Photographing Wildlife - Caribou in Newfoundland - the Shoot

Join me as I photograph a small herd of Caribou in the tundra of Newfoundland.
View more details and full sized photos at
rayhennessy.com/lessons/caribo...
Shoot video:
• Photographing Wildlife...
Photo edits video:
• Photographing Wildlife...
This lesson has two firsts for the course! This is my first lesson concentrating on mammals and also the first I’ve shot on the Nikon Z6II. For this lesson I can’t give the exact location since it was given to me by a friend who asked me to keep it private, but I can say that Caribou are able to be found throughout the open tundra of Newfoundland so a very specific spot isn’t required to see them. This location however has one advantage in that it’s a rather popular tourist destination for both the coastline view and now the herds of Caribou that roam the area. Because of this the local herds are incredibly habituated to people, I mean almost too much, they will walk right up to you! Before I describe my goals for this shoot I’d like to make clear that I do not normally approach wildlife this close and as you will see in pretty much every close encounter with these Caribou they were the ones walking towards me. I would move into place to try to get a shot lined up and usually sit or lay down, at which point they would often walk directly towards or right next to me. Of course in most encounters no wildlife would ever allow such a close approach, especially when they have a young one with them, but these animals were so relaxed and for the most part completely ignoring my presence so I was able to spend a long time in close proximity with them. I was still careful to make all my movements slow and to not move quickly directly at one of them, most of my movement were parallel or away from where they were or where they were headed. With that being said, my main goal for this outing was to capture a back-lit shot of one of them, hopefully the larger male of the group. I was able to capture some wonderful glow on a few individuals. I also had in my head to capture a beautiful scenic shot of them but they never quite lined up appropriately for that so I wasn’t able to make that happen. I mixed in some front-lit and side-lit images as well and tried for some silhouettes at the end that were rather tough to line up. Most of the shots you will see from this outing are close because of how distracting I found elements in the backgrounds so we don’t get to see a lot of the scenery but I’m happy with the variety I captured. I hope you enjoy this outing, I sure did!
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:53 - Setup
07:36 - Shoot
21:36 - Photo 1
23:43 - Photo 2
32:15 - Photo 3
38:11 - Photo 4
42:56 - Photo 5
47:08 - Photo 6
52:06 - Photo 7
53:43 - Photo 8

[@robertlawrence7958]

It's always great to hear your thought process whist you are working a scene. So enlightening to see a KZbin photographer who actually takes carefully crafted images rather than the majority of the crowd who are blasting away on the highest frame rate that their cameras offer in the "hope" of capturing something whilst the shutter button is depressed.

[@RayHennessy]

Thanks so much, I'm glad you enjoy these videos, I've got plenty more on the way!

[@ItsFritzDaCat]

My home province!! Always curious to hear how you discovered Newfoundland & Labrador? - many have no idea where it is, which is soooo nice for shooting all by myself😂. I live on the Island of Newfoundland, in "Ice Berg Alley". I love the wildlife & nature here, there is not many places that have the diversity like here, from large land animals to aquatic & avian. I can shoot Whales, Moose, Eagles & Puffins all in one day! Spring can be special with Polar Bear visits with the Ice Bergs. I consider myself very lucky and spoiled😊 Hope you enjoyed your visit! Cheers

[@RayHennessy]

We love spending time in Newfoundland! My first visit was there because of a great friend Brad James who lives there. Him and I now run a seabird workshop every summer and I try to spend as much time as I can on the island. Last year I spent a little over a month there traveling around in the van. I went up towards the Ice Berg Alley area, gorgeous up there! Although everywhere is gorgeous on that island! This year will be a shorter visit due to my schedule but still taking some time to explore!

[@Kellysher]

Nice shoot! I had an “ oh too close” moment in Colorado, Estes Park last year shooting Mule Deer. I was shooting a nice buck in the early morning crouching low and when I was done turned around to leave and another buck had wandered up behind me! Definitely had my heart beating. I wouldn’t have got that close on purpose. Luckily they were both more interested in breakfast than in me! I love the style of your channel!

[@RayHennessy]

Thanks for sharing Kelly, that's a wild story! It's great when animals like that don't care about us and ignore us.

[@RyanDinnagephotography]

Great video Ray really enjoyed it and have subscribed! I got into Wildlife Photography around 6 months ago and haven't stopped yet, I started my own channel and posted my first video yesterday! Super excited and really enjoyed every second of it, videos/work like your's is really inspiring mate keep it up!

[@RayHennessy]

Thanks so much Ryan, appreciate you following along and welcome to the obsession haha! happy shooting!

[@johnnyguerra3754]

Just curious if you thought about whistling to grab there attention to lift up their heads? I do that with white tail deer.

[@RayHennessy]

I tried a bunch of things but these caribou were so used to people they didn't care about anything at all. I've had great luck with the whistle or the rustle of leaves for whitetails like you mentioned!