PHOTOGRAPHING WILDLIFE FROM OUR CAR

by JOHN GERLACH

Your car may be the most indispensable accessory you can have when travelling around photographing wildlife.

We frequently photograph wary birds and mammals from the window of our Suburban. Just this year alone, we've used our vehicle to take beautiful photos of more than 25 species of wildlife including prairie falcons, ruddy ducks, swainson's hawks, mountain bluebirds, western meadowlarks, lark sparrows, pronghorns, ground squirrels, and black-tailed jackrabbits.

Photographing from our vehicle is effective because most wildlife don't learn to fear vehicles. After all, most cars don't jump off the road and chase wildlife through the marsh, at least not for very far. And most wildlife become accustomed to farm trucks and wildlife managers driving by in their vehicles so they learn to accept cars and trucks in their environment.

Your vehicle makes a wonderful blind in many locations throughout North America. National wildlife refuges and state wildlife areas that offer dirt lanes for public driving are especially productive areas for this type of photography. These areas can be exceptional during spring and fall migration when terrific concentrations of birds may be present. For example, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico is terrific for snow geese and sandhill cranes during late January through February. Many wildlife areas in North & South Dakota have been most productive for us during late March and April when swarms of waterfowl, herons, bitterns, and other wetland birds fill the marshes.

Be careful when driving dirt lanes in wildlife areas. It is possible to have wildlife on the lane, but driving slowly should prevent hitting anything. Many of these dirt lanes are rather unimproved with soft edges so getting stuck is a real possibility. Drive carefully and stay in the lane away from the edges. Be especially careful when it's raining. Driving wet dirt lanes in the Dakotas and many other western states is extremely hazardous because clay makes up a large percentage of the soil. When clay gets wet, it's as slippery as ice so you won't get far.

Finding these areas of high wildlife concentrations in each state can take a bit of detective work. Fortunately, Falcon Press is publishing a series of guidebooks called the "Watchable Wildlife Series". Each book in the series covers one state. Typically, 60 to 110 great wildlife viewing areas in each state are featured. What may be seen at each area and during what season is highlighted. Directions to the viewing site are included. Not every viewing site is good for photography though. Some sites may be on private land and trespassing is not permitted. All viewing is done with binoculars from a distance so great pictures would be hard to come by since you are too far away. But other sites are perfect for the photographer who wishes to use their car as a photo blind. We used the Idaho Wildlife Viewing Guide to discover Market Lake, a wetland complex that has been especially productive for us over the past few years.

However, not every state or Canadian province has a wildlife viewing guide yet. Most books already published are on the western states but viewing guides to Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, and Indiana have recently become available. To receive a complete list of all available books and their prices, please call my office at (906) 439-5991.

Another great guide book was written by Laura & William Riley. Recently updated, this book is the best guide I know of that covers all the National Wildlife Refuges. Their book, "GUIDE TO THE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES" can be ordered from any large bookstore.

Another good place for information is state wildlife agencies. Plus, many states like Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho publish magazines that will tell you a great deal about the wildlife areas of the state. Time spent at a library looking at back issues would prove very worthwhile.

Once we have found a good location for car blind photography, we typically drive the lanes traversing the wildlife area very slowly. Since slow means different things to different drivers, my definition of slow is to just have the car in motion at about 2-3 mph while diligently looking for wildlife near the lane just ahead. When we see something, we inch ahead until we're at just the right distance. Then we turn the ignition off to stop engine vibration from creating unsharp photos. We meter quickly on manual by using our through-the-lens meter set on the spot mode. Naturally, we adjust the meter reading for subject reflectance to get proper exposure. Metering normally only takes a second or two and then we fire away and keep shooting as long as the pose is a good one and the light doesn't appear to change. The sound of our camera motor drive has rarely been a problem. Most wildlife don't react to it. Some may react initially by freezing for a few seconds which lets us shoot many originals before they resume their activity.

Long lenses in the 400mm to 600mm range are virtually a necessity for shooting effectively from the car window because you need magnification to obtain large images of your subject on film. Our Nikon 500mm f/4 telephoto has proven to be super for this type of photography. And when we need a little more magnification, using a 1.4x teleconverter behind our 500mm lens to make it a 700mm f/5.6 lens is effective. We tend to use Fujichrome 100 or push Velvia one stop to get a little higher shutter speed like 1\250 second which greatly improves our percentage of sharp photos.

But, the real key to sharp photos is to use a solid window mount that locks your long lens and camera body to the car door. We have tried several different ones and clearly the best is the one made by Mike Kirk. It's simple to use. Just roll the window up a few inches and clamp it to the window. Then push the rubber feet against the door below the window and tighten another knob to lock it to the door. The window mount is now solidly anchored to the door. Then all you do is lock your big lens to a heavy duty ball head like the Foba or Studioball and you're ready for action.

Photographing from the car is a very easy and exciting way to obtain wonderful photos of wild birds and mammals. You're easy on the environment because you never leave the dirt road. Plus, your not stuck in one place like you would be in a fixed blind. Using the car as a mobile blind gives you the freedom to move around and stalk your subject. In April of 1993, we used fixed blinds to photograph dancing sage grouse. It was lots of fun but we knew that the only thing we were likely to photograph each morning was sage grouse. With the mobile car blind, a typical morning might include good photo opportunities of black-crowned night herons, red-tailed hawks, yellow-headed blackbirds, desert cottontails, western grebe, several species of ducks, and perhaps the secretive american bittern. You get a lot of variety. All you need is a long lens, widow mount, patience, and a suitable wildlife site.