Nature Photographers of the Pacific Northwest

This past weekend I went to a meeting of the NPPNW at Evergreen College in Olympia, WA. The guest speaker was Weldon Lee, the well-known wildlife photographer, workshop leader and writer. The talks were interesting, entertaining and provided a lot of useful information. I was surprised to learn that Weldon never uses a tripod for his wildlife photography. He uses a Nikon 80-400mm VR lens that, along with good camera holding practice, is stable enough and allows him to move quickly when needed for action shots. At these times he also likes to "make a movie", holding down the shutter release as long as the action is going on or until the buffer is filled. The subtle differences between images can mean the difference between a good photograph and a great one. Weldon also likes to shoot with his camera in "Professional" mode (and he has a good sense of humor).