Tips for Photographers

Photo Tips: Take it Home on Film

Photographers delight in capturing wildlife at Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira NWR. Framed and matted pictures taken in the refuges hang in offices, homes, restaurants, and public lodging places. Magazines often feature impressive wildlife/landscape shots from the Bottoms and Quivira.

For the "point and shoot" photographer who wishes to record a memory, automatic one-touch cameras loaded with ASA 100 film will capture sky and landscape. But for a close up experience complete with rich colors, photographers should use a 35mm single-lens-reflex camera (owned, borrowed, or rented) with a standard 50mm lens. A 70-200mm zoom lens is nice when a flock of mallards takes flight. Wildlife photographers use a 400mm or 600mm lens for bird and animal portraits.

Choice of film is important. Try ASA 50-100 color print or chrome. Chrome designates slides and it doubles the usefulness of the photos, is less expensive, and makes good prints.

A video camcorder, especially a super eight, is the ultimate way to take home memories. It captures the singing of the wind, the bird calls – everything but the fresh air.

A useful device for good photos is a homemade cloth beanbag about the size of a cracker box, which replaces a tripod. Drape it over the car windowsill to steady the camera. Thus equipped, you can use your vehicle for a photography blind. Birds and mammals are somewhat tolerant of vehicles but will flush at someone on foot. Upon entering the refuge, remove or push forward the vehicle's outside mirrors if possible and ready the beanbag in the open window. Drive slowly along dikes or roads looking for interesting wildlife. Pull as close to the subject as possible even to left side of the road (other drivers are tolerant of serious photographers). Stop, cut engine to avoid any vibration, and ease camera into position. Compose, focus, zoom, and shoot! (If possible, avoid taking photographs through a glass windshield or window as these shots are soft, fuzzy, and often catch glare.)

Timing is all-important. For the best light and the most active wildlife, the first two-and-a-half hours of sunlight and the last two-and-a-half hours of the day are ideal times to photograph. To check for optimum light, face sun and extend arm with fingertips upward, lining up heel of hand with the horizon. Ideally the sun will be at or just above the fingertips. When photographing wildlife tracks, use the same lighting. For scale sizing, naturalists lay a beetle or dandelion in the composed shot.

Peak periods are during annual shore bird migrations: April 15 thru May 15 and August 15 thru September 15.

Photography blinds are an enjoyable experience. A sack lunch and plenty of time offer special rewards. Two blinds are provided at Quivira NWR: one in the southern end and another midway through (see map). The parking lot nearest the blind has an occupied/unoccupied sign to indicate whether the blind is in use. A new handicap-accessible blind at Cheyenne Bottoms can be used for photography. Obtain a key at the refuge office.

Hunting blinds at Cheyenne Bottoms seem like a good place to snap some close-up pictures but the blinds are not pumped out except during hunting season and often contain water snakes. Also no one is allowed on the water from April 15-August 15 between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. lest nesting and brooding is interrupted.

Preparedness, patience, and alertness can yield a wall "trophy" of which you can be proud.

(Photo tips are from Mike Blair, Kansas Wildlife and Parks photographer and writer, who has many Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira "trophies.")

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