tos is actually vignetting. I'll go down all the way to the bottom of Lightroom Classic. I'll hit the vignette, make it a little dark vignette around the edges. But the key with vignetting and I see this a lot with folks is they'll go too far where you can see the vignette in the image. I think for me, when I vignette, I go, I slide it down to where I can see it and then I bring it back until it almost disappears. So all it's doing is a subtle trick to the eye. Because, as you know, and a lot of our listeners will know, that the photography between composition and the editing is all about the psychology of the eye, allowing your viewer to look specifically at the story you want to tell and using your editing to help enhance that after getting the image out there in the field. And so by just darkening the corners ever so slightly, you're telling your viewer don't look at the corners, look at my subject. That's in the center or off center or something like that. So I always add those are my usual basics and then from there.

Mike:

I like your point about masking and using radial linear masks. I do that from time to time as well, especially when it comes to handling the sky versus the foreground. I think that's huge. I will do some brushstrokes from here and there, but you're right, you got to be very careful how much change you're making to those brushstrokes, because it becomes very obvious very, very quickly. Um, I know a lot of photographers these days are starting to use the lens blur feature within lightroom. Uh, I'm not like that so far. Maybe the, the masking, and people will will do a little bit better job with it. You have to be very, very subtle with those kinds of touches, and so I tend to try to do all my blurring in camera, so with a shallow aperture, those kinds of things. But that's my general approach. I try to be fairly light with it but just kind of bring that life into it by brightening up a little bit and adding a little bit more color.

Court:

I think most folks will agree that if you can get the photo to look a certain way in camera and most folks will agree that if you can get the photo to look a certain way in camera, right, that's always always preferable, especially with blur. I do use a lens blur a little bit, but yeah, not with like every photo, whereas with my lens I might be blurring every photo. So, yeah, very some photo trips recently and we're now incorporating a Photoshop workshop as part of each and every trip and we're getting some great attendance to that. But a lot of people just really haven't dabbled with editing per se Lightroom, photoshop, camera Raw, et cetera, et cetera. So I have this little analogy. I'll try it on for size with you. I'll try it on for size for you with you.

Court:

Is, you know, if you've ever seen the Olympics like a track race and you have the four by 100 race, right, you can win. You should try to win by running those first three legs, right, like that's going to set you up for success. But if you have a ringer at the end, that is just all-out sprinter. It's oftentimes your fastest runner. It's the closer you can come from behind, or you can at least come from the middle and win the race, and that's sort of what I look at is like the photograph versus the editing. Like the photograph is the first three legs, that gets you in the right position. But then if you have your best sprinter at the end to take that baton and boogie with it, you actually might come out as the victor of the whole thing. So I don't know, I'm still working on my delivery of it, but you can use that if you want my gift to you.

Mike:

Yeah, I do appreciate that analogy. I think that makes a lot of sense because you could even break down each legs. One leg is your composition, your creative eyes and artists. Another leg is your camera and its settings creative eyes and artists. Another leg is your camera and its settings those kind of and a third leg being your subject or what you're choosing to take a photo of. I think that's a great analogy, because there are times when I definitely will take a photo and not think much of it, but then bring it into Lightroom and do a few edits and be like you know what actually this, with a little bit of massaging, this photo, can stand out.

Court:

I'm happy with the technology we have these days to bring to life some of these photos that otherwise we would have just discarded, I think that's exactly it, because it's some, you know, maybe a photo of an amazing behavior or just this really unique time of day, unique lighting, but the photo is more or less botched because of ISO or just you know, for whatever reason.

Court:

It's amazing what this tech can do. In addition to being a pro photo guide, you also head up as director of photography for Natural Habitat Adventures, a travel company out of the US that does worldwide adventures, so you're kind of like in the logistics but probably more programmatic side of the planning of these adventures. I was wondering, you know, just knowing you personally, kind of on your constant quest to up the ante on what goes into photo trips, what sort of things go through your mind in like planning a photo trip or vetting a company or things to look out for, or how can a photo trip go from good to great or great to excellent? What are some of the raw ingredients out for? Or how can a photo trip go from good to great or great to excellent?

Mike:

What are some of the raw ingredients? Yeah, I think when I start thinking about photographic travel either in my own photographic travel or planning photo travel for others you got to think about that image list. So what are those images, those shots that a guest might be thinking about or you might be thinking about when you're traveling? Because, of course, when you travel, there's a lot of different factors. Thinking about just getting a chance to be in this environment, see those kinds of wildlife and those kinds of experiences the cultural aspects of it, too, are always great. But I think, as a photographer, you're definitely thinking, oh, that's an image I want to get. I want to have a chance, a crack at getting that experience. When you're looking at the images that are presented online and so that's where I start every single time is if I'm thinking about a photo trip in Southern Africa or Eastern Africa, you're thinking about your big five, right so? Your leopard, or your lion and rhino, giraffe, those kinds of things, and so you're you're and making sure that that experience is going to check those boxes of that shot list that a photographer is going to come with. So, as a guest, if you're somebody that's looking at a photographic company or doing your own travel. That's who you probably want to start with is create that list of images that you would be super happy to come home with and then see does this experience, does this trip check all those boxes? I think that's super key. This experience, does this trip check all those boxes? I think that's super key.

Mike:

And then from there, just having a good time out on the field, setting the right experience, the right culture among your fellow travelers and your photographic guide. I think that's key because occasionally, when folks go out on photo travel with other companies, you see the guide themselves is a photographer and all those guests behind him are the reason that he's able to be out there and so he's able to get his shots. But I think you need to find a company where that guy is trying to help you get the shots you want, and if they can shoot over your shoulder and get a few shots as well, that's great. I think that's always been my mentality when it comes to photography. I'm sure that's yours as well, court. It's like I'm here for you and then, if you're good, then I'll get a few shots while we're at it. I think that's always a key component to this kind of travel.

Court:

Yeah, exactly Anything for us is kind of just bonus, right, Absolutely, Absolutely. We've talked a lot about wildlife photography and we've dabbled a little bit in some landscape tips, but you are also a pro guide in the canyon country of the US Southwest, the American Southwest Desert. What are some considerations one should make when going out for photographing in canyon country? I'm thinking you know logistics or time of day, maybe some gear, maybe a little bit of the photographic vision and intentions. What are some advice or what is some advice you have for folks out there for planning trips and going out into canyon country?

Mike:

Yeah, so being in Arizona and be able to just go to northern Arizona and southern Utah, to some of these beautiful national parks like Bryce Canyon National Park, zion, grand Canyon. Of course these places are fantastic for photography, but they can be very, very challenging, and one of the biggest things that's challenging about canyon country photography is harsh, contrasting light, because these canyons themselves you may in some cases be down at the bottom of the canyon looking up at these canyon walls, like in the cases of Zion National Park, or you're photographing down into the canyon, like in Bryce Canyon, along the rim there, and so the light is doing very interesting things because as that sun's rising or as it's setting, it's filling light into that canyon and making the sky very, very bright. Or vice versa, you get a very, very dark canyon while you get this beautiful sunrise or sunset light as the sun is scattering on the clouds. So understanding how to attack that moment is super key. So either doing HDR bracketing, taking multiple exposures you can blend later. I think is a good characteristic of that we have the benefit these days with a lot of mirrorless cameras. Their dynamic range is broad. It's oftentimes very easy, without blowing out your sky too much, being able to bring up some of those shadows, as long as your ISO isn't too high, that you're going to have a lot of noise there. So understanding that is super critical.

Mike:

I think another thing that's really fantastic about that part of the country is that most of those parks and most of those areas are rated for dark sky. There's not a lot of people out there, there's not a lot of cities, which means you get some fantastic stars. You get the Milky Way and some other astronomical events you can capture there. And so understanding how to take a photo at night, I think, is another the key characteristic. Always when I plan these trips, uh, I, I do one night that's kind of a, a throwaway astro night where maybe we're not having the best subjects, but it's an opportunity without a lot of um kind of say, like a lot of worry about getting the right shot by going to an area. That's kind of so-so as far as composition wise, but it allows folks to practice with their camera, understanding their tripod, understanding the settings, to be able to get the kind of image they want. So when we go to places like Zion at night or Grand Canyon at night, they can get some really fantastic images.

Mike:

I think it's super key because even some simple stuff you forget about in the moment because you're so worried about all your settings. I can't tell you how many times, with a guest, I've had them show me their camera and, like I did, all the settings you told me to do for this particular moment, and all I'm getting is black images every single time. And I'll look at the front of their camera and, like step one, take the lens cap off off, so get used to that, and then you start taking some photos, so just that rote memory of going through astrophotography with your camera. Understanding it. You can even take those kinds of images at home, even if it's fairly bright, just to get an idea of the kinds of settings you might start using or just where those settings are, that you can change them so that when you're out in the field and getting the stars and the Milky Way that you want, you're ready to go and have a little bit more experience with your camera.

Court:

There is indeed something about night photography that gets people myself included just in a tizzy, oh yeah.

Mike:

Absolutely.

Court:

You forget and miss the silliest things. There's something about like even in places where it's not that cold at night.

Court:

You know, I'm thinking primarily Aurora photography where it is cold, places where it's not that cold at night you know, I'm thinking primarily aurora photography, where it is cold, but yeah, even, yeah, even on the, the rim of bryce canyon, like there's just something about being out of your element in the dark, out in the wilderness, where, yeah you, you tend to miss little things. So, as always, practice, practice, practice. I've got an astro question for you, though, um, because there's a lot of different viewpoints on this, or at least you know a couple, a couple, but very divided viewpoints. What do you, what do you do for focus when you're, when you're shooting stars?

Mike:

Yeah. So that's another benefit I love, especially with the mirrorless cameras, is, um, a lot of people, when you look at the lens and you see that infinity symbol for your focus ring, everyone's like, oh, just push it to infinity and you're good to go. And what I have found is that most lenses I've worked with, especially at night, that infinity is just a little bit too far. And so with the digital cameras we have today, we have the ability to look live view at the back of the screen. With my Sony A1, that's what I utilize and by setting it to manual focus and then aiming in the general direction that I want to go, I can turn that focus ring and when it's set to manual focus, I have it automatically set. We'll bring up the zoomed in view of that scene.

Mike:

So now what I can do is focus on a star. So pick one of the bright stars in the scene that you want to make. Focus on that one star, so it's at the smallest point it can possibly be and that's going to be, generally speaking, the sharpest you're going to get that image. So I always do that focus on the star versus anything else so switching gears here, let's uh, let's indeed talk about gear.

Court:

Um. So I've already asked you what your favorite wildlife lens is. We already got the answer there, to 200 to 600. What is your? What is your second favorite lens?

Mike:

I think you're probably the same way with me is when we're traveling, we have to travel light, especially when we're photographically guiding. We have all this other gear on top of what we need to be able to take photos. So I generally only bring just two lenses with me. I bring my 200 to 600, which stays on the camera, and then when I'm thinking about landscapes, what I'm bringing is my Sony 24 to 70 F 2.8. That's my standard landscape lens. It gets me within the range of people photography as well, so I can take photos of my guests out there in their environment, like a lot of guests appreciate that, because as a photographer, when do you get photos of yourself? Almost never. So being able to see yourself out in the field, getting those photos, is super critical. But it gives me that nice range where I can zoom out and get some really fantastic landscapes and it's got the good light fast enough lens to be able to get some really dark situations and brighten them up. So those are by far the two lenses I utilize almost all the time.

Court:

Do you have any X-factor lenses that you sometimes bring out based on the situation?

Mike:

That's one of those things I was thinking about when it comes to what is my third lens, if I'm going to bring one. And it brings up an interesting story in that when I met my wife, this was back in the very end of 2019, got to find out that she was a photographer like me and at the time I was shooting Nikon and I asked her I was like, oh, what do you shoot? And she's like, oh, I'm a Canon photographer. And I was like, oh, so close as a photographer and a spouse that's a photographer. You're like, can we share gear? Can we trade things back and forth? Eventually, I switched over to Sony, which I've loved. I haven't looked back and I eventually got her to switch over to Sony and let me tell you that's when I knew it was serious was when she switched to the same camera brand as me and for me, my X Factor lens is a lens that may not necessarily be anyone else's X Factor, but it's a lens I don't use as often because she usually has it on her camera, but it's the 100 to 400. That's the lens that when I get a chance to use it. It's a very fun lens for very particular situations.

Mike:

I love it for the isolations and landscapes. Landscapes that was another one of those moments when photographing with my wife is her creative eye is very different than mine, which I really appreciate because it pushes me to look at an environment, a landscape, the animal in a different way, which I really enjoy. And one photograph that she loves taking in landscapes is not just the wide, open view where you get that beautiful foreground. You may have some mid ground of forest or a river, then you have that mountainscape in the background, but by zooming in a little bit you get those little isolations of that same landscape. And so the craggy peak or one tree with the mountains in the background, and the 100 to 400 is super sharp and it zooms in just enough to get those beautiful isolations of that same landscape. And so whenever I have this on my camera, that's the first thing I'm looking for are those little vignette moments within the overall view that I'm getting with something like the 24 to 70.

Court:

Yeah, I love telephotos for landscape. I probably equally, if not more so, than the good old trusty kind of ultra wide and wide angle, because it's all about minimizing distractions and zeroing in on certain areas. You know you were mentioning about the challenge of, uh, contrast, high contrast in the canyon country. Great way to minimize that is to zoom way far in and find that equally evenly lit spot and make that your entire frame. So, yeah, 100 to 400.

Court:

I hear you there and it's funny it really wasn't too long ago that that was kind of like all of our go to zoom telephotos. Anyway, it's really only been the last, I don't know 510, I guess 10 years that these super telephotos are coming at the two to fives, the two to sixes, the 100 to 500. So, yeah, 100 to 400 still definitely earns a place in my heart as well. Okay, what is a piece of gear for your nature photography that is surprisingly helpful that people may not think about? And it doesn't have to be. It can be a lens, it doesn't have to be a lens or a camera, something that is gear related but disproportionately helpful.

Mike:

Yeah, gear related but disproportionately helpful. Yeah, I think for me, my unusual piece of kit that I bring along that probably people give me weird looks on, but I have to have it with me at all times Interestingly enough, is one of those collapsible camp toothbrushes, and the reason for that is not to brush my teeth, but it's to clean my gear. You oftentimes people bring your usual lens brush and you want to keep that fairly clean and you don't want a lot of grit on it because all you're going to do is just when you brush off the lens, you're going to get all that stuff on there and you're going to scratch your lens. So how do you clean your gear?

Mike:

That's not the front element of your lens and that's where this camping toothbrush comes into play, is it's brushed off every single one of my camera bodies when they get really dirty from a dusty environment, like in the canyons, I've cleaned very thoroughly my tripods. When I'm utilizing them on beaches, you get that wet sand and if you collapse your tripod and get that sand inside there, it takes a lot of work to clean it out. It takes a lot of work to clean it out, and so this is just a piece of cleaning kit that I always have with me, because I can always brush off something when I'm out there in the environment and keep things clean and working well, especially if you've got one of those lenses that when they zoom, they telescope out If you get any sand or grit on there. That's the first thing I'm doing is brushing that off with my camp toothbrush before I zoom it back down so I can put it back in my bag, because you're just going to keep introducing that grit to all your equipment.

Court:

I love that. It's one of those toothbrushes that have the little case. You know you can take off the brush itself. That's a great idea. So I also carry a toothbrush, but I have to wrap it in like duct tape just to remind myself this is not my toothbrush. I do not want to put this in my mouth because it's got grease on it and oil and dirt yeah.

Court:

Yeah, If you put that in a Petri dish you'd have like a little mini Jurassic Park after a month. So that's a great, great tip. I love that one. Well, Mike, fantastic. Thank you so much for all the words of wisdom, the advice, the ideas.

Mike:

Where do people find you, so you can find me in a couple different places. My website is called mikehillmanmediacom, where you can find my photos. I also have some publications and videos. I do a lot of webinars and videos for my company, so you can learn a little bit more about photography from me there and just my zoology background as well. You can also find me on Instagram at wildventurer, and that's like adventure without the AD. Wildventurer on Instagram.

Court:

Killer, mike. Well, I appreciate all that. We'll put all those things in the show notes for you folks. Mike, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much once again and thanks for joining. Thank you so much once again and thanks for joining. Thank you, folks.

Court:

I hope you enjoyed listening to today's episode as much as I enjoyed making it. I wanted to point you in the direction of a couple additional resources that I think you'll find helpful as budding and advanced photographers out there. First off, my YouTube channel. It's just searching on YouTube, Court Whelan, or @ Court Whelan. That's going to have all my podcast episodes in addition to other helpful videos.

Court:

This is going to be about conservation, travel and photography a mixture of all these different things. In addition, if you head over to my website, just wwwcourtwhalencom that's court, just like a tennis court, and Whelan W-H-E-L-A-N you're going to see a chance to sign up for my blog. Yes, a chance, the lucky you. You can sign up to receive articles from me, and, again, these are on largely photography topics, but I do throw other things in the world of conservation and travel in there as well. So those are two resources for you the YouTube channel, as well as my personal website, courtwhalencom.

Court:

You can also, in addition to seeing some of the blog articles and getting notifications about new articles that do come out, you can also see some of my own photography, and I think one of the best ways to learn and be inspired is viewing other photographers' work, to see what they might be up to, look at the world through their lens and help you grow as a photographer yourself. So, once again, thank you so much for joining today. It means the world to me. Keep on listening, feel free to share this with a friend if you think someone might be interested, and looking forward to chatting with you next time. Bye.

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