I’m a huge Moose Peterson fan and recently found “Moose Peterson’s Guide to Wildlife Photography: Conventional and Digital Techniques (A Lark Photography Book)” at the local Half Price Books store.
I was a little hesitant to buy it since it was printed in 2003, which is a quite a long time ago in photography equipment years. I bought the book anyway (because I’m a huge fan, remember/) and I’m glad I did.
I love this book.
In this book, Moose provides a great deal of knowledge gained in the field by a working wildlife photographer. He provides great tips for choosing equipment, tips for working in the field and really provides a great deal of insight into what its like to do what he does.
There are 2 great tidbits of knowledge provided by Moose in this book. Both are clever, simple and different than most other wildlife photographers out there. These 2 nuggets of knowledge are provided below.
Lens Selection for wildlife and bird photography
I’ve read many blogs, magazine articles and books on wildlife and bird photography and most say the same thing: Buy the longest lens you can and get as close as you can. Not bad advice…and it’s pretty much true. If you want to get the best detail in the feathers of a bird, you’ve got to have a great super telephoto lens.
Moose’s advice? Pretty much the same except he changes ‘longest lens’ to ‘best lens for you’. What does he mean by this?
It’s simple. Buy the lenses that let you tell your story.
Perhaps the Canon 800mm L is the perfect bird lens. Scott Bourne. another photographer I admire a great deal says it is in a post titled “Wildlife Shooting Tips / Workflow“. Bourne also says that the 600mm (I love the Canon 600mm L) is the perfect wildlife lens. I’d love to have either of those lenses.
That said, are those the perfect lenses for everyone and every situation? Not at all.
Personally, I’m looking at the Canon 500mm L lens as my perfect Bird & Wildlife lens as it is super portable (when compared to the Canon 800mm L and Canon 600mm L), takes an extender extremely well and can be used quite easily for birding and wildlife photography.
Back to Moose’s equipment selection advice: Pick the lens that fits you and the situation.
Perhaps the best lens for your wildlife photography is a 14mm (Moose carries one with him all the time…at least at the time of the book publication). Perhaps your perfect lens is a 300mm (i drool when I see Canon’s 300mm f/2.8 L lens…it takes an extender wonderfully).
As Moose says, the perfect lens is the one that works for the situation you are in…and perhaps the one that you have with you at the time 
Defining a Good Photo
Moose’s seconddsalla really insightful tip has to do with taking a ‘good’ photograph…and defining what ‘good’ is.
Moose’s advice?
A ‘good’ photo is one that you like and one that tells the story that you want to tell.
Amazingly simple isn’t it? Sure the technical details of taking a ‘good’ photo are important, but they aren’t THE important thing. THE important thing is that the photo tells the story that YOU want it to tell.
Conclusion
Did I mention that I love this book?
Moose Peterson is a great photographer and this book sheds some light on his techniques and approach to his craft. If you can find a copy, I’d highly recommend it.
Moose has a new book coming out later this year titled “Captured: Behind the Lens of a Legendary Wildlife Photographer (Voices That Matter)” that I plan to pick up when released…look for it too as it looks like its going to be a good one.
Related posts:
Pingback: EricDBrown-Photos
Pingback: Wildlife Photography