My 2012/06 photo tip, Photograph Birds at Eye Level, covered getting down to the bird’s eye level for better photography. True enough, but often dismissed, so let’s re-visit. Not many photogs crawl on their belly in the mud. Yet dropping from a kneeling or sitting position to your elbows is huge. And, if you haven’t done it, the experience is breathtaking─you enter the bird’s world, and soon your fans will enter as well. The view down low isolates small critters like no other. Distractions disappear. As for the mud? Incidental.

The photograph of any animal can benefit from a chipmunk’s perspective. Get low, shoot at the animal’s eye level. Have a look at the 2017 Audubon Contest Top 100─bird’s eye level, again and again.

I recently watched a PBS documentary about Chinese immigrant Tyrus Wong. His art inspires with a magical simplicity. Wong once said, “If you can do a painting with five strokes instead of 10, you can make your painting sing.” Getting down in the mud is a subtractive exercise, removing distracting elements to show a subject clearly, show just the essence. Getting low takes full advantage of a long lens’s paper-thin depth-of-field. The animal’s eye and profile are rendered sharp; everything else near and far falls away. The subject pops.

An easy way to get low is to shoot from a kayak or canoe, because they move so effectively along subject-rich shores. But now you’re at best 18 inches off the water. This is ideal for a wing-flapping mallard or a hunting heron. It’s also ideal for birds on the shore like oystercatchers, plovers, curlews or stilt chicks. These birds are often a foot or so elevation off the water, raising their eye level to match your’s in a kayak. For most birds on the waterꟷRuddy Ducks, mergansers, grebes or ducklings of any sortꟷa better scheme may be to don hip-waders or a drysuit, wade into the water and shoot your biggest lens mounted as low as you dare on a water-immersed tripod. Many of us say no thanks to that idea: too risky for gear, your soaked tripod will need maintenanceꟷbut the results astonish. I look for a patch of beach to lie on for similar results, but if there is no beach, entering the water can be decisive.

The versatility of hip waders make them a good choice for a wet mud crawl. I sometimes wear a wetsuit, along with an old waterproof jacket to cover the arms and keep water off the wetsuit zipper. For damp environments, waterproof pants may suffice. Carry a sheet of plastic (visqueen) or a trash bag to lie on when you reach your shooting spot. It helps keep your hands clean, too, and your body drier.

Some photographers belly crawl with a ground pod, a commercially-available disc on which a camera lens is mounted. The disc slides across the sand or mud as you slink into position. I instead use a block of wood cut from a 4×4 post. It gives me just the right elevation with my 500mm f4 lens foot mounted directly on it.

A mud crawl should be option one for beach situations at high tide when shorebirds are resting. From a prone position, the technique is to push the gear out in front of you, and then lift up on your elbows and pull yourself forward (your abs will be screaming). To avoid flushing the birds, be sure to save some abs for a careful reverse mud crawl when you’re done.

At low tide, when shorebirds are actively feeding, walk slowly to a good spot, lie down on an (optional) plastic sheet and get ready. The shorebirds will soon be dashing about in front of you, at your side, maybe even behind you. Be wary of the incoming tide, though. If you’re not vigilant, a sneaker wave could trash your gear.

There are other get-low alternates to the belly crawl, like sitting down for larger beasts. I discovered this buck in velvet in a meadow along Obstruction Pt Rd, Olympic NP. I leaped out of the car, moved around him and sat down in the heather to raise his profile high against a Mt. Olympus backdrop. The low position also eliminated the road and other intermediate clutter.

In August, the long fall shorebird migration picks up steam at northern hemisphere beaches. The time is now to get down in the mud. Time now to experience the crawl. Your next great photo depends on it.

Gary