Bubbling Springs Wildlife Gimbal with Bob Coates

Photos and Words by Bob Coates

There are a couple reasons to get your camera down low when hunting down photographs of wildlife. Especially avian winged subjects. Reason one - you're less obvious to your quarry. The lower the profile you present, the less you disturb feathered friends. Reason two - your images can be a bit more intimate from a lower angle. There’s a quote I heard recently that suggests you should shoot from eye level of your photo or lower.

The problem with using a regular tripod head is not having smooth control of your camera. I fixed that by switching out to a gimbal head. The gimbal head allows for smooth, steady control especially with a long lens.

This setup is an OM-D E-M1 Mark III camera with an Olympus M.Zukio ED 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 lens. I added a ProMaster 25 gimbal head mounted on a Platypod MAX. The setup makes for steady control of the camera with the ability to easily follow your subject. Check out the final images below!

The Final Images:

Check out more of Bob's work at: successful-photographer.com or http://coatesart.net