Education & Training (In-Person) – WILD: Four Principles for Better Bird Photography with Shawn Thomas

Bio:

Shawn Thomas is a Virginia-based nature and wildlife photographer with a street photography approach to birds. Perpetually underprepared, slightly disheveled, and making it work with whatever flies by. He shoots mostly in local parks and forgotten edges, usually while lying in something wet and reconsidering his choices. His work has been recognized by Amateur Photographer of the Year, the reFocus Awards, Virginia Wildlife, the Piedmont Environmental Council, and others, and he’s self-published three photo books, two of them zines. He’s a Nikon shooter, a committed tripod hater, and his best shooting partner is his ten-year-old daughter, who spots the birds long before he does. He writes weekly at blog.shawnthomas.art about trips, photography tips, and what works and what doesn’t. What he’s found after all of it is that he’s never really photographing the animal. He’s photographing light, atmosphere, and moment. The bird is just the punctuation mark.

Program Intro:

It has never been easier or cheaper to get into wildlife photography, and there is way more around you than you think. You just have to look for it. In this talk Shawn walks through WILD: Watch, Illuminate, Level, and Depth. Four principles for making bird photos that feel like more than a record shot, covering behavior and anticipation, working with (and occasionally faking) light, why perspective matters more than almost anything else, and how to make your background do real work. He’ll also get into the practical stuff, including settings, glass, and why you shouldn’t be afraid of high ISO, plus a few examples of what happens when you get all four right and what happens when you don’t. Fair warning: it involves getting dirty.