Kevin J Railsback

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 [...]

Nature and wildlife are in trouble. Every day more habitat is destroyed and more species become extinct.  The trend has been accelerating faster than most scientists had predicted. As nature and wildlife filmmakers, we probably see it more than anyone else. Fields where I use to watch pheasant and deer walk through have been turned [...]

I've written in previous posts about determination and effort. It's important to have both if you're serious about being a nature and wildlife cinematographer.  But if you throw greed into the mix, you tend to be out in nature for the wrong reasons. The greed I'm talking about is the "I'm getting mine" attitude I hear about [...]

Filming nature and wildlife takes a lot of practice, patience and persistence. It takes a lot of effort and determination to get the shots that you want. One aspect of shooting nature and wildlife video that we should make sure we never overlook is having fun doing it. If you're trying to make a living [...]

As much as I'd love to sit back in the recliner, watch TV and munch on a pizza every day that doesn't result in much footage. Getting up well before sunrise to pack gear, grab something to eat, drive to a location, hike in to a good spot and set up the camera takes effort. [...]