1. Your images of birds in flight are stunning. Do you have any special techniques that you use for this type of photography?

First I will discuss equipment. In the past I've used a Canon 400mm 5.6 and an A2 body because it was lightweight. I was able to hand hold it and it was easy to maneuver. However, I have not used that lens for 3 years. I bought a Nikon 300mm 2.8 and use it with a 1.4 teleconverter with my F5 body. I shoot Provia 100F slide film pushed to 200.

I find that shooting at F4 rather than 5.6 gives me a tremendous advantage and I come back with many more sharp shots. The disadvantage is that it is much heavier to hand hold even though I bought the new lightest weight model. Most photographers I know using this lens whether it's the Nikon or Canon 300mm 2.8 have big problems with their arms. I had tennis elbow so bad I thought I was through with photography. It scared me to death and lasted for months but it finally passed. One of my friends who is an avid raptor-in-flight shooter had to have surgery on his arm. So be careful with this set-up it's not only the weight, it's how you hold it that puts the stress points in the arms. And shoulder stocks do not help. You might look into a Canon lens with image stabilization. I am not sure how IS will work for flight photography, I hear mixed reviews.

I also shoot with my Nikon 600mm F4 lens on a tripod and 90% of the time without the 1.4 teleconverter. If you look at the cover of my new book Birds of Prey in the American West the bald eagle was taken with an 80-200mm lens at f2.8 with Provia 100F pushed to 200. You can never have enough speed in flight photography. Just look at the cover to see how sharp that image is.

My technique in shooting flight is being totally aware of the subjects. Watch the pattern of flight as to where they are coming from and where they are going and change your position accordingly. Keep your eyes in the area from where you might see them approaching long before you are ready to start shooting and start tracking them with your auto focus early, when they are small in the frame. As they get closer, pan with them at the same speed they are flying and start shooting. Follow through even after your last frame as you would hitting through a tennis or golf stroke.

As far as exposure goes most flight photos can come out too dark because we are shooting from below unless the subject banks into the light or has a light source from below such as pure white sand or flash. You must compensate 1/3 to 2/3 stops for these photos to lighten the underside of the bird. The darker the bird the more compensation you will need.

2. What film do you use and how do you rate the ISO?

For most of my portrait shots of birds and mammals I use Fuji Velvia 50 pushed to 100 just in case I can catch a moment of action I have that extra stop of speed. For Flight I use Fuji Provia 100F pushed to 200 and low light or backlit situations I push it to 320. If I'm shooting landscapes or flowers I do not push my film.

3. Who had the most impact on your style of photography?

There are many great photographers that I admire and I have a library of books to show for it. I used to, and still do, pour over many books looking for what I like or do not like in a photo or just something different that I may include in my style. These books, old and new, all make me want to get out there and shoot better and try something different.

As far as the bird photographers who have inspired me many years ago, Elliot Porter is one of my favorites, because I have always loved the way he includes habitat in his bird photos. He made them look so real, with a sense of place. Ron Austing, Carl Maslowski, Hugh P. Smith and many others have also inspired me and still do as I looked through the birding magazines. Also Freeman Patterson really captures the natural world in all its beauty. John Shaw, Tom Mangelson, Art Wolf, Jim Brandenburg and Franz Lanting have all been inspirational to me. Actually, anyone who shows me a great photo can and will inspire me. Many amateurs that took my workshops have shown me photos during our critiques that I would die for.

4. What are the two top places in the United States that you prefer when photographing birds?

There are too many places to mention that I prefer and so much of it depends on what species I'm looking for.

5. What advice would you offer to the budding young nature photographers interested in getting into the business and making it their career?

This is a tough question and I will give some hard facts. If a 25 year-old decided to become a wildlife photographer he would need about $200,000 and five years of travel, 6 to 8 trips a year, each for a minimum of two weeks to start to gather photos for his stock files. It's like any other business investment and wildlife photography is no different. You need to show photo buyers that you have a large body of quality work to be in demand. Then, he would still need to take more trips and market his photos at the same time and still have enough money to live on. The key here is MARKETING. After the five years and or during that time if you cannot market you will never make it in this business. These days it's almost impossible for anyone to do this at 25 years of age unless their parents have lots of money. The industry is too competitive and we do not get paid enough for our images. It's truly is a labor of love. I'm not saying it can't be done because there are other avenues to pursue such as assignment photography, selling prints etc. while you are working. My advice is to enjoy photography as a hobby and see where it takes you.

6. The tern on the cover of your Wings in the Wild book is wonderful. Was this a planned shot and if so, how did you do it?

The least tern on the cover of Wings in the Wild has a great story attached to it. When I was living on Long Island in New York I monitored some of the nesting colonies for The Nature Conservancy. I have spent many hours photographing them. One day I was walking near a bluff of a sand dune at a place I've never been to. This tern kept buzzing my head, I did not know there was a nest on the bluff. Normally a Least Tern will half-heartedly dive at you two or three times and leave. This one would not stop and it would hover only a foot or two from my head. I was walking with my 600mm lens and could not do anything with the bird being so close. I walked in the sand about a half-mile to my car and went back with an 80-200mm and 24-120mm lens. It turned out the 80-200mm was too much lens and did not work. I had to use the 24 to 120mm lens. The tern repeated the same behavior and I took 13 rolls of film and this was one of the shots.

7. Is there any single species that you want to photograph but have t been unable to capture on film?

Yes, there are many birds I have not been able to capture on film and many I would like to get better photos of. There are always some species that elude me. This is part of the challenge for me and keeps me in the field. Some species I do not care to photograph because I try to take photos in a creative way and not only for identification purposes.

8. I photograph rainforest wildlife, and birds in the forest are a particular challenge. Shutter speeds at 100 ISO will often be around 1/15, meaning still only 1/60 at 400 ISO. I want to stick to a low ISO while using my 300mm f2.8 lens plus 2x teleconverter but don't want to resort to full flash. Mirror lock is pretty hard to use with active birds but if I don't lock the mirror, vibration comes into play. How would you handle this situation?

I am not fond of flash photography but I do not see how you can do without it in the rainforest. While on assignment in Costa Rica I used flash throughout the trip because the canopy makes it too dark to get any light on the subject. I also had very splotchy light in certain areas with extreme contrast of lights and darks so I needed to use fill flash to even out the lighting. Transparency film cannot handle this contrast. I am usually using my Nikon 600mm F4 lens and try not to use my 1.4 teleconverter so I will get the full effect of the flash unit. If I am far away from my subject up to 60 feet I will use my Fresnel lens on my flash unit but if I am close, say 20 to 25 feet, I take it off all the time shooting wide open at F4.

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Tom Vezo is an award winning wildlife photographer who travels worldwide to capture his images in their natural environment. His work is widely published in the U.S. and Europe in many books, calendars, magazines and advertisements. His credits include: Audubon, Birder's World, Bird Watcher's Digest, Discovery, Ducks Unlimited, National Geographic, National Wildlife Federation, Nature Conservancy, Nature's Best, Natural History, Outdoor Photographer, Sierra Club, Travel and Leisure, Wildbird, Wildlife Conservation and many more.

His most recent awards are the winner of 1998 and 1999 Nature's Best Magazine's photo contest for "Wildlife" in the professional category and the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 1997 as an honorable mention. Six stock photography agents, four in the US, one England and one in Germany represent his work. He is one of the top bird photographers in the United States but he also photographs breathtaking landscapes, mammals, and other natural subjects which all add to his library of over 100,000 images.

He has led many photography tours throughout the United States and Canada teaching people the techniques of nature photography in the field. Wings in the Wild: Habits and Habitats of North American Birds is Tom's first coffee table book. It consists of 144 pages with 190 photos published by Stackpole Books. It is written by Paul Kerlinger, former director of the Cape May Bird Observatory and author of How Birds Migrate. Tom's most recent book is Birds of Prey in the American West published by Rio Nuevo Publishers in Tucson Arizona. Vezo's extraordinary photographs and Glinski's authoritative text depict and describe 34 species of eagles, hawks, falcons, vultures, and owls indigenous to the West. The book illustrates how these birds live what they eat and how they survive. They also share their personal experiences searching for these captivating birds in the wild The book consists of 128 pages with more than 100 photographs and is 9 x 9.75 inches. Visit Tom Vezo.Com to order your signed copy of Birds of Prey in the American West or Wings in the Wild: Habits and Habitats of North American Birds today.