Kevin J Railsback

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. [...]

Nature. You can talk about it, you can read about it but you can only "get it" if you're in it. I need nature like I need to breathe. Every time I leave the day to day life behind and step out into nature it's like plugging a battery into a charger.  There's nothing that [...]

When I'm out in the field filming nature and wildlife, I'm usually the first and only one there and the beginning of the day and more often than not at the end of the day. I think I can count the number of times I've shared a sunrise with someone on the tallgrass prairie of [...]

Nature and wildlife filmmaking is a visual art, so when I'm out in the field I'm always looking for a subject and a great composition. When it comes to finding and filming wildlife, there's one thing I've noticed helps me more often than not and that's listening. Usually when I'm finished filming a subject, I [...]

There needs to be more kindness in the world when it comes to filming or photographing nature and wildlife. Well, there needs to be more kindness in the world period, but I'm not much of a people person so I don't witness kindness of the every day sort. The thing about kindness is that it [...]

July and August in the tallgrass prairie is the best time to film or photograph a diversity of flowering prairie plants. Specks of orange, red, purple, pink and white can be seen all over the tallgrass prairie, while the big bluestem towers over your head. Butterflies can be found across the prairie as they visit flower after flower. The prairie is also at its peak, with [...]

As a wildlife and nature filmmaker, you're always looking for locations and subjects to film. I know I spend a lot of time researching areas and trying to find out as much information as I can about them before I head out with camera in hand. You can find out a lot about a location [...]