Adjusting Your Lens: Finding Beauty in Nature

I’m always looking for the grand vista and the majestic beast to photograph, but sometimes that just doesn’t work out. When that happens though, one just needs to adjust the view a little bit to see all kinds of beauty to photograph. I was out hiking a couple days ago, early in the morning hoping for deer or elk in the meadow in the high meadow.

However there were none to be seen, but as I surveyed the scene I noticed a bit of motion in the corner of my eye. Upon closer inspection I discovered a tiny chipmunk looking at me from his home that he has carved out in an abandoned gold mine. I attached my camera to the monopod gimbal and crouched down to capture this adorable image.

Now that my perspective had been considerably altered, I also began to notice the furtive movements of tiny birds. I looked down at the top of my camera, and moved the dial to C2, my settings for bird photography, mainly a shutter speed of a 2000th of a second and captured a few more cute images of my cute little feathered friends :

The takeaway lesson from this beautiful morning on the mountain, is not to get too rigid about what your goals for the outing. God has created all manner of amazing creatures, great and small, and they are all fascinating and worth your photographic attention!

I’m also pleased to announce the completion of my War on Wildlife trilogy, including fully functional interactive eBook versions now available on Amazon! Follow our intrepid cast of characters through trials and tribulations, love and loss, and triumph and tragedy as this saga spanning the western United States masterfully weaves a tale of entertainment and education about our iconic wild living heritage.

Steven W. Krull is a renowned photographer and author who has been photographing and writing of the beauty and wildlife of the Colorado Rocky Mountains for over two decades. Please visit his website at S.W. Krull Imaging to view his work, including thousands of prints for sale, stock images for commercial use, and his library of published books.