Kevin J Railsback

I have to admit, I was dreading this post just a little bit. I figured I could come up with a topic for every other letter in this A to Z Challenge but X was a stumper. Could I have done an Xtra Ordinary post and slide on by? Yeah probably but I wanted to [...]

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. Every time I hear those words sung by the late Louis Armstrong I can't help but think about how amazing nature is. As a nature and wildlife filmmaker, I am so fortunate that I get to document this wonderful world and share it with others. My [...]

There's a difference between composition and vision, that being composition can be taught, vision is just something you are born with. I know some people may argue that you can learn vision too. Maybe so, but I still believe it's something you either have or you don't and no amount of study, practice is going [...]

To be a better nature and wildlife filmmaker I think you need to understand four things. There of those things, subject, habitat and behavior are pretty easy to understand. If I'm trying to film grizzly bears, there is a lot of information on the Internet and in books that will help you understand them as [...]

When you film nature and wildlife, you are documenting a moment in time. Every frame that is recorded is a moment in the past. The thing I think a lot of filmmakers and photographers fail to see is that our work also captures our past as well. When I look at footage I've shot over [...]

Probably one of the most filmed events in nature are sunrises and sunsets. When the sky turns to fire, I don't know of too many people that could turn their back to it and not film it. The problem is that colorful sunrises and sunsets are hit and miss. Sometimes it looks like you may [...]

Respect is a big part of filming nature and wildlife. Respect for nature. Respect for the people that share information and their passion. Respect for yourself and your work. It seems that as technology advances, respect is harder and harder to come by. This is my take on it and let me know if you [...]

For toddlers, everything is new. No matter how well you explain something, they will almost always question, "why". There's no doubt in my mind that asking questions will make you a better filmmaker. The old standards of how, what, where and why should be used without hesitation on any project you work on. Questions can [...]

By it's very nature filming or photographing nature and wildlife is a solo endeavor. There can only be one eye looking through the viewfinder and oftentimes it's difficult enough for a single filmmaker to get close to wildlife. I don't know about you but when I have an idea in my head, there's no one else [...]

I've been working on a tallgrass prairie film for several years now. The deeper I get into filming the prairie, the more I discover. One thing I've wanted to convey all along is how fragmented the native tallgrass prairie has become in Iowa. Only 1/10th of one percent of native tallgrass prairie survives in Iowa. [...]