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Hello everyone from Virginia! My name is Lori A Cash, and I am a wildlife and nature conservation photographer with 34 years of photography experience covering a wide range of subjects throughout the years. For 22 years I lived near the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and during that time, I mainly focused on birds and the local area. In 2017 I moved back to Virginia due to my spouse’s work. Therefore, I reinvented my photography to focus more on wildlife conservation issues such as habitat connectivity here in Virginia.
My mission for my photography has always been to inspire others to appreciate and love our natural world. It was an easy transition for me to concentrate my photography on conservation issues and storytelling with a particular emphasis on Virginia. I volunteer as a Communications Team member and as a partner photographer with a non-profit organization called Wild Virginia. Their issues aligned with my conservation issues such as PFAS and habitat connectivity. My images have been used by several other conservation organizations in Virginia as well.
I have created my own conservation photography project called Butterfly Habitat Oasis Project by turning my backyard into a butterfly habitat oasis. The mission of this butterfly conservation project is to help with the decline of butterflies and especially with the decline of the Monarchs. I photograph the lifecycles of the delicate butterfly visitors that use my backyard oasis to lay their eggs and feed their caterpillars which eventually form chrysalises in my backyard oasis. Then, I use these images to advocate for butterflies and for the need to create butterfly habitat spaces. I have recently created an Instagram page for my butterfly conservation project to show the images I have captured in my backyard.
On a more personal note, over the last few years, I had started exhibiting some physical difficulties while out in the field and in my everyday activities. In late 2022, I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis and Stiff Person Syndrome. These diseases have greatly impacted my photography abilities, but I continue to persevere and to adapt my photography skills so I can continue photographing the natural world that I love so much.
My love for photography is so great that, in a way, photography is my therapy. During these past few years dealing with my declining abilities, I have done some of my best photography and storytelling work with national and international publications while continuing my advocacy and conservation photography efforts in Virginia.
In addition to my conservation photography, I am an advocate of responsible and ethical photography. I am co-founder of a website and blog called Responsible Photography Collective where we provide resources and advocacy for responsible photography practices. Our regular contributors provide monthly blog posts covering a range of responsible photography topics for all genres of photography and for all levels of photographers.
I am very honored to be here today to do this Ask Me Anything as I love to share my knowledge and experiences with other photographers.
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I was going over some of your galleries on your website, and the red fox gallery caught my attention. I know I have some near me, but never seen one in real life. What kind of resources do you use to learn about animal behaviors? How do you find so many of an animal like a fox that seem so elusive?
Sometimes, you just get lucky. The fox den burrow in which I photographed those red foxes, I actually stumbled upon them by just walking around an area looking for animals.
I first learn about studying animal behavior in the 1990’s when I took some photography classes including one on animal behavior from a local community college which was before the internet time. So, I started learning about animal behavior by reading a lot of field guides/books. Now, I do use the internet for some of my research. However, I spend time watching and observing behaviors in the field such as the red fox den I photographed.
I did some research on the internet about red fox behaviors and what to discover from the kits in the field. Also, I spend a lot of time observing in the field. These methods help when I am photographing a species like the red fox. As for finding these animals which we know exist urban areas and around us, by doing the research about where foxes make their dens, you can then search at dawn and dusk the most plausible areas near you where a fox may make a den.
The images you shared are really beautiful. It looks like you cover everything from landscape to macro to birds in flight. Can you share what type of equipment you use and perhaps some of the basics on how you process your images? For instance have you moved to mirrorless cameras and do you do the majority of your processing in Photoshop and Lightroom? Also, do you use any other programs like Topaz AI or DXO Prime?
Hello John,
I live in the Hampton Roads of Virginia, and I mainly photograph in the Hampton Roads area up to Williamsburg and over to the Eastern Shore of Virginia. There are quite a variety of places in Hampton Roads that I go to regularly like Fort Monroe, Great Dismal Swamp in Suffolk, along the James River and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore. I do not get out to the western part of Virginia much, but when I do I go to Shenandoah National Wildlife Refuge and Breaks Interstate Park in Buchanan County. Huntly Meadows is a popular place in Northern Virginia.
Hope these locations are helpful to you.
Thank you. Yes, I do photography a range of subjects. My soft spot is for shorebirds but due to health issues over the past 2 years I have expanded with the subjects that I photograph to include just about anything that does not involve laying down in the sand anymore. So, that is one of the reasons why I have a variety of subjects I photograph and the other is that I just love photography.
Except for my first camera back in 1990, Pentax k1000, I have always been with Canon. In Spring of 2022, I purchased my first mirrorless camera, Canon EOS RP, to go along with my Canon EOS 5D Mark ll DSLR. In early 2021, I traded my Canon prime lenses to go lighter and this was the first time I went to using third-party lenses Tamron). Right now, my main set up is the Canon EOS R5 mirrorless camera with an EF-R adapter to use my Tamron 150-600mm G2 and my favorite go to lens is the Tamron 18-400mm lens. I loved the lenses that I used with my DSLR which I still have but have not used in a while. I mainly use the Canon RP mirrorless camera for landscapes/seascapes and some macro work. Since Tamron does not have a macro lens, I purchased a Sigma mm lens.
Also, I have Canona 17-40mm L lens for landscapes/seascapes, Sometimes, I may use the 18-400mm lens to get closer up images for my landscapes/seascapes. For now that is the main equipment I use along with a Gitzo tripod and a Vanguard tripod for landscapes/seascapes. Otherwise, I hand hold my camera and lenses even with my macro work. And I have chosen to use EF-R adapter with the mirrorless cameras as I really love the Canon and Tamron lenses that I already had.
My philosophy is to get it right in the field so I spend less time processing images. I am still a Photoshop user and convert my images in ACR with my typical tweaks on contrast, highlights, shadows, vibrance. Every once in a while, I will adjust my exposure or white balance. I do use Topax DeNoise and Sharpening, if needed. Probably will crop some images, if I did not get the right composition out in the field. But that is pretty much my setup. I strive to create beautiful images in the field and only do the least amount of work on the computer processing images.
I hope you find this info helpful to you.
I am located in St. Louis, MO and occasionally have an opportunity to photograph birds, especially the eagles just over the Mississippi River. I shoot Nikon, Z8 and wonder if you have some ideas about settings in order to get the best photo of birds in flight. Thank you.
I love birds in flight photography! First, I would make sure my aperture is wide open such as f5/.6. Having a very fast shutter speed is very important. I usually prefer anything over at least 1/1000 of sec. But the higher you can go on shutter speed would be better to help stop the movement. Ideally, I, personally, would like to be around 1/2000-1/3000/sec on my shutter speed. With using a higher shutter speed and wide-open aperture, I have to increase my ISO, if needed.
I use Canon, and I use the aperture priority setting. Then I adjust my ISO to the shutter speed. Sometimes, depending on the weather conditions, I may have to use exposure compensation. But this is how I was taught many years ago and still photograph birds in flight this way.
With these new mirrorless cameras, it makes it easier to up your ISO to get the shutter speed to stop the action of the bird in flight. Also, with me using a Canon R5, I use exposure compensation with aperture priority and may need to adjust exposure compensation. Also, I have been using the animal eye tracking feature for birds in flight which helps a lot.
Other photographers may manually set their camera settings based on their metering of the sky or background. Another option is to use Auto ISO to maintain the high shutter speed of the camera.
But basically, using a high shutter speed such as 1/2000-1/3000 and a wide-open aperture will help make your birds in flight sharper. ISO settings can be changed if needed or just use auto ISO.
One more tip, it is a good day for bird photography when it is windy and you can point your camera in the direction of the wind is blowing as the bird would be flying into the wind.
Experiment with your settings and see what works best for you. Hope this was helpful to you.
Best,
Lori
