I am starting in bird photography, I am from Costa Rica and as it all started it was a similar experience to yours I went for a walk one day and a Lesson's Motmot arrived and I was able to take the photos and I liked being able to capture those moments hahaha, Saludos desde Costa Rica pura vida!!
Wonderful interview, Jeremy. Stefan offered so many wonderful insights and I really appreciated all of your great questions. What an incredible species!
Thanks for a good honest reviewI wish I’d listen to you I purchased the 150 to. 400 end is woeful at best so soft. Luckily I have the 300 mm F4 and the 40-150mm f2.8 . Most of the Olympus ambassadors shoot back light shots The details are blown to bits. If this is the type of photography you enjoy no need for lens costing £6500. For me it is a case of a fool and his money are easily parted in my defence I was just hoping it would be the same 400mm as 300mm F4 is at 300 mil. It’s well short of that.
Great job Jeremy with your cohort. You gave me a lot of new information and idea for my journey on RU-vid, and I can only thank you forever. Take care my friend.
Tom Mangelsen (Top Wildlife Photographer) uses a tripod faithfully in Yellowstone, are you telling us he is doing it wrong? His photographs are super fantastic, tripod use sure looks great when he uses it. Just stating my opinion.
I would argue he would have been able to get even better shots if he was able to get down lower in most situations (not all), that overhead style smashes subjects more into the ground behind them and you lose the DOF isolation. It's something really overdone in older circles of wildlife photography communities.
@@officialwilder He is one of the top wildlife photographers in this country, owns 3 galleries and has earned enough from his prints to make him a very well off man, you think he did it wrong??? Get real my friend, you don't know crap compared to him. Sorry if I make you mad but please get off your high horse.
Doug, I don’t mean to attack him at all, I have nothing against him and never said his work is bad. I’m just saying that technique is outdated and I can give you plenty of examples of critiquely acclaimed photographers who would vouch on never shooting a down angle of a tripod. No need to get aggressive with your comments and feel a need to put me down
@@officialwilder Getting low to the ground is a method older than you, not a new technique as you seem to think. I am one of the old timers using old methods and glad I do. I speak with over 50 year of experience. You saying Mangelsen could have done better with the little experience you have does make me chuckle. Not attacking you, just stating facts.
Jeremy, this was an immensley helpful learning opportunity in the field of wildlife photography. It taught me so much! I would highly recommend to anyone❤️🙌🏻
Great review! Sharpness is MOST important to me. The 300 with a X1.5 or x2 would make up the difference in range and then some. I already own the 40-150mm 2.8, So I've got the lower zoom range covered. The idea and reason I moved into the of MFT is the many benefits it gives other than low light. SMALLER, lighter, an cost efficient is the name of the game, and the 150-400 kills that for me. But for some egos, I guess it looks the part. With the money you would save... you could buy a Panasonic G9II and another lens.
Thank you for taking the time to share your vent. It was well thought out and has some worthwhile insights. As much as possible I shoot alone and avoid others mostly due to many of the problems you shared.
First time watching a video of yours so comments are based on this video alone. I remember when other than friends or club members the only way to get a review of a camera or lens were in magazines or the salesman (now salesperson). I doubt that the majority of these were without bias. At the end of the day people need to be responsible for their own decisions, do your due diligence and certainly don't rely on one opinion. Thats why we get multiple quotes for a contract. It is usually pretty obvious who has done a comprehensive job in testing gear, plus one needs to see their body of work for consistency. I have only seen a few of Duane Paton's videos, however, he seems reliable and genuine. As for relying on friends/contacts opinions one certainly needs to take into account confirmation bias, its just the way it is as no one wants to feel they made a bad decision. I bought a Fujifilm x100s several years ago because a photographer I admire had one. Poor decision on my part. I really wanted to love that camera, I still have it but it just does not work for me. Gerald Undone recently put out a video on why company press trips should stop as it biases reviews. Caused a stir in the influencer community. As for following trends rather than being unique, well that is hardly new. Its why we have current fashion or a particular song is popular. People see something different that gathers attention so its only natural to try it out. The more one follows these, in this context, types of photographers or websites the more one can gets influenced. I guess I may be the odd person out as I don't follow popular photographic channels, websites, social media etc. There are a couple of RU-vid channels I follow, more for the entertainment and may look at their website to see their portfolio. I suppose what I am saying is I tend to go my own way mainly because I don't over indulge in the recent, popular images. If I do see a type of image that I like then I may try something similar but I put that down to expanding ones repertoire rather than religiously following a trend. As far as ethics in photography, well all I can say is that it is a small cohort of people that is reflected in society at large. I have been to Antarctica a couple of times and we were told where we should not go so as not to interfere with the wildlife nor to damage the environment. As you would expect most did the right thing but there were the few that felt their need to get a better, different image was more important than whether a lichen would survive their size 12 boots. Having a voice on RU-vid allows you to raise topics for people to examine for themselves and that is important.
I agree with you on technical tests, I appreciate that people keep tests to a real life in the field situation but it doesn't fully inform the buyer of the full technical output of the lens. Edge to edge sharpness is impossible to test on a 3D scene because the chances of getting the whole frame in focus at the max aperture is low. Some people test sharpness on a 3D fluffy toy, which is perfectly fine, but i've seen people criticize the sharpness on the edges of the object, they show it gets shaper as you shut the aperture but it's hard to tell if it's because of an increase in depth of field rather than lens sharpness.
Exactly, you’ll never get fair tests of that in nature, even getting center sharpness tests is tough due to variables like motion blur and slightly missed focus.
Excellent summary of some challenging topics. I've found that people who attack others do not foster any real solutions..in photography or other topics. Fortunately, most people are genuinely kind and, when offering their own views, do so in a constructive way. I prefer to block people that use the attack and run approach. They offer no benefit to my photography or in my life.
Canon offers the Fv mode. Imho the quickest way to adapt to the current situation. For beginners, aperture priority is often a trap because it will try to keep the iso low and therefore will result in too low shutter speeds eg for birds in flight. Beginners: decide for aperture, shutter speed and exposute compensation and auto iso to have the camera adapt to changing light and youre good to go
I haven't really posted much about my experience out in the wilderness photographing, but I can safely say that for every one or two people I see being chill, there is a goof ball being completely ignorant. I think that part of the reason we're seeing a lot of videos about bad etiquette is that there has been a massive influx of people picking up photography during COVID lock downs. Every other time I go out, I run into another photographer who comes up to me while I'm set up taking shots and stands there wanting to talk to me about their gear. Just on my last session, I was sitting quietly waiting for warblers to come down to the creek bed. Up comes this person with a telephoto lens. I hope they just walk by, but they stop and loudly go, "what are you shooting?!" I explained I was waiting for warblers, and then they proceeded to tell me about their R5 and their RF 100-500 lens and how they were going to buy an R5 mark II. They went on, asked about my gear. I indicated it's just an old DSLR with a Sigma lens. They then proceeded to tell me about how I should probably consider buying a mirrorless and went on about how good their lens was. I spent the whole time trying to be tactfully aloof so they'd keep walking along and I could wait for my birds again. I have this conversation everywhere I go now. Even when I show up early, there is someone who just wants to stop and talk shop about their new camera to me. I think it's because I have old gear and they can flex on me and feel superior. When so many of your outings are filled with this nonsense, can you really blame folks for being a bit irate? I agree with you, we don't want to be cancelling, gate keeping, or acting rude, but I do understand why folks are at wits end.
Thanks for sharing your story, interesting for someone like me to hear! I guess that I’ve had a very different experience being a US west coast photographer. Out here, wildlife photographers are pretty far and few between most places. 95% of the places I go I don’t see another wildlife photographer all day long. I can understand the frustration, hope you’re still able to rise above it though as you said 🙌🏻
@@officialwilder yup, totally agree. No matter how poorly others act, that will never give me a reason to also act poorly. It’s also not worth it causing conflict. It usually doesn’t go well. I’m in Canada, also West Coast. The only difference is, my particular city is known for having a lot of bigoted selfish mentalities. That being said, there are also a lot of really good people and even though the selfish mindsets are becoming more vocal, many of us are doing our part to be cool and not cause a fuss. Happy shooting and hope you have better luck than I have had!
A lot of folks have bought cameras and long lenses in the last few years. That just means there’s a lot of folks with cameras and long lenses walking/driving around, not necessarily “photographers” or “artists.” So… they end up shooting down on animals versus at eye level or leaving before the best light is present.
I think this is also true but it's important that wildlife photographers learn that those people are also out there to enjoy nature just like us. They don't need to "get eye level" or shoot at sunset or sunrise if satisfies them is using a camera for its original and most basic purpose - to capture what one sees. I know myself and other photographers are often guilty of this because I remember how I feel when I go out with birders. They often go for very tight crops or are satisfied with what amounts to me as dots in the distance.
The problem with Photography in general is folks like to stay to much in other folks kitchen. If a person likes the gear they have and don't care to upgrade, well nobody going to knock anyone for that. But oh the Drama anytime anyone voices a desire to buy new and or the latest and greatest. Just because the gear doesn't matter to one person should have ZERO bearing if it means the World to someone else. So folks need to stay out of other folks kitchen. Period.
This was a good conversation. To add to it, I'd say many photographers leave right as the light is getting good because many have other obligations. I normally miss golden hour in the evenings because i have children to get home too. As for sunrise, i dont get that either, as im home during the day with my kids as my wife works during the day. I say this because theres a hundred reasons why photographers dont stay for the best light. Sometimes its because they are tired, cold, etc... But many times, it's time restraint with other obligations. Also, as far as many not getting low, some may not be aware, as that is truly a better inpactful composition. However, we dont know their health or physical abilities either. I agree with alot of your opinions on the youtube photographers. Theres little to no originality anymore. Everyone is teaching the same things over and over, going to the same places, shooting the same subjects, and showing the same gear. It's all the same, just with a different channel name. The miniute one channel sees what works for one, its a copy and paste mentality. All of us content creators are guilty of this. Myself included. How many more youtubers are going to go to Svalbard or point to the back of the camera in their thumbnails, or rent the newest lens or camera to review? In this niche, its all about gear and teaching. That's how you grow a channel. The art of photography, in my opinion, is dying. Not many care about the process and the joy of the art anymore, and that saddens me. Above all, we need genuine authenticity, creators who want to just be different, be themselves, and have some kind of value to give while staying true to ethics in wildlife photography on RU-vid even if they remain a small channel. The problem is its getting difficult to weed through the masses of sharpness tutorials and gear reviews. Which have their place, im all for it, becuse its what the masses want to watch. People dont want to watch someone talk about the art of photography. Its all about the perfect image, lightroom tutorial, or next best gear. Which again, have their place. I think our attitude and morals is much more important to leave a lasting impact in the community. To hold on to the joy of photography in so that We all have something to bring to the table together that we all can learn from and enjoy as unique individuals. Anyway, Good job, Jeremy. Keep up the great work, and you are a wonderful staple to the wildlife photography community.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Kevin 🙌🏻 appreciate your input, and thanks for the encouragement! You’re totally right about limitations for some photographers (family, physical, etc.), and I probably should have clarified that there are very legitimate reasons for people leaving early, but in general for most, I think it comes down to a lack of commitment and following the crowd. I think there is still a handful of Wildlife Photography Creators who are truly paving a path in their own routes and furthering the art of Wildlife Photography and being a Creator, so I hope to not make it all doom and gloom, but in general, I see a lack of much uniqueness. Stay encouraged!
@@officialwilderone word. Money. There's a lack of uniqeness among creators because of the desire fore more views and more money. so instead of pushing agaisnt the norm, alot of creators follow what works for the algorthym.
Jeremy, you have made a lot of good points, but I think you overlooked a couple that I think are worth mentioning. Most wildlife photographers on RU-vid, in my humble opinion, overemphasize the importance of gear. The reason is obvious--many of them make a lot of their money (and a lot of views) from videos with gear reviews. The reality is that many of us do not feel a need to change and/or upgrade our gear very often. I drive a 2011 car and use a DSLR of almost the same vintage. By spending so much time on gear reviews, no matter how "objective" they are, influencers intentionally or unintentionally overemphasize the role of gear. (So much of photography is so subjective that many of us do not see a need for "scientific" testing.) With respect to repetitive content, I am not as bothered by it as you seem to be. Influencers are marketing their personality and style along with their content and the same content from different creators may "click" more with some individuals than with others. I am saddened by the fact that others have stolen your ideas and approaches, but that is the reality of operating in a public arena. Car and camera manufacturers face the same basic issue from their competitors, who often imitate features initially put forward by a single company. Our community needs diversity and I think that for the most part we have it, albeit with some issues that you noted.
Thanks for sharing Michael, I appreciate the feedback 🙌🏻 Seems we may see things differently in regards to gear review importance, I think it just depends largely on the audience as some really care about the quality of gear they are getting, vs. some don't find themselves bothered with the fact that their gear might not be as good as current standards. For me personally, since that's the world I live in I hold gear of the upmost importance only second to the art of the activity, so it makes a big difference for me having good, solid, reviews here in the space. Regardless of this difference of opinion, I appreciate your input! I also think your comment on the manufacturers is interesting, the difference to me is that one is considered "art" and another is not. Even under US law for example, art is treated very differently from manufacturing... but still, your point captures some valuable insight.
These problems are interesting, but we have an even bigger problem. Our attitude. What wildlife and nature photography means to 80% of the nature photographers. PHOTO TOURISM. I wrote a comment under one of Dani Connor's Antarctica videos. I'll copy-paste it here. I think this is the biggest problem that we must talk about, and this is the most important thing that the nature (not just wildlife) photographer community should start to work on: "All the nature photographers I follow suddenly travelled to Antarctica. NONE of them talk about that this expedition created an ENORMOUS ecological footprint! (and please don't make a comparison on how big something else creates) And not just this expedition, but all the next ones in the future that YOU influencer nature photographers inspired other photographers to join, and what photo tourism creates every single day! Because you guys inspire / influence people to do the same but don't inspire / TEACH them/us how to compensate the eco footprint. Whose responsibility is it to talk about this? You guys are influencers. In my opinion you are the ones who should start because you are the ones with many followers! And you are the ones who show the beauty of nature. When you show people that wildlife photography is about travelling then you become responsible not only for the eco. footprint that you create, but also for what your followers create by being inspired by your videos. As long as you don't care and do something about this, you are NOT a nature lover. You only care about your own career, business, image and well-being. I believe that I do suffer from eco anxiety! But you know what? It's a consequence of something we do. We use nature, take away from her and give nothing back and it has a consequence. We (who feel this anxiety) are the only ones who feel the rope around our own neck that we put there by ourselves. Talking with a therapist to feel good again is not going to solve the real problem. We will not feel the rope, but it will still be there. The solution - in my opinion - is not talking to therapists (it's still useful though), but solve the problem that causes anxiety. Start to figure out what You, I and every single person in their own lives, every days can do to compensate and inspire them to do the same. How to consume less and more effectively. You already have the power, use it. We must feel the anxiety! We will not change anything without that. It actually scares me that none of these NATURE photographers - who are role models to so many of us - seem to have eco anxiety! This bad feeling is not something we should get rid of. It's trying to tell us something and we should listen. You travelled to Antarctica, got (from nature) beautiful experiences you will never forget, you got new inspirations, new friends, new material to create content, this might bring new subscribers and supporters that can increase your income. Sooo many things you got from nature. Time to give something back! And even if you don't know how to compensate, at least talk about how to be a photographer without making nature pay the price (that we can not avoid paying back, this causes anxiety). Tell the truth about that when you travel to Antarctica, Africa, Costa Rica or wherever to photograph animals and show them to your followers on youtube, you participate even more in destroying nature that you love so much! As long as you don't talk about this, your influential power is rather destructive than constructive. Learn to use this power the right way....if you really love nature."
I completely agree with what you're saying and also think this ties deeply into how nature photography is a very privileged hobby. You need money, time, and opportunities to be able to travel around the world photographing nature with what many would consider very expensive gear. To top it off, our telephoto lenses are usually the most expensive kinds of lenses you can buy. Even within photography, we're at the top of the "gear food chain". All too often, I see exactly what you are saying. Photographers acting like they're just "sharing nature" while flying around the world, belching out 10-100x more green house gases than the average person, travelling constantly. Their behaviour reminds me of Taylor Swift and the backlash she received for flying her jet around all the time. The reality is, the large majority of people will never be able to afford or do what they do. I suppose that's a blessing for the planet, but with photo-tourism on the rise, it's probably not helping all that much. What really cements it in for me is that when you bring this up, photographers bristle. The defensive entitlement kicks into high gear and you can get some absolutely out of this world dramatic reactions. Privileged, entitled people often don't like to be told they're wrong. What's best for nature? Leaving it the heck alone. However, I doubt that's ever going to happen anytime soon. Also, I'm part of the problem, and I honestly don't think anything short of extreme levels of volunteering, activism, and donations will offset the damage I do to the environment while travelling.
@@funknick "What really cements it in for me is that when you bring this up, photographers bristle. The defensive entitlement kicks into high gear and you can get some absolutely out of this world dramatic reactions." I have a different experience - that Jeremy demonstrates here perfectly: Complete silence. My comment was written 6 hours before yours. He replied on yours, so he definitely saw mine....zero reaction. And I don't want to blame him or offend him. I like his content and all...I follow him for a reason. But when NONE of these nature lover photographers / youtubers react on the elephant in the room I get sad. What is this if not hypocrisy? I'm not waiting for a solution from them. Just react and talk about it. This is the most important thing for our and the next generations. We will not solve it, but we must start to talk about it so the next generations will grow up more conscious. And in my opinion, youtuber's who create nature related content must take a big responsibility in this. Just let people know that there is this problem and how we are part of it. On the other hand, stop showing that wildlife photography is about travelling to Africa, Antarctica, Svalbard, Costa Rica, or wherever to photograph wildlife. They should talk and demonstrate more that wildlife photography is about finding wildlife and work on getting closer to them in your own area / county / country. Nobody knows this place better than you. Travelling around is not how wildlife photography works, it's luxury. And staying in your own area is not "missing out". Big thank you for your reaction / reply!
Hey Andrass, The reason for me not responding here is that because while I believe you bring up some valid points, there is a few fundamental parts of your argument that I disagree with, but I don’t think that RU-vid comments is the place to get into a heated debate about it. It’s not that I’m “defensive” about it. If you wanted to email me further I’d be more than happy to discuss more about it, or I’d even be willing to have a quick call about it to hear out more of your perspective and share my own. It’s not for fear of your statement that I don’t respond, rather, it’s from a place of wanting to keep things respectful and cordially in the comments that I don’t want to amplify the emotions. If I was afraid, I would have simply deleted your comment. Feel free to reach out to my email personally if desired and we can pick it up from there👌
Good points, Jeremy. I face a problem in my opion, that the negatives (not touched) or minor upgrades of new launched product is often not objective enough. In my perspective to often small positives are said to "high" positives. Often a kind of praising is done instead of correct, objective reviewing ... Whats is right and what is wrong is very difficult to say. The own style the highest problem of creating ...
That's a good point to bring up as well, I do think there is an aspect of that present, especially when a reviewer has tried so much camera gear the fundamentals can be forgotten. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for posting this. I agree with your ethics comment that we should respect each other and discuss differences without being disagreeable over the matter. part of the problem is people assigning far more relevance to RU-vid reviews than they really deserve. Look at a lot of reviews, pick up those points that are pertinent to your photography and go on. Step 1, determine what features are must have, what are nice to have, and which features make zero impact on you. Then see if the various reviews comment on those must have and nice to have. If they drone on about some feature that has no impact for your photography, move on to the next one. Life is short, don't spend any of it listening to drivel that is unimportant to you. Before some troll decides to comment here, I'm not talking about using or learning about new features. An example of what I'm talking about is some maximum number of minutes (or hours) one can shoot video before it overheats. I do not think I have ever shot a video clip more than about 15 minutes continuous. So, if a camera can only record for 30 minutes, that is 2X my norm. Therefore, super long video shooting is not important to me. Given a choice between a person with a positive attitude showing high points or some person spending 15 minutes bashing a camera, lens or brand, I'll take the positive. Nothing wrong with talking about points a person may not like but let's not go too far the other direction to sound like Eeyore all the time.
I was more than willing to invest the time to listen to Liron talk about his photography, he has been my inspiration for over 10 years. I knew him when as a 14 year old kid with basic equipment he was outshooting adults with equipment that cost 10 times more and has such a generous helpful personality it is hard to be jealous of what he has achieved 10 years later. I look forward to what he will share in the future. Thank you for interviewing him.
I don't know if there is a much better lens for the money than the 100-300. Not when everything is taken into account. I find mine not that far off as sharp as my 100-400 even at 300mm F5.6. And 5.6 is pretty fast in comparison to other more expensive lenses that reach 600mm. Ok you can't bump the iso too high but it's not an F8 or F11 so that's no issue. It's pretty compact and my copy is as sharp as anyone could hope for in this price range. I still use it on a gx9 when i want to pack really light.
A senior professional gofer was asked when he was going to retire. He replied, “retire from what? All I do is golf and fish”! He obviously found his passion. Passion keeps us alive.
Interesting video. I was not able to see the details and colors of the edit that you saw hut I could see the contrast and toning changes in most of them. Everyone has their own "style" and things they like so I suspect you would have to find an editor with similar likes to yours and wildlife can be tough to edit for sure. One thing I found distracting was the white feathers on the right wing. I thought they could have been toned down a bit. Great video. Cheers!
I bought a used copy from MPB and have to agree with your review. It's probably the sharpest lens I've owned. It can produce some ugly bokeh with busy backgrounds - especially if you cannot separate the subject with reasonable distance. That said, it's fast, sharp and has good image stabilization. assets.zyrosite.com/AQE8nzk5BGhWM4oL/p4180026-edit-dWxlVDxvoNIBOB8w.jpg
I just walked round the lake with a 500f4, just didn't feel like taking out the bazooka, just too many people and kids walking by... a smaller lens would be less conspicuous. But the big one is good training to carry, makes the smaller f5.6 featherlite by contrast 😂
Hey Jeremy, great Video!! I know Duades channel too and i like him a lot! To his thoughts about mental health i must think about matthew 6,26. 😊 By the way, I started my own little RU-vidchannel. Greetings, Andrew from Germany!! 😉
