Click on the image to see the full set.
Click on the image to see the full set.
Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, near San Diego, is one of my favorite places to enjoy nature. In addition to the usual hiking and camping activities that you would expect, they also have a lot of fun educational programs including presentations by organizations that do animal rescue. I attended the Kruisin Kritters presentation by Sue Miller and the Raptor Rescue presentation by Danny of the Raptor Institute recently and took photos.
These two sets highlight one aspect of my philosophy as a photographer--I like to be as unobstructive as possible when I photograph events. Both of these sets were taken entirely from my seat in the audience (using a telephoto lens) and I didn't even stand up. Since I'm 5'1" that means that pretty much everyone's head is in my way, but with some quick framing and creative post production cropping, I can minimize that effect. You don't need to constantly block everyone else's view to get good photos.
To be clear, I was just a spectator taking pictures at these two events for fun, but if they were events that I was asked to photograph, I would definitely have gotten better vantage points (and would not be sitting down) and would have occasionally obstructed the audience view to get a few good shots. Even so, I think that as a photographer it is important to blend in with the event as much as possible and not block the action for the people who are trying to enjoy it too. I always try to minimize my impact on other people's enjoyment of the scene, no matter what my role.
