Richard Barrett

My title is Richard Barrett, I’m a wildlife photographer dwelling within the north of England. I began my profession as a Structural Engineer with my firm that designed and constructed steel-framed buildings, warehouses, workplaces, supermarkets and hospitals.

I made a decision to promote up and retire early, to attempt my hand at one thing utterly completely different, wildlife pictures!

My photographic background was in a totally completely different style as I used to be introduced up within the days of Apollo Moon landings. Being fascinated by the house program I began photographing the heavens, significantly the Solar and the Moon.

The Solar is a really difficult topic, photographing it’s all about eliminating extra gentle and warmth. I used an previous plate digital camera connected to a telescope. The black and white photos had been then processed and printed in an old-style darkish room.

Getting again into pictures after a break of some a long time I needed to enter a brand new digital realm. The underlying ideas had been very a lot the identical, however there was numerous new stuff to be taught.

Wildlife pictures is hours of persistence interspersed with minutes of frantic motion. You by no means know what will occur subsequent, however you should be able to seize it.

The adrenaline rush and thrill of getting the shot are what captivate me.

Within the early days, I used to go on group photograph excursions and meet a lot of extra skilled wildlife photographers. I typically got here again with an inventory of recent equipment I wanted and new wildlife hotspots to go to.

Now, it’s normally the opposite means round as I typically get requested for recommendation on equipment and places.

My web site www.wildandwonderful.org additionally generates a lot of comparable questions:

The place’s one of the best place to see Polar Bears?

When is one of the best time to go?

What gear do I have to take?

This led me to place all of it down in a ebook “Wild World – Photographing Iconic Wildlife”. Illustrated with my images, the ebook describes one of the best locations to go to for 9 iconic species and is peppered with photographic suggestions.

Each photograph is captioned with detailed data on location, digital camera, lens and settings. It’s accessible worldwide from on-line retailers and good bookshops.

One chapter of the ebook is dedicated to Jaguars and I lately went again to all of the locations I like to recommend within the ebook on an prolonged journey to the Pantanal in Brazil, one of many final strongholds of the Jaguar.

The Pantanal is the world’s largest wetland. It’s a spot simply teaming with wildlife. In addition to the charismatic Jaguar, you’ve its prey species just like the Caiman and Capybara plus many extra photogenic predators and a wealthy range of chook life.

I wanted to pick my equipment rigorously as the key objects needed to match into my carry-on baggage, as I don’t normally belief airways and airports with fragile gear in checked baggage. Whereas it was the dry season, with mud being a difficulty on the vehicle-based sections, thunderstorms can hit through the afternoons, so I additionally wanted applicable safety for my gear.

Nikon Mirrorless Digital Digicam Z9 – I really like this digital camera and I took two of them with me on the journey to the Pantanal. It’s a strong digital camera that may deal with excessive temperatures, rain and excessive humidity effortlessly.

I a lot desire the Nikon Z9 to my earlier DSLR, the Nikon D6 (nonetheless an outstanding digital camera) with the upper body charges, excellent focus-tracking, stay histograms, higher VR and no blackouts that assist me with a excessive keeper price.

Each of those cameras had been arrange with my two lengthy telephoto lenses. 

Nikon Mirrorless Digital Digicam Z7II – a a lot smaller and extra compact digital camera that I take together with the Nikon Z9s. I take advantage of it for wider angle work, teamed up with the 24-120mm lens.

Nikon Z 800mm f6.3 S – an exquisite new addition to Nikon’s telephoto lens vary. It’s comparatively gentle and it’s a tremendous sharp lengthy lens. I carried this onboard the airplane inside its Nikon carrying case.

It accounted for round a 3rd of my pictures, permitting me to get one thing a bit completely different to most photographers who’re utilizing shorter glass.

It’s simply handholdable, though when sensible I take advantage of it with the monopod which supplies higher stability permitting slower shutter speeds and consequentially decrease ISOs.

Nikon 180-400mm f/4E AF-S ED VR – that is one among my go-to lenses on each journey with a built-in teleconverter and a Nikon FTZII lens adapter. This unit is tremendous sharp and versatile, giving me a spread from 180mm to 560mm.

Flexibility is important for wildlife pictures as it’s good to adapt to the state of affairs because it evolves in entrance of you. I can have interaction the teleconverter in lower than a second and don’t have to fret about mud or moisture contamination which you can get with conventional teleconverters.

The lens offers me lovely bokeh, which is usually not the case with smaller prosumer zooms. I beloved it with the Nikon D5 and Nikon D6 cameras, and it’s simply pretty much as good with the adapter on the Z-series cameras. I used this lens for as much as two-thirds of my pictures.

Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S – in a small minority of instances a wider angle is required primarily for the ‘animalscape’ images. I’ve this lens mounted on my compact Nikon Z7II digital camera and might put down the massive glass and simply seize it if the chance arises.

Nikon EN-EL18d – a spare battery or two for the Nikon Z9. Generally I take over two thousand images in an extended productive day and although the battery can deal with as much as 5 thousand images it’s at all times higher to be ready.

Two Nikon battery chargers and leads for Nikon Z9 batteries. They’re gentle and simple to incorporate within the baggage with one at all times in my carry-on. I can cost batteries concurrently and have insurance coverage if one charger fails for any motive.

Hahnel ProCubes battery charger and lead for Nikon Z7II batteries, a faster charger than the Nikon one.

2 x Card Protected with 6 x Delkin Black CFExpress Playing cards 128GB/150GB in every.  The Delkin Black is my most popular card for the Z9. I can shoot steady bursts in RAW with these and by no means hit the buffer.

I carry sufficient playing cards for the entire journey, and although I again up my playing cards alongside the way in which, the picture at all times stays on the cardboard. That means, if my backup is just not working for some motive, I nonetheless have the picture on the cardboard after I get dwelling.

Actually Proper Stuff Monopod with Wimberley Monopod Head – I take advantage of this quite a bit from automobiles on recreation drives, or from boats as I did on the journey within the Pantanal. It permits me to make use of a lot slower shutter speeds than when hand-holding, and this may be important in poor gentle conditions.

Typically you’ve an animal in entrance of you, and it’s good to be prepared for the motion. Having the digital camera mounted on a monopod makes this a lot simpler.

I just like the Wimberley Monopod head because the lens is completely balanced and stays at any angle with no need to tighten the locking knob. This leaves you free to maneuver it rapidly if the necessity arises.

I at all times take care when altering lenses to carry the digital camera pointing downwards and to vary every thing in a short time. As soon as a lens is connected to the digital camera, I typically go the entire journey with out eradicating it till it’s time to fly dwelling.

I hardly ever want to wash the sensor, however I do know from expertise that I often need to so I at all times journey with these things, simply in case;

Lenspen SensorKlear loupe, Lenspen Rocket blower and Inexperienced Clear full body sensor cleaners.

For lens cleansing a easy lens material or the rocket blower does the job, however I additionally use Inexperienced Clear lens cleaners for trickier conditions.

To guard my gear I take 2 x waterproof/dustproof sleeves from Wildlife Watching Provides. These enable me to maintain the cameras and connected telephoto lens mud and moisture free. I take advantage of a Lenscoat Waterproof lens sleeve for photographing in heavy rain.

A roll of enormous plastic bin liners turns out to be useful to guard each digital camera baggage in a downpour!

Apple MacBook Air 13”, Magic Mouse, Charger and lead – An excellent gentle and quick laptop for doing backups and checking my images when travelling. I do little or no processing on a visit, as I desire to do this again dwelling with a giant display screen and with the entire set of photos from the go to.

Nonetheless, I do have to examine through the journey that every thing is working effective and see what I’ve obtained and what I nonetheless have to get.

Velokg CFExpress/SD card reader – that is one of the best card reader I’ve discovered because it does each kinds of playing cards my cameras use and it’s suitable with most card manufacturers.

SanDisk 4TB Transportable SSD – I switched to SSDs a few years in the past as they’re way more dependable, sooner and lighter than arduous drives. I can get the entire journey onto this drive after which use it after I get dwelling to course of the pictures.

ThinkTank Curler Digicam bag ‘Airport Worldwide V2.0′ – On this journey, I didn’t have to hold my gear on hikes as all pictures is from boats or automobiles. This bag is ideal because it’s the usual measurement for airline carry-on and has wheels, making it simple to take by means of airports.

Swarovski Binoculars EL 8.5×42 – superbly sharp binoculars which might be important for wildlife recognizing.

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