"There's an infinite array of stories to capture because every moment is once in a lifetime, and it'll never happen again. Every moment should be treated as such" (Photo courtesy of Matt Carey)
March 06, 2025
By Hayden Martin
“How did you get that photo?” and “What camera are you running?” are among the top questions photographers get asked on a recurring basis. Not that there's anything wrong with those questions, but it is the meaning and intention behind them. Are you passionate about shooting photos and learning the art of waterfowl photography? Sit back and read on as WILDFOWL was able to pick the brains of three well-known waterfowl photographers in Brandon Fien, Phil Kahnke, and Tom Martineau to gain a better generational perspective. Each photographer has traveled the world, leaving their impression with iconic images. Now, they are passing on relatable knowledge for those photographers who are starting out on their journey.
Establishing a Foundation One important thing to remember—everyone starts somewhere different in their journey and all photographers take the time to find their storytelling style, learn what works for them, and how to move forward to make a name for themselves.
Brandon Fien started shooting photos ten years ago at the age of thirteen after suffering a baseball injury and he needed an outlet to focus his energy as he recovered. “I rode my bike all over town for the next few years as I continued to take pictures of ducks that hung around all the local lakes, creeks, and ponds. I started to find my way of storytelling, you know, it's the same thing with any form of art, music, paintings, drawings, and photography, trying to evoke some sort of emotion. With waterfowl, the story that I'm trying to capture is always subject to whatever the moment is. For example, if it is last light and there are silhouettes everywhere, I'm trying to capture the silhouette of that animal or the pure beauty that we find in all these birds. I wouldn't say there's necessarily one story that I'm trying to capture. There's an infinite array of stories to capture because every moment is once in a lifetime, and it'll never happen again. Every moment should be treated as such, which is why there's never one story, it is always an ever-changing story.”
Phil Kahnke, now in his mid-forties, got serious with shooting waterfowl photography in the early 2000s as digital cameras started to gain traction. “I would see imagery on some of the web for duck hunting and on the old covers of WILDFOWL and Ducks Unlimited, and those covers made me want to start shooting photos and have those pictures up on my own walls. I slowly but surely started buying the gear that could get me into it more and eventually, I was full-blown into the gear side and made the jump into taking dedicated excursions just to go out for it rather than kind of casually driving around looking for ducks. I was out doing, essentially, a duck hunt with the same scouting, setting up decoys, yet with my camera instead of my gun.”
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Tom Martineau began his photography journey when he was in his forties, roughly twenty years ago, after watching his friend shoot lifestyle photos and began to aspire to have his work featured in prominent magazines. “I've always wanted to get into shooting photos, especially for Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl , and WILDFOWL. You know, you buy what you can afford, then go sit in the slough. Put your time in and make a lot of mistakes. Figure out the light—how is that going to work with the image, how are the ducks coming in, and what are they doing. I started out personally with the Canon Rebel when that camera first came out and I had the 100-400mm lens. I was taking some good photos while looking up to Gary Kramer and Bill Marcelle, and I said to myself, ‘It’s time to step it up if you really want to do this or just get some images for yourself and be good with that.’”
Location, Location, Location Most waterfowl photographers start out as duck hunters, choosing their gun over the camera. That begs one to question: how do these photographers put down their guns to choose their camera? (Photo courtesy of Matt Carey) One critical question that photographers are asked frequently is, “Do you change your camera settings based on your location?” The easy response is “yes,” however, the “why” behind the question varies from photographer to photographer.
For someone who has been shooting photos nearly half of his life, Fien eloquently puts it, “With music, you're bending sound; with painting, you’re bending color; with photography, you're bending light. When you change your camera settings depending on what the lighting scenario is doing, you have the capability to manipulate the light with the style that you're trying to capture. One quick example, if you want to capture some sort of motion in a frame instead of freezing the motion, you're going to drag out your shutter speed which means slowing it down, so it is almost impossible to have just a plug-n-play camera setting that's gonna work for every situation.”
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“If we're just talking just straight up bird photography, those settings won't really change much for me,” says Kahnke. “However, there are a couple of things I've always kept really close to the same. I always want my shutter speed to be at least 1/1600 and in most cases, I'm shooting with the aperture wide open. So, the one thing that will change in almost all circumstances, depending on the location, time of day, and the lighting is the ISO, which can go anywhere from 400 to 40,000.”
As Martineau has observed in the field over the years, “In the morning timber, there's way less light. I'm trying to capture those mallards coming in through the trees and I crank up the ISO to at least 10,000, then I slow my shutter speed so I can try to capture something. Sometimes it's a happy accident because those wings blur so much, it almost becomes art. When you're out in the marsh area, you have a lot more light because it is an open environment, so you don't have to have a high ISO. As that light comes up, you adjust your settings, your eyes, shutter speeds, and the F values, to name a few. Set your F value at 2.8, it will give you more light, and you can get a faster shutter speed, but your depth of field becomes way shorter. The front of the duck’s wing may be sharp, but the backside of the other wing will be out of focus. One last bit for beginners: Always shoot in a raw format, not a JPEG format. I say this so that you can control everything in the shot, the depth of the field, so it is what you created and envisioned.”
Once you get your settings situated, you can focus on where you want the birds to land and what scene you want to create. Lighting is always the one of the first things to consider, followed by the wind direction, and the time of day. After taking those factors into account, then you can start crafting your scene more so than trying to force something to work.
Comparison Game Nowadays, with everyone showcasing their work on social media, it is incredibly easy for photographers to fall into the comparison game when it relates to taking photos, editing style, gear, and the latest technological trend.
“It is definitely something we all subconsciously struggle with,” as Fien begins to elaborate. “What has worked for me has been being original, staying true to my roots, and remembering why I started in the first place. Whenever I stumble into one of those creative blocks, I just go out and start taking pictures of ducks because that's what I love doing. That's kind of helped me throughout the years while there are definitely still times to this day that I struggle with the creative block. Just go out and do it cause you love it and if you can remember that, then there will be no issues.”
As Kahnke has found out, one way for him to escape the comparison game is that he does not follow a lot of wildlife photographers that photograph ducks. “They’re doing something I feel is different from what I'm doing. I watch people that are duck hunters take duck photos because that feels more like what I enjoy, but it also feels more like hunting. It is hard not to see someone else's stuff and try to compare yours to it. I can't say that I've completely gotten over the comparison game, but I definitely try to limit how much of it I take in because I don't want to copy people, I want to do my own thing. Once you've seen some of those images, it's really easy to let that hang out in the back of your head, then put your own spin on it. I've come to look at my social media as simply an outlet for myself to show and write about the things that I like and to not let it be influenced by what other people like. If I get to shoot photos of ducks and I have some people that follow along and like it, then that's all I ask for at this point.”
Martineau doesn't do a lot of posting on social media. He sees himself in an older class, where social media is not as important, but also understands that for the younger generation, it’s free marketing. However, Martineau does slip in a solid piece of advice for the next generation of photographers: “It's free exposure for these guys where I've been shooting photos for a long time, and I've got a lot of exposure already. I personally like to hold my best images for the magazines. They want pictures that have never been seen before. The only way somebody is going to see my best work is when it is published. I would tell anyone getting into photography, especially if they want their work to be on magazine covers, keep your top three images that you shot all year and send them to the art directors at the magazines because they thrive for the best of the best.”
Choosing the Camera Over the Gun Most waterfowl photographers start out as duck hunters, choosing their gun over the camera. That begs one to question: how do these photographers put down their guns to choose their camera? For Fien, he has a passion for creating, “And I don't know if everyone is like that. When I was a kid, it wasn't unusual for me to shoot a couple ducks and be like, ‘Yeah, you know what, I'm over it,’ and I say this lightly because even on the slowest hunting days, I've found more satisfaction in capturing moments that are forever. While some people are walking out of the hunt saying, ‘we only shot a couple ducks,’ I'm walking out of the hunt, somewhat selfishly, saying, ‘I just captured a bunch of stuff that I'm super proud of that I can take home and put in a picture frame, and it is forever.’ A lot of the slow hunts, they kind of fade from existence and most people forget those, whereas I don't, and that's because the camera helps me make those moments permanent.”
"One last bit for beginners: Always shoot in a raw format, not a JPEG format. I say this so that you can control everything in the shot, the depth of the field, so it is what you created and envisioned.” (Photo courtesy of Matt Carey) Out of the three photographers, Kahnke is the only one who chooses his gun over the camera in most situations, which is where hunting seasons come into play. “Most of my photos come from late winter, which is after our season is done. I'm a duck hunter at heart more than I am a photographer. Every time my gun is in my hand, my camera gets to watch the show. However, I do sacrifice some birds for trying to get some photos of scenes or hunters, but in a hunting situation, I am almost always going to be hunting. I've tried to do the thing where I ask the group I’m hunting with, ‘hey, do you guys mind if I shoot a couple of these singles quick so I can shoot mine and get done,’ and it seems like every time I've ever tried that, it's never worked. I still can't get myself to choose the camera over the gun. Pulling the trigger, no matter how old I get, I still like that part of being out on duck hunts. I think part of the reason my photos are good is because I enjoy the hunting aspect of it enough and I have a good feel for what birds are going to do and how they're going to react. In addition to the lifestyle hunting scenes, I feel like I have a decent knack for it now because I know those moments that are important and are crucial for duck hunters. I think that's why my photos can resonate with people sometimes just because of the love for the hunting side of it as well.”
Martineau was a freak about going duck hunting and it was what he lived for until he started shooting with a camera. “Once I started photographing ducks, my gun never came out; it was like night and day. All my buddies ask, ‘dude, do you wanna go duck hunting?’ and my response is, ‘Yeah, I'll go, but I'm not bringing my gun. I'm bringing my camera.’ From my teens through my thirties, I hunted ducks all around the world in places I never expected myself to be, and I have shot just about every waterfowl in North America. With these exotic ducks, you know, I've already shot those birds with my gun. When I started shooting with the camera, that all went away. Nowadays, I'll go out and duck hunt with my buddies and while they're banging away, I'll be sitting right next to them with my camera.”
Parting Words As Martineau puts it so easily, the biggest thing for a beginner is this: How far do you want to go with it? Buy what you can afford and don't overdo yourself with it because it's expensive going places and photographing the birds. It's not right out your back door; you have to travel to get into the birds. At the end of the day, it's an art to capture that stuff and it takes a lot of the time. Enjoy the journey as you find your way telling stories through your camera lens.
