Great Lakes region, USA. June 2026.

I’ve seen a ton of great egrets this year. I love watching Ardea hunt. One of the coolest genus of bird IMO.

  • Tempus FugitOPEnglish
    2·
    1 month ago

    Thank you, that means a lot. That’s awesome you volunteer your time. I should do that too.

    I’m not too worried about getting my eyeballs pecked out, I don’t have their food, lol. They just run if I get too close. Though I did have a scary run-in with some trumpeter swans that were nesting.

    I didn’t really get into photography to purposefully seek out “professional” looking photographs. I just love going for long walks and being in nature, and thought this would be a great addition to that. I don’t really treat it as something I must get good at, so that keeps me grounded, but there is room to be obsessive no doubt.

    A little editing can go a long way. I’d suggest switching your phone to shoot in RAW + JPEG. It will take up a lot more storage on your phone, but you can tweek more settings in a RAW file and they apply appropriately. I typically edit on a desktop with open source Darktable, but something like Snapseed on mobile is powerful and free.

    • anon6789English
      2·
      1 month ago

      It’s a lot of fun, though sometimes gross, but one can’t really get any closer to animals, unless maybe you become the next Jane Goodall or something.

      I’ve eyed up some used gear before. My friend uses Canon, but I tend to find my eyes drawn to some Sony (A series?) and the Olympus OM photos, but I never know how much is the camera vs the person behind the camera and Lightroom.

      I believe I’ve used Snapseed in the past, may have to check that out again, and Darktable comes up on here a lot so maybe I will give that a spin too.

      • Tempus FugitOPEnglish
        2·
        1 month ago

        I’ll have to poke around and see if there is a local rescue I can volunteer at.

        If you do wander into looking for gear, definitely weigh the pros and cons of each sensor type. Bigger sensors and smaller sensors offer tradeoffs.

        I’d suggest trying to take more purposeful photos with you phone camera first then look into gear. Its training your mind to recognize opportunity that matters over gear. Bird photos can be hard in the wild though. Having a decent zoom lens is really helpful.

        • anon6789English
          2·
          1 month ago

          I appreciate the tips! Maybe I’ll have to work on getting some pics of my backyard animal friends some more and gone my skills.