Ghillie Suit

For photographing, I use a ghillie suit.

The ghillie suit allows me to get up-close shots, as well as natural behavior type shots. The ghillie suit not only allows me to get close to wary wildlife species but much of the time, they have no clue I'm there. -This is a huge advantage. If the birds suspect something isn't quite right, they won't behave naturally. You end up getting nervous alert poses. You can clearly see that these birds are not wary and are behaving naturally. Much of the time I'm trying to hide in areas with very little cover ... trying to conceal someone my size ...plus a 500mm lens ...and camera ...and tripod, is not an easy task. The ghillie poncho is easy to use and can be thrown on in seconds; even in complete darkness.

Even though I'm moving my lens around to track birds with the camera, the subtle movement doesn't scare them because I don't look like a threatening thing. I think that most of the time, they think I'm a pile of dead vegetation ...or maybe a muskrat house. The suit works better than a blind and is far more portable. I have used blinds in the past, but found that the suit is infinitely better than any blind I have ever used. Many times I've had wildlife within an arms reach. It's such an amazing experience. ... don't be surprised if you have a bird land on top of you while you're wearing it! You wouldn't be the first person it's happened to. I can understand why, the suit blends in nearly perfectly. In fact there's been a number of times when I've laid it on the ground, only to have trouble finding it again.

To see some of my wildlife photographs be sure to check out my photography page.