The most difficult color of wildlife in nature to photograph perfectly is the color yellow; under sunlit conditions a bird becomes the sun and, is either overexposed or everything else in the picture is underexposed.  I've spent many frustrating years trying to get the perfect shot of the beautiful and elusive Yellow Warbler. 

     The Yellow Warbler is the Canary of the Wind River Canyon here in Wyoming, and is very yellow with distinct reddish streaks on the males' breast.  The female looks much the same, except she has an olive-green sprayed lightly over her back; both with yellow spots on the tail.  As in much of the bird world, the young males look much the same as the adult females; the differences are there of course, but they are difficult to discern without the eyes of an Eagle.  

     Toward the end of July while cutting away some ivy-like bush on the other side of Woods Creek, which runs not far from our kitchen, I'd found a boulder that had a natural seat molded by Mother Nature.  It didn't take much more than a moment to realize I'd found a new "favorite spot."  So every morning and afternoon, when the light was right, I'd sit myself down on this ancient rock bench with one of my Canon cameras and did what wildlife lovers have always done since John Muir: I waited till something interesting came along.  

     I'd seen Yellow Warblers around and had no success, of course, but we'd spotted them almost every morning, a small yellow bird, then a blur.  The other real problem in photographing this bird is they eat something I can't provide....flying bugs.  I'd been chasing a family of them around for several weeks that had been born right here in Wind River Canyon, Wyoming.  The Mother of the next generation taking the kids out for some breakfast...."bugs again Mom!!"  They're beautiful, quick, and not cooperative at all: You can't pose a wild animal the way you can pose a grandchild, so as always, "don't ever give up!"  

     Yellow Warblers are not a rare species, their range is most of North America, and they Winter in the tropics; where we all should spend the Winters.  There are 52 species of Warbler that breed in North America.  But the Yellow Warbler has had some problems in certain breeding areas; Cowbirds will lay an egg in their nests for others to raise, and in this way an entire generation may Yellow Warbler, Wind River Canyon, WyomingYellow Warbler born in Wind River Canyon, Wyoming. be killed off in a single season in a certain breeding area; again, Mother Nature can be a cruel mistress.  But here in the Wind River Canyon they are doing just fine, thanks.

     On the morning of August 3rd I was down at my "new favorite spot" again, just as the Sun was breaking the rim of the Canyon again, and the Yellow Warbler family was out having bugs for breakfast again; this time I was really ready.  I'd set the camera's metering to "spot" beforehand, just in case of such a scenario, then a young male from the group came down to the red-willow for some creepy edible.  It all happens so fast at moments like this that it's a little hard to measure time; the entire shoot and several bursts lasted only seconds.  But I knew I had finally gotten my prey, and a check of the camera back let me see that after all these years I'd finally got a Yellow Warbler that was going to be "sponge worthy" (good enough for my website---- HogbatsPhotography.com). 

     But there's a lot more to wild animal photography than what's in the camera's memory chip, and many hours have been spent on the digital files in the digital darkroom to make the photograph mine....and now it's yours.  This is the one picture of the Yellow Warbler that I liked the best, and there are others of course; which is how I know it's a young male:  He has very faint reddish streaks on his chest, and his beak and leg color is "young" and not darkened with time. 

     Equipment List - Canon 7D with Canon battery grip, Canon 300mm f/4 L-series lens with a Canon 1.4 extender III, and a Lexar Professional 1066x Compact Flash memory card; hand-held and no filters on the lens.

     Software - Canon Digital Photo Professional and Adobe Lightroom 5.6; shot in a large RAW file then converted to a 16-bit tiff file, then converted to a jpeg for the website.

     Shooting Information - ISO 400, f/8 @ 1/800.

     If I can add some wisdom for anyone who wants to photograph wildlife, it's this----have loads of patience, know your equipment and the animal like the "back of your hand" and a little of Mother Nature's magic can't hurt, too.  Till next week....thanks for reading my blog, and remember what I always say...."Keep Your Camera Ready!"

written, as always, by Michael John Balog - "mike"