Kevin J Railsback

Filming nature and wildlife is my passion. It's what winds me up and cools me down. While I read a lot of nature and wildlife blogs, I also like to read blogs about life. One of my favorite blogs I've been reading recently is Almost Sexy Mommy run by Trish, a truly remarkable woman. Anyway, she [...]

I'm always trying to be a better nature and wildlife filmmaker. Every day I try to get a little more insight into animal behavior, plant identification, weather, anything that helps me capture footage of the natural world. I also like to see what other filmmakers and photographers are doing. So I read a lot of [...]

It seems that whenever I use the word "never" as in "I'm never going to do that again", I end up eating my words. Although I AM proud of the fact that I said I would never stop at Wall Drug in South Dakota and I've honored those words for over than thirty years. So [...]

It's been a few years but I finally got up the gumption to enter a couple of my short films in the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival. If you know me, I'm not only my own worst critic but I hate promoting my own work and bringing any kind of attention upon myself. So, I quietly entered two [...]

Don't Play the If Only Game What camera should I buy? That's the number one question I get asked when it comes to nature and wildlife cinematography. The second most asked question I get asked is what camera do you use? While I'm humbled that other nature and wildlife cinematographers think highly enough about my [...]

I love filming nature and wildlife! I love sharing what I've discovered and filmed as well as sharing my workflow and beliefs. Some posts resonate more with people than others. I thought I'd post the five most popular posts since I started this blog. As I approach 100 posts it's easy for even popular posts [...]

Before I made the switch to digital video in 2005 I was a still photographer. My cameras weren't digital, they used film. For those of you that may have never used film let me give you an idea of the workflow. 35mm photography film came in small canisters, usually with enough unexposed film in them [...]

Yesterday, I talked about finding joy discovering the little things in nature and filming them. Today I'd like to talk about actually finding these little things. At first it may prove difficult or even impossible but with some practice you'll start discovering some amazing things to film. The Key to Discovering the Little Things There's [...]

Gilbert Chesterton said "One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak."Today as I was reviewing some footage I shot this past fall that quote really resonated with me not so much literally but from a mindset point of view.For so many years my mindset was that I had to go [...]

"Never let anyone come between you and your camera. That's my rule #1" Those were the words one of my good friends and fellow filmmaker messaged me when I told him that I hadn't picked up my camera in over a month over the end of a relationship. I had written a previous post about [...]