How Photographer Kristi Odom Connects to Wildlife Through Her Camera

Photographer Kristi Odom not too long ago joined the PetaPixel Podcast to speak all issues wildlife images, together with what photographers and others can find out about nature. What photographers study from nature can undoubtedly make them higher, extra artistic photographers.

Connecting to Nature Through a Camera

“I love using my camera to connect deeply with nature,” Odom tells PetaPixel. “Whether I’m discovering patterns in the macro world or trying to understand how a snake slithers, I’m constantly learning. When I ask myself, ‘What am I feeling?’ the answer is often movement.”

For Odom, she reveals this motion in several methods in images and, extra not too long ago, in filmmaking. On the picture aspect, Odom says that each technical selection she makes along with her digicam settings is inherently inventive.

“Aperture determines what elements are in focus to tell your story. Shutter speed decides whether you freeze a moment or emphasize movement. ISO influences the texture of the image,” the Nikon Ambassador explains.

In optimum situations, the whole lot is feasible. Photographers may freeze motion, use a quick aperture, and maintain their ISO low. That can be conducive to a standard wildlife picture. Those motion sequences are frozen in time and virtually impossibly detailed and sharp.

Creatively Subpar Conditions Into Incredible Photographs

But the true world isn’t optimum, and Odom shouldn’t be one to pack up her gear when situations aren’t excellent.

“Sometimes you just don’t have the light to get certain shots. Maybe the action happens early, or you have a lens that doesn’t let in too much light,” Odom says. “Instead of just not shooting, this is an opportunity to do something different and creative.”

Odom affords many nice examples of this in her newest YouTube video on capturing extra artistic images of the osprey, a traditional favourite amongst chicken photographers. Ospreys are a charming animal, often diving feet-first into the water and rising, water spraying all over the place, with a fish of their talons. They’re an unbelievable animal.

You’d suppose that osprey ought to all the time be photographed with a quick shutter pace to freeze that motion they’re finest recognized for, however Odom reveals that there’s a lot extra that photographers can do and, in so doing, separate themselves from the pack.

“I spent over 20 days this year photographing the Osprey dive. I saw many photographers not taking a photo while they dove right around them. They would make comments about how the light wasn’t there. My camera would be the only one clicking away,” Odom recollects.

When some fellow photographers grew particularly curious, they’d ask Odom about her settings and are available away extra confused than ever — 1/60s exposures and unusually low ISO settings for the lighting situations.

“I got some funny looks and the questions stopped. It was the look of, ‘She definitely doesn’t know what’s doing,’” Odom says.

Absurd assumptions about one of many world’s most completed wildlife photographers, little question, but it surely speaks to how deeply ingrained sure concepts of what a wildlife {photograph} is amongst some photographers. These are the ideas Odom hopes to problem.

“Most of these photos totally failed,” Odom admits. “But I got a few that I loved that showed the crazy feel and movement of these raptors at their high-speed dive.”

Limitations As Fuel

Arguably, artistic, distinctive approaches to wildlife images can inform an animal’s story much more powerfully. The motion of wildlife is such an enormous a part of the story, and ultra-fast shutter speeds should not all the time your best option for capturing that motion. Shutter pace is a crucial instrument for photographers, together with wildlife photographers, and it’s typically ignored.

For Odom, there’s additionally a sensible consideration. While she is armed immediately with one of the best Nikon Z cameras and Nikkor Z mirrorless lenses, she says she acquired her begin in wildlife images with a 70-200mm telephoto zoom she used for wedding ceremony images.

“For me, it was about time, patience, learning my subjects, and photographing them over and over again,” Odom says.

This lens, whereas very succesful, shouldn’t be a standard wildlife lens. It is far shorter. Odom needed to adapt, and that meant capturing much less conventional wildlife images. The surroundings performed an even bigger position within the body.

“Everything you put in the frame is part of the story of the image,” Odom says. “It is easy to get stuck looking at the main subject, but paying attention to how everything comes together will make you a stronger photographer. I’m constantly thinking about the background.”

These days, although she has the lengthy lenses that assist make it simpler to border her topics and management the background, Odom definitely hasn’t misplaced her dedication to endurance within the subject.

She typically lies on the bottom to get a greater angle, and she or he spends appreciable time learning animal habits to offer herself one of the best probability of success.

“Where is the pika’s path as it carries flowers back to its den, and how can I position myself so that it doesn’t get lost in the rocks? How is the wind blowing, and how will that affect the direction an osprey takes off after a dive?”

These are the issues Odom thinks about on a regular basis within the subject.

“The more I understand, the more I can get into the right spot where the story comes together inside the frame.”

Three Questions Wildlife Photographers Should Ask Themselves

“I am constantly asking myself three questions when I take a picture,” Odom explains.

“What do I see?

“What do I feel?

“What can I eliminate?”

Odom says the primary query helps her suppose more durable concerning the topic and the story of the scene.

The second query is the place her inventive voice is available in.

“Do I feel chaos and movement? If so, then maybe I find a way to incorporate that into the scene, possibly by slowing down my shutter to show movement, or a larger depth of field to show my subject and its environment.”

The remaining query is maybe a very powerful of all.

“Everything you put into that frame can take away from the main subject,” Odom says. This signifies that the whole lot that continues to be ought to contribute to the general effectiveness of the shot. Deciding how one can overcome any potential distractions requires expertise, endurance, and creativity.

Black and White Wildlife Photography

Sometimes Odom takes one thing else out of the body in her wildlife images: colour. She is giving up what she describes as an “incredibly powerful” factor.

“I developed my love for black and white when I ran the darkroom at Georgia Tech. I studied the masters, learned to dodge and burn, and started photography with Tri-X film in a camera I inherited from my grandfather,” Odom says. “Black and white taught me to see light, shadow, texture, and mood, and I don’t think that has ever left me.

“Color is incredibly powerful. It has an amazing ability to create emotion. Just look at how brands use color or how cinematographers build entire moods around a color palette. But sometimes color isn’t helping the story I’m trying to tell. Sometimes it’s distracting from it.”

When that occurs, and Odom believes colour isn’t contributing positively to a shot, she’ll take away it.

“By removing color, the viewer pays more attention to the expression, the gesture, the quality of the light, and the relationship between highlights and shadows. It simplifies the image and lets those elements carry the emotion.”

Without colour, solely the muse of the photographic medium itself stays, Odom says.

Always a View Toward Conservation

While Odom might be finest recognized for her nonetheless images work, she has more and more used video as a part of her broader storytelling ambitions.

At first, Odom used video only for social media, sharing neat little moments in nature along with her followers. Things like slow-motion movies of bees and motion sequences of animals diving into water are enjoyable to see, after all.

“Unexpectedly, those short videos led to people asking me to create videos professionally,” Odom says. “That grew into producing conservation shorts for nonprofits.”

Her background in public talking additionally grew to become concerned, and immediately Odom recurrently creates movies which can be proven at fundraising occasions for the conservation teams she works intently with.

“Together, those films and presentations have helped raise more than a million dollars to protect wildlife and wild places,” she says. “That’s probably what I’m most proud of in my career.”

“Video is such a different way to tell a story, and I love that. It still amazes me that with today’s cameras, it’s often just the flip of a switch, and suddenly you’re on a completely different creative journey,” Odom provides.

Odom shouldn’t be solely contributing on to conservation work herself, however inspiring many others to observe in her footsteps.

“Passion is contagious, and photography gives us an incredible way to share what we love. A camera can communicate awe. It can show wonder, curiosity, and appreciation,” Odom says.

“I had a woman in one of my workshops share a polar bear photo she had taken with her grandchild. Not only did that child suddenly think their grandma was the coolest person ever, but they connected over how incredible polar bears are,” Odom remembers.

“A simple moment of excitement and curiosity, especially for a child, can spark a lifelong love of nature. That passion might inspire someone to care more, to become a scientist, an artist, a conservationist, or simply someone who makes choices that help protect our planet.

“And if nothing else, it created a meaningful connection between a grandmother and her grandchild through wildlife.”

Odom is adamant that you simply don’t need to be an expert photographer to make an enormous distinction.

“You just have to care enough to celebrate this amazing planet and its wildlife and share that passion with others,” she says.

“The world needs passionate people. It needs storytellers. We have this incredible tool that can help people fall in love with our planet, and when people care about something, they’re much more likely to protect it,” Odom says. “That’s why education and mentorship mean so much to me. I want to help people create stronger wildlife photographs and films, but even more than that, I want to help them slow down, become curious, and build a deeper connection with nature.”

Building that reference to nature is among the most satisfying and compelling components of wildlife images. While no query, nailing the shot and getting an superior body is an unbelievable rush, typically the method, having fun with nature, is one of the best half.

Image creditKristi Odom