Ria's Digital Nature Photography

Ria McCarthy- Senior RMC- Equine Business & Training Photographing shore birds can be a very difficult endeavour because they can be small, quick and hard to capture. This article covers some tricks to make photographing birds more accessible.  https://www.outdoorphotographer.com/tips-techniques/wildlife-techniques/photographing-shorebirds/ Tips summarized: Take time to watch your subject and understand what it is doing, what its patterns are. Take the long approach and take your time so as not to startle then and give them time to get used to you. Sometimes if you scare then off but sit still in your position, they will come back. Don't be afraid to get dirty to get a better camera angle and to be less threatening. Don't chase the shot, let it come to you. Embrace the subject's behavior Embrace environmental elements such as surf and sand. Have the right gear to get the shot and not ruin your camera.

My name is Ria McCarthy. I grew up on a farm in Heber, City UT. I am in my fourth year at RMC. The following photo was taken using a Nikon D5100 camera. It was taken with good lighting at a mid range to fast shutter speed (1/250) and a 200 ISO. I was focusing on aperture so the first photo is with a high Aperture (F32). The background is in mostly clear focus, but it is distracting and detracts from the overall photo. The next photo was taken at a the same shutter speed and ISO but at a much lower Aperture (F4.5) to only focus on one part of the picture and blur the rest to create a focal point. It is also zoomed in closer. The next photo was taken with an ISO 100 and an F 16 aperture but with a slow shutter speed (1/8). It is blurry because of the slow shutter speed. In some situations this can be a cool effect but right now it mostly detracts from the image.  The next image has the same aperture, ISO 400, and shutter speed at 1/1000 making the image slightl

Wildlife Photographer of the Year https://www.cnn.com/style/article/wildlife-photographer-year-2019-intl-scli/index.html A gentoo penguin flees for its life as a leopard seal bursts out of the water.  Credit:  Eduardo Del Álamo/Wildlife Photographer of the Year This article is about a photography competition held by London's Natural History Museum. The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition has almost 50,000 entries from 100 countries across the world. The competition is in its 55th year. The 2019 winners will be announced on October 15th, 2019. The winning photographs will be displayed in the Natural History Museum. Later they will be displayed on an international tour. A few entries have been displayed in this article and they really bring home how much of an art photography is. Nature photography has a lot of power in the world of conservation and these photos make you feel something! Some are full of pain and fear while others are peaceful and some are playfu

My Name is Ria McCarthy. I have been interested in photography for many years but only recently had any kind of instruction on it. I took a marketing class last year that required me to take sale pictures of horses.    This translated into taking pictures at clinics and shows. This is one of my favorite shots but I would love to learn how to better use my camera settings to make the image more clear.  I also enjoy taking pictures of people and wildlife as well. A few weeks ago I went into the Pryors with a few friends and played with our cameras for a few hours!