What to wear??

Paul83

Paul83

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So we are getting more into photography of late, wildlife mainly - on our walks we see some people dressed casual, and others in camo gear. Some people have camo lens covers, others not.

I am open minded, does the camo gear help get closer to the wildlife without disturbing?? it does stand to reason.. I often wear a lot of black and realize I probably make a big silhouette.

We did find it somewhat amusing as we walked past a couple, one in basically a Ghillie suit and the other in a white jacket...
What about season colors? not camo but all green, khaki, ect?

Important or not?
 
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I just go with earth tone clothes for the most part. For particularly bad/cold weather my jacket is camo, but that's just because hunting gear is better suited to extended field use. My lenses are all black (Nikon) so I don't bother with lens camo... I might if I was using Canon/Sony big white lenses.

IME, movement, noise, and reflections (from large objective elements) make more of a difference at shorter distances. If trying photograph something very skittish and/or I have to be very exposed, then I might opt to use a camo blanket/poncho/blind thing I made.
 
sk66 said:
I just go with earth tone clothes for the most part.

IME, movement, noise, and reflections (from large objective elements)
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That ^

99.99999% of the time actual camouflage is going to be completely useless unless you cam up your face.

It's the biggest, shiniest reflector that you possess and its form is hard wired into animals that shy away from humans.
 
Fieldcraft is more important than cammo gear. If you need to get really close to small birds/animals some form of hide can help - this can even be as simple as sitting in a car with the window down!
 
Paul83 said:
So we are getting more into photography of late, wildlife mainly - on our walks we see some people dressed casual, and others in camo gear. Some people have camo lens covers, others not.

I am open minded, does the camo gear help get closer to the wildlife without disturbing?? it does stand to reason.. I often wear a lot of black and realize I probably make a big silhouette.

We did find it somewhat amusing as we walked past a couple, one in basically a Ghillie suit and the other in a white jacket...
What about season colors? not camo but all green, khaki, ect?

Important or not?
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Some people may only have one "field outfit" which might be camouflage for the small number of occasions when it might be useful. I often wear my camouflage jacket, not because of it's of any value, but because it's the best field jacket I own.

I assume there has been some research on the benefits of camouflage or we wouldn't see it so commonly used by the military, and remaining unseen by other people when sitting/lying in wait for wildlife, can be useful.

When I bought my camouflage jacket, many years ago, I did a fair amount of reading advice given in books/articles on shooting. The consensus opinion was that there was small advantage of wearing camouflage for a small number of species. But the important things were still, as mentioned in other posts, fieldcraft and plain muted earthy/natural colours for clothing.

As well as photographing wildlife, I have spent many hours doing wildlife surveys and I can't say I've noticed any difference between wearing my cammo jacket and wearing my plain olive coloured jackets. But there are so many factors likely to affect getting close to wildlife (or allowing them to get close to you), that my anecdotal experience of cammo vs non-cammo isn't really of much value.
 
myotis said:
I assume there has been some research on the benefits of camouflage or we wouldn't see it so commonly used by the military,
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Cam is designed to disguise the body shape and make it blend into an environment. Hence its original British name of 'Disruptive Pattern Material'.

It is based on the four principles of static concealment, those being: Shape, Shine, Shadow and Silhouette. More are added for movement.

So you need to hide your shape by breaking up your outline, mute any shine, don't stand where you are backlit or where you cast an obvious shadow.
Those are far more important than the pattern of the jacket.
 
I always feel that wildlife keeps about 200m away from me in every direction whatever I wear. Recently, I went to a local spot for photographing Owls and happened to pick up my white jacket. Not a good choice perhaps and many of the keen waiting photographers were tut-tutting and commenting on my clothing. However, they had been there for hours and not seen anything that day. It was clear that there was no action so I left and they were no doubt delighted. Just nearby on my way back I spotted several Red kites in the air and a carcass in the middle of the road so pull of the road a few hundred yards on and got several shots of the Red Kites swooping down.

Dave
 
DemiLion said:
Cam is designed to disguise the body shape and make it blend into an environment. Hence its original British name of 'Disruptive Pattern Material'.

It is based on the four principles of static concealment, those being: Shape, Shine, Shadow and Silhouette. More are added for movement.

So you need to hide your shape by breaking up your outline, mute any shine, don't stand where you are backlit or where you cast an obvious shadow.
Those are far more important than the pattern of the jacket.
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Thanks, as it so happens I knew this, at least in as much as these are the things you need to think about in terms of fieldcraft and the meaning of DPM, but a succinct explanation of the factors you need think about in terms of field craft..
 
Camo is designed to break up outlines and blend in with backgrounds for HUMAN VISION.
Wild life see colours very differently and a for the most part are far more sensitive to movement and shape recognition,.baggy shapeless clothing of almost any sort that does not look like a human, is probably the most effective ,together with a face net, if they can't see you many animals will smell or hear you anyway..
Probably full ragged sniper kit soaked in cow dung would probably work very well, if you can put up with the dung flies.
Not sure that I would bother myself, if you keep still and hide nothing seems to care anyway.
 
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Don't forget quiet as well as hard to see.
 
Paul83 said:
Some people have camo lens covers, others not.



Important or not?
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Yes important, but not for disguise, more for protecting your (usually) expensive kit.
 
mex said:
Yes important, but not for disguise, more for protecting your (usually) expensive kit.
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Remember to remove the lens cover and dry it and the lens if you get caught in a rain shower.
 
Stock farmers in the last century often used to tie or just drape an empty hessian feed sack over their shoulders in wet weather (to buffer the ingress of wetness to their clothing). Very dull in colour, & very matt ...

This would likely be coupled with a woven wool cap with peak, or hat with brim, that would shade the face - not that they were stalking wildlife, but just getting the cows in for milking ...

Nowadays, we're being seduced to pay £££'s to get something made of nylon &/or polyester that's going to shed synthetic microparticles into the global environment for its working life & far beyond.

Yes, I've done it & still do it myself - but it's a thought. There are lots of us on the planet these days, spewing out crap - & where does the crap go? It gets ingested by the wildlife we claim to be interested in - & ourselves, ending up in our veins & brains. As a species, we seem to be turning on the very planet that bore us. Industry doesn't help much, & warfare certainly doesn't!

But hey - I'm in lecturing mode tonight. End of diatribe. But it's definitely on-thread. And we may not be as entitled as we think we are.
 
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I think it works, another perspective could be will it harm your chances? I had a very close interaction with a deer once, I was stood up breaking the sky line when it popped out (I was heading back to the car) so I froze and it stood there in a manner that makes me think it knew something was there but couldn't work it out. I could be wrong though, but I got some photos I'm very happy with.

The other thing is, if you have camo gear, that's your wildlife photo gear doesn't matter if it gets a bit scruff etc; means you get to keep your other stuff separate.
 
Suvv said:
I walked into hide once and nearly walked into someone wearing a Ghillie suit.
I said "Sorry I didn't see you there"
Not even the slightest smile :(
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Those thus clad are amongst the least humour-endowed of the population.
 
Quite a lot of animals can see in the blue-green range and towards the UV. Quite a lot of camo gear has some sort of optical brighteners in them to make the colours more attractive to the purchaser.

If you shine a UV light on them, you can see the glow (particularly if you look at the blue band of a photo). Fortunately, this can be fixed by washing it through with a the right dye. Oak gall with an iron mordant will darken it down and kill the optical brighteners. This will work on cotton fiber. It is really the iron that makes the difference to the UV.
 
hunnymonster said:
Those thus clad are amongst the least humour-endowed of the population.
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Nah, it's just that it's not even that original or funny. and it's the n'th time you hear it.... I've taken to replying saying "yeah, my six year old nephew thought it was funny when he said it too!"
 
hunnymonster said:
Those thus clad are amongst the least humour-endowed of the population.
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rd6743 said:
Nah, it's just that it's not even that original or funny. and it's the n'th time you hear it.... I've taken to replying saying "yeah, my six year old nephew thought it was funny when he said it too!"
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Thus proving Jason's point to perfection.
 
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Saw a group of fully camouflaged photographers on an organised shoot a few years ago. Not quite ghillie suits but certainly complete overkill - for a trip to the zoo.
 
Nod said:
Saw a group of fully camouflaged photographers on an organised shoot a few years ago. Not quite ghillie suits but certainly complete overkill - for a trip to the zoo.
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Woah there boy!!

The late Cobra was known to wear his cammo jacket on the TP Whipsnade visits! :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
I saw a young lad this week dressed in a sort of ghillie suit, I think it was one of the 3d printed cheapy ones (he was playing with an airsoft gun in the park) To be fair it was the gun that gave his away, he actually blended in very well with the suit.
How an bird or deer will see this is another question though.
 
Depends what your shooting and how their eye sight and survival instincts work . Learn your subject before arriving like Rambo
 
My two cents as someone who doesn’t use camo so it’s just my opinion. Camo is good if you know your subjects and know how to track without alerting the wildlife. It’s most effective when you blend in and don’t move much. Probably more useful if you have shorter focal length or need to get closer. More useful with wild animals not used to humans. Saw a post on social media about a 20 something female saying men in camouflage are creepy as f.. and she would set her dogs on them!! I had an American friend visit and he wore camo trousers, he just thought it’s normal in the US and couldn’t understand why in the UK it’s unusual.
 
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