This year, the winter of 2024/2025, has proven to be one of the biggest irruptions for both great gray owls and boreal owls in over a decade. And in Episode 25 of the PhotoWILD Podcast, Jared Lloyd and Annalise Kaylor discuss the science behind the irruption and how wildlife photographers can use this knowledge to set themselves up to photograph one of the greatest bird photography opportunities across the Northern Hemisphere.

In season one of the PhotoWILD Podcast, we talked about how we prefer not to use camouflage in the field, relying instead upon our body language and behavior to help keep animals calm. However, there are times in which camouflage is a necessity in wildlife photography. Whether it’s working with animals that experience hunting pressure or photographing sensitive situations such as nests and dens that require the upmost stealth and concealment for the protection of the animals, camo is a tool that should be used strategically.

Mastering birds in flight requires so much more than just sophisticated autofocus systems and matching the background to the color of the bird. In fact, of all the many facets of this style of photography it is perhaps understanding the interplay of wind direction, light direction, and backgrounds that will do more for your bird in flight compositions than anything else.   

In this episode, Jared and Annalise discuss animal behavior, the importance of educating yourself on the subject, and how understanding our subjects allows us to anticipate their behavior and set ourselves up for success in the field.

Photographing birds in flight happens one of two ways: incidentally or purposefully. If you are serious about creating these types of photographs, then you need to set yourself up for success first.

In Episode 21, Jared and Annalise discuss photographing one of the most iconic species of birds across North America: the bald eagle.

After spending ten days photographing eagles on the wing, creating nearly 150,000 photographs each, your hosts discuss what it takes to return home with such high success rates with birds in flight. Cutting through all the confusion about best practices, they explain a methodology for simplifying the process to set yourself up for success.

In this episode, Jared and Annalise discuss one of the most important predictors of wildlife behavior in the winter months: weather. But more than just snow, more than the cold, it’s the barometric pressure that photographers need to understand. This transcends latitudes as barometric pressure impacts wildlife from the tropics to the tundra.

Photographing hummingbirds in the tropics can be one of the most impossible tasks you will ever encounter as a wildlife photographer - if done wrong. As anyone who has laced up their boots and trekked down a muddy trail into the emerald kingdom of the rainforest can attest, wild encounters with these birds are extraordinarily fleeting and often mere flashes of color in the mid-canopy. For this reason, 99% of hummingbird photography occurs at purpose built setups with anywhere between 1 - 5 off-camera flashes.

Professional nature photographers the world over utilize field set-ups, or outdoor studios, for creating images that would not be possible otherwise.

Jared and Annalise recount their experience photographing rin the misty cloud forests of Panama’s high mountains—lush, moss-draped ecosystems that feel more like sky islands than tropical jungles.

From purpose-built blinds, they encountered elusive birds and, in a stroke of serendipity, witnessed a dramatic fly-in from an ornate hawk eagle. The duo explores the mental pivot required in moments like these: resisting the instinct to document and instead leaning into storytelling through intentional composition.

In this episode, Jared and Annalise talk about photographing the moose rut inside Denali National Park. Come September, once the national park bus system shuts down, wildlife photographers can drive the first 30 miles of the park. This gives us access to the prime moose rut area as well as caribou, lynx, wolves, ptarmigan, spruce grouse, and so much more.

We discuss the biology of the moose rut and exactly how we create sellable photographs of the moose rut in Denali despite having to concentrate so much of their efforts to extremely low light situations - often pushing or ISO to 25,600.

IIn this episode, Jared and Annalise do a deep dive into how camera companies are adding Artificial Intelligence to our autofocus systems and the ways in which this is truly revolutionizing wildlife photography. Making several treks by boat to a horned puffin colony this summer to experiment with the new autofocus modes that capitalize on this new technology, Jared and Annalise discuss how this has dramatically improved action photography like birds in flight.

In this episode, Jared and Annalise discuss everything photographers need to know about the natural history of brown bears in order to stay safe when working in bear country. Do you know about Overt Reaction Distances? Bear bubbles? The signs and behaviors of bears we should all know to keep ourselves safe? This episode covers all of that. From the research on the efficacy of bear spray versus firearms to how food sources drive behavior, this episode is a must listen for anyone who spends time in bear country.

In this episode, Jared and Annalise begin their series on photographing brown bears along the coast of Alaska. Wildlife photographers the world over know about the legendary opportunities the combination of salmon and bears provide. From July through September, wildlife photographers willing to go the extra mile, willing to hop on bush planes and float planes and travel to the remote wilderness of this landscape are presented with what can be non-stop action photographing bears as they fish for salmon - the lifeblood of this ecosystem. 

In this episode, Jared and Annalise discuss some of the unique equipment that they always bring with them when photographing coastal brown bears. Far from being something that is only applicable to bear photography, however, this piece of gear is a vital part of how they photograph wildlife in many different situations. Since the release of the podcast, many of the questions that come through to PhotoWILD have to do with camera equipment and one question keeps coming up over and over again: how and why do we chose the equipment that we use?

In this episode, Jared Lloyd and Annalise Kaylor talk shop after spending 10 days on boats photographing in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska. Kenai Fjords is one of the most dynamic landscapes on Earth and plays home to an extraordinary diversity of wildlife from marine mammals to pelagic seabirds. The PhotoWILD crew timed their expedition to the edge of the world for the peak of the orca migration. Following huge schools of chinook salmon, each day was filled with countless orca sightings in addition to humpback whales, Stellar sea lions, harbor seals on icebergs, sea otters, three species of puffin, and so much more. 

Jared and Annalise head into the heart of the endangered Prairie Potholes to photograph breeding waterfowl and grebes from floating blinds. They share stories behind the images, challenges faced, and tips for success in wetland wildlife photography. This episode spotlights one of North America’s most vital habitats for bird conservation.

Floating blinds, sometimes called floating hides, have the power to completely transform your approach to wildlife photography.  From your ability to approach and photograph birds and mammals around the water, to the type of images, the look and feel of the compositions, floating blinds are a critical piece of gear in our kit.

Because floating blinds are a unique concept that most photographers may not have heard of or are not familiar with in North America, Jared and Annalise discuss the ins and outs of the different floating blinds they like to use.