How do you find your subject?

It is one thing learning about which lenses and camera settings other photographers use, but how do others go about finding their subjects?

By this I mean do you just stroll around the countryside, do you scout out areas and return again and again to the same place once to find that one bird, do you sit in hides for hours, etc?

It'd be interesting to see what most people do

tkd

Hey Tim, I have some favorite spots that I've shot most of my images at. With living in Michigan and the four seasonal changes, I can go to these spots all year long as the weather tweaks the environment on about a monthly basis. I like to expore and find new areas, but knowing a area really well saves time when it comes to finding things to shoot. Being a close-up/macro photographer I can find alot of images in a small area.

For me, the best way to answer your question is "Yes".

I have several favorite spots I'll return to time and time again. They are my favorite for various reasons - high on the list is that I enjoy being there even without a camera.

For a completely new location, sometimes I'll stop in one general place for a couple of hours. Other times, I may just hike along a trail just to see what I find.

I have gone to locations based on just a map and a guess there might be something worth shooting there.

I keep a Delorme map of Ohio in the car. I actually know a lot of the backroads of Ohio better than I know parts of the Columbus area where I live. Especially if I am in no hurry to get somewhere, I have been known to get off of the 7'th (or 13'th or whatever) exit of I-75, flip a coin at the bottom of the offramp, and take the first left and second right encountered after driving 9.3 miles.

Word of mouth is also a big influence.

And Mike, I understand your comment about being a macro photographer. My 180 is by far my most heavily used lens, even for landscapes (gasp!).

Tim, you're asking the right questions, which is important. I think too many people get bogged down with gear when they should really focus (no pun intended) their attention on the subject and creating moving/meaningful images.

Birds are not my main subject but spending a lot of time in the field has certainly taught me a lot about their ways. I know where I might find specific species and at what time of year. If I observe something I had not seen before (new species, interesting behavior etc.) I usually take time to research it when I get home. I guess the short answer - the more time you spend with your subject, the better you will be able to know their ways and predict their whereabouts.

And yes, I do go back over and over to favorite places.

Guy

Yes from me too. Doing primarily birds I go to areas where I know birds reside and spend a lot of time looking and waiting. What you never get to see is the number of hours that go into making a good bird shot. Lots of times I get nothing worth keeping in an entire day of shooting but every once in a while I get such a good day that it keeps me coming back.

Knowing your subject, its habitat, feeding and courtship behaviors are all part of getting an avian image. The old saying about f8 and be there - and you can forget f8 is true. You need to spend time out in their habitat to find all the elements and have them come together - especially finding a bird who doesn't mind you being there.

I'm sure the same holds true for all aspects of nature photography as getting the right combination of natural elements (including weather and light) combined with the right location and point of view are all part of the fun. Every subject creates lots of challenges to get it just right.

The internet, NPN, friends and special interest groups are all great sources of information about where to be and when to increase your chances of getting it right.

Tim, I'm going to chime in here too. While I've spent a lifetime shooting, it is only recently that I have decided it was high time that I get involved with the more technical aspects of shooting; lenses, camera settings, etc.

I shoot everything in the world that comes to mind and within eye sight. As I drive about I note things that would make great shots such as smoke pouring out of a local metallurgy site, six square feet absolutely crammed with pigeons, incredible transmission towers near Costco, a local bird preserver here in Henderson, and the list goes on. On the days I'm able to get out to shoot, I head out with a destination in mind and an assignment in mind (it might be simply experimenting with a camera feature), but sometimes I get distracted by yet another perfect shot. The other day for example, the sun's rays falling on the copper dome of a church caught my eye, and I changed my destination at will.

There are sites I've been to such as Lake Las Vegas Resort, the bird preserve here in Henderson or at Bolsa Chica in Huntington Beach, Ca to which I know I will return again and again and again.

A dear friend recently asked me what I was going to specialize in; I still don't have that answer.

One thing I'm learning as I review photos here at NPN, most people have a unique style, and I think I will have discovered my own style long before I find a specific type of subject.

I'm also discovering that that I can spend an inordinate amount of time searching for different angles, perspectives, composition, and which specific lens I want to use.

So that's my two-cents.

Oh, one last thought, none of my friends are serious about photography so mostly when I go out, it's by my lonesome.

Have fun.

Carol Hyman
http://hy-tec-training.com

I'm mostly spontaneous when I decide what to shoot. If there's some sort of unique condition whether light / subject / time of year or whatever then I usually decide right at that moment to go there. Other times I just get an urge to go shoot something, so I have to go. I'm a type A person and when I'm feeling impulsive I just have to do something. Plans generally don't work for me unless I have money invested because I'm always changing my mind up til the last minute. However, I hardly ever go places without knowing anything about them first. I research the internet, read books, look at stock websites, etc... so I can get an idea for what there is to work with. Of course once you get there, it's always different so you gotta leave room for spontaneity. Oh wait, that goes back to my first sentence.

From three decades of roaming mountains and countryside for landscapes, I have an absolutely huge pile of topographic maps, geological maps, guide books, brochures, natural history books, and as someone plugged into the world wide web from the early days, enough bookmarked urls to choke most people's computers. I just love hunting for scenery in places others either have been passing right by or that are simply remote no name locations in the backcountry. I'm also one that has always enjoyed visiting galleries, museums, art shows, flipping through pages of image books at local book stores, or thumbing through the local stack of scenic post cards to look at what others have found. Nothing like going to some distant national playground where one is a complete novice and first hitting the bookstore and a few local galeries to see what the local talent has found. On top of that I've logged an enormous amount of exploration on foot over those years with much of it to places few if any others have visited. The biggest thing I would advise is to simply get out in productive areas and with some intelligence ramble ramble ramble. At first one is not going to be hiking about too wisely compared to a savvy landscape pro, but everyone goes through that process. Every landscape photographer regardless of their experience that explores new terrain is going spend a lot of time with zero or little results. Just the law of averages. Over time one can become skilled at knowing what are the better choices of where and when to go. And though those averages will improve, though one can still expect that more often than not one may invest enormous effort and time seeking images with results that are virtually unproductive or nearly so. ...David

Half the time, I look behind me and discover it's better than whatever I went looking for in the first place.

(Only about half tongue-in-cheek)

- Marshall