They say that practice makes perfect.  The truth is of course that nobody is perfect.  It is just as true that anyone who wants to get good at anything, needs to practice.

If you are lucky enough to have gulls in your area, you have a great subject for practicing bird photography. Whenever I had those days where subjects seemed to have all disappeared, I would spend my time practicing on gulls.  Gulls will soar on the thermal air currents, and have an extended “hang time”  giving  you enough time to compose your pictures.  Gulls get very used to people.  That allows you to make up-close images of birds while they are engaged in a variety of other action and behaviors.

The first four pictures exhibit how the gulls and their “hang time” can slow down movement and give you a lot of opportunity to practice full frame (some have a small crop) flight shots.  Lake Michigan has a lot of banks.  This gives the photographer a chance to make nearly eye level flight shots.  You can visually soar with the gulls.  Practicing at this vantage point with gulls then helps me to do the same with Cormorants, Pelicans  and other birds.  Sometimes you are so close to your subject (fifth photo) you can shoot into the bird. What I mean by that is you can shoot parts of the bird only.  These more artistic images make for a nice alternative to the standard flight shot.

Being so close to your subjects also allows for nice action behavior shots like bathing, wing stretching and fighting as we see in the next three pictures.

The next two photos show one gull bringing home lunch, and another one up very close with yet another fish.  Yuck!

Of course gulls are  flock birds and they give you many opportunities using extended depth of field, and the cooresponding slow shutter speeds.  The practice will come in handy the next time you come across a flock of Sandhills Cranes or other flock birds.

Tree Squirrels and Chipmunks make nice practice animals for small wild mammals.

To be a better nature photographer, spend more time in the field making pictures.  Nature photography is not “rocket science” or complex art and everyone can make great pictures.  Practice makes perfect.  Well practice makes good anyway.