How To:
Photograph Wildlife in the Desert

Tara Lemezis   Website

Author: Tara Lemezis  |  Published Date: April 14, 2025  |  Category: How-To   

This article was originally published in The Source Weekly on April 9, 2025.


A guide to thoughtful wildlife photography in eastern Oregon’s high desert.

Eastern Oregon’s high desert is a land of striking contrasts — sunbaked plateaus meet rugged rimrock, deep canyons surround rushing rivers and green meadows and marshes thrive next to miles of sagebrush. It’s a place of untamed beauty, where wildlife moves with the seasonal rhythms of the land. Capturing compelling images here requires more than just a camera; it demands patience, respect and an understanding of the environment and the creatures that call this place home.

Get to Know Your Subject and Plan Your Scene

Every species has a rhythm and pattern to its movements. Understanding behaviors is key to capturing more than just a snapshot — it’s how you tell a story. What do they eat? Where do they prefer to spend their time? Some species favor open habitats, while others cling to the rocky edges of rimrock or find shelter in grassy floodplains. Wetlands provide refuge for waterfowl, while sagebrush houses elusive species like greater sage-grouse and sage thrasher. Observing their habits — when they feed, where they sing, when they’re most active and how they interact with their surroundings — makes it more likely you’ll capture a unique and intimate moment.

Taking time to connect with the land and respect its wildlife often leads to rewarding encounters. The more you blend in, the more likely animals will continue their natural behaviors in your presence, offering you the chance to document something truly special.

Observe, Be Patient and Give Wildlife Space

Wildlife photography isn’t about chasing an image; it’s about waiting for the right moment. Move quietly, watch intently and let the scene unfold. Birds and animals will often come closer if they don’t feel threatened. The more you respect their space, the more comfortable they become in yours.

This is especially critical during breeding and nesting seasons when disturbing wildlife can have serious consequences. Ethical photography means prioritizing the well-being of the subject over the shot. A telephoto lens can help you capture incredible detail without intruding, ensuring that the moment remains as natural as possible. Generally, a 200-500mm lens is all you need.

watch

Helen Harbin on Wildlife

Helen Harbin on Wildlife

listen

Great Horned Owls and Western Screech Owls

Great Horned Owls and Western Screech Owls

success

Oregon’s first desert wilderness

Oregon’s first desert wilderness

Steens Mountain: Oregon’s first desert wilderness

On October 30, 2000, Congress passed the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act, finishing the work that had taken ONDA and the other members of the Steens-Alvord Coalition decades  

Steens Mountain is a land of startling contrasts: dramatic u-shaped

Read More

Cooper's hawk

Common nighthawk

Burrowing owl

Tara Lemezis   Website

Composition and Lighting are Everything

In a great wildlife photo, place is just as important as the subject. Including the landscape adds depth, context and emotion to your images. Stray from the “bird in a box” approach, where the subject is isolated against a blank background. Instead, let the land breathe life into your frame. Show the interplay between rock, sky and sage. Use leading lines and natural perches to create balance and interest.

Lighting can make or break a photo. The high desert has moods that shift throughout the day — soft pastels at dawn, crisp midday shadows and golden evening light that sets the land ablaze; shoot in all of them. Blue hour, just before sunrise or after sunset, and golden hour, just after sunrise and before sunset, are often a photographer’s sweet spot. Generally, midday light is considered too harsh to yield a pleasing photo, but sometimes, when the conditions are right, epic clouds in those big skies or an approaching storm can really bring the drama to your image!

Explore Year-Round

Each season unveils its own uniqueness. In autumn, Steens Mountain is awash in vibrant oranges and yellows as the aspen changes color. Winter brings a snowy stillness, waterfowl and large flocks of snow geese. Late spring is always an ideal time to explore, when migratory species like western tanager and Bullock’s oriole color the scenery. And the high desert in summer holds its own magic — burrowing owls are aplenty, common nighthawks loaf on fence posts until just after golden hour before performing their nightly aerial displays, wildflowers are showy and the way the lingering summer light fires up the entire landscape makes for vivid and remarkable images.

Wildlife photography in eastern Oregon’s high desert is as much about connection as it is about skill. Respect the land, learn its rhythms and let the wild come to you. Your patience will be rewarded with photographs that tell the story of this truly extraordinary place.

Looking to share the stories you capture behind your lens? Each year, Oregon Natural Desert Association’s Wild Desert Calendar features a dozen inspiring landscape and wildlife shots showcasing the beauty of the high desert through the seasons. Consider submitting photos for a chance to see your own image in the calendar and to support Oregon high desert conservation. The submission period for the 2026 calendar is now open through Friday, June 6.

 


photographer

About the Author

Tara Lemezis (she/her) is a wildlife photographer based in Portland. She’s been photographing birds (and mammals, wildflowers and amphibians and reptiles) and kicking up dust in Oregon’s high desert since 2013. She’s drawn to this ecoregion for many reasons: the geologic wonder that is Steens Mountain, the seemingly endless sagebrush steppe, the Alvord Desert playa, stargazing into the darkest night skies you’ve ever seen, solitude, and the swaths of protected and public land along the Pacific Flyway, where over 320 bird species spend some part of their life cycle.

Check Out Tara's Work