Your Car as a Wildlife Blind: Tips for Photographing Animals From the Road

Meeting wild animals is one of the thrills of exploring a natural area, and many visitors bring a camera hoping to capture the moment. The secret to a good picture, says Cuyahoga Valley National Park, is to keep a safe distance — for your sake and the animal's — and to watch without changing how it behaves.

Why a car works

Jim Roetzel of the Cuyahoga Valley Photographic Society recommends using your car as a blind, which also keeps you well apart from other visitors.

A traditional photo blind is a small camouflaged tent: you climb in, poke your lens out and wait. It works, but it's cramped. A car, Roetzel points out, is roomy, with good visibility, a comfortable seat, heat and even a radio. He estimates that about 90% of his white-tailed deer photos are taken from his car, because a vehicle alarms animals much less than a person approaching on foot.

Step by step

1. Park safely, in a quiet lot or pulled completely off the road, minding the shoulder and passing traffic.
2. Stay put. Moving the car can spook animals nearby.
3. Quiet everything. Roll the window down, fold in the side mirror and turn off the engine — silencing the spot and stopping engine vibration from blurring your shots.
4. Rest the lens on the window, cushioned on a towel or bean bag. Roetzel, who shoots from his car often, uses a window mount with a tripod head, and packs a short piece of pipe insulation when traveling to use as a window pad.
5. Keep still and quiet. Animals can still see and hear you.

Camera settings

Most shots will be portraits. Roetzel suggests starting with:

Learn more

The Park Service offers a beginner's photography guide, tips and safety guidelines for watching wildlife in national parks, and, for armchair naturalists, hundreds of park webcams.

Sources

Based on "Photographing Wildlife From Your Car," Cuyahoga Valley National Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.