Wildlife Photography » Wildlife Callers

Gray Fox Calling Up Close – Video Attached

Posted October 16, 2009 By Mark Healy and has 7 comments.

Call ‘em close and keep ‘em close. Gray fox are just one predator that can be manipulated with animal vocalizations and distress sounds – watch this little guy talking back at us.

On one of my last trips to Central Arizona for a mountain lion scouting and calling trip, I found myself as I often do, in the middle of several gray fox. Because my focus is calling mountain lions, I rarely shoot fox these days. However, I’ve had some of the newer guys to predator calling ask me to do some educational videos of animals coming to the call. I thought this was an excellent idea.

Arizona Gray Fox

Because my intent is not to shoot/harvest a fox, I have the unique opportunity to film the behavior of the called animal from the time it arrives to the time it leaves. Also, while I have the fox in the area of the caller I have the opportunity to use the sounds from my Wildlife Technologies electronic predator caller to capture and keep the attention of the animal for long periods of time. The result is video that shows people some basic ways to scout for and to call a fox. The video clips also demonstrate how animals respond to being called and what happens during various sound changes on the caller.

In this video I call in a very vocal fox that comes in fast, stays for a long time, and puts on a great show. (more…)

Categories: electronic callers, fox, Wildlife Photography

Tags: Arizona outdoors, Arizona predator hunting, calling mountain lion, fox, gray fox, Predator calling, wildlife callers, Wildlife Photography, wildlife technologies

Scouting + Calling = Wildlife Photography Results

Posted September 29, 2009 By Marc Reindell and has 4 comments.

This is part 2 of Chad Messa’s guest post here at Wildlife Callers. Chad talks about the importance of scouting and using animal calls to get his photos. This information hopefully will help our readers in their own pursuit of that one great wildlife photo shot! This information also applies to hunting predators as well.

Photographing wildlife is very similar to hunting, although I sometimes have to get closer and be a lot more patient. This is because I have to get more than just one shot of a given animal.

I like to be anywhere from 20 to 30 yards away. This gives me the opportunity to get a good tight photograph of that animal for cover shots. When good action shots are needed I try to stay a little farther away.

tn_MESA1941 copy2 (2)

The single most important lesson I can give is this, learn about the species you are going to photograph, read all you can about that species before you even attempt to go out and photograph them.

Learn when they are breeding, what their diet consists of, and when they are most active.

(more…)

Categories: Predator calling, Predator Scouting, Wildlife Photography

Tags: electronic wildlife caller, Hunting, Predator calling, scouting, wildlife callers, wildlife images, Wildlife Photography

Wildlife Photography- Tips from a professional

Posted September 21, 2009 By Marc Reindell and has 2 comments.

Wildlife Callers would like to introduce you to Chad Messa of Mesa Sky Wildlife Phtography. We are pleased to have Chad contribute to our blog and hope you enjoy the information he can provide. Chad is a professional photographer based in the SouthEast U.S. This will be the first of a two part post as Chad has a lot of info to share with us. Please look for the second part in the next day or two.

Chad uses hand calls and would like to expand his calling by using an electronic wildlife caller in the near future. Chad is the second wildlife photographer that has agreed to contribute to our blog on a periodic basis, we are happy to share his story and his photographs with our readers.

Mesa Sky Wildlife Photography

My name is Chad Messa, I am the owner/operator of Mesa Sky Wildlife Photography and we are located in south Mississippi and Louisiana.

I got started in wildlife photography when I was about 16 years old. My older sister gave me a Yashica film camera and even though I had no idea what I was doing, I took it into the woods every chance I had. As years went by I kept shooting and always kept that camera with me in my truck. Back then I was shooting stuff like birds, alligators and turtles, just local Louisiana wildlife.

The photograph I took that made me realize I could make a living at this was of a captive jaguar. I learned that if I tried hard enough and read as much as possible about photography, I could make this a career.