By now you've got the basics of any nature photographer. If you're like me you'll want to get both the landscape and wildlife photographers tools when you have enough money. When you're ready, you can proceed to the next step.

Step 4 - We need to fill in the gaps.

The most significant discrepancy you have regardless of whether you're following the landscape or wildlife photographer routes is getting a short to medium telephoto zoom. There are several thoughts you must consider here. Size and weight are a serious concerns. Another is whether you need Image Stabilization/Vibration Reduction technology or not. Considering lenses in the short to medium telephoto length are relatively small compared to longer telephotos, I think size and weight are less important than getting the fastest most feature rich lens available. This means a relatively fast and technologically advanced lens. In Nikon's case that's a 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S VR. The VR stands for Vibration Reduction which is similar to Canon's Image Stabilization. I like VR at this lens length because the lens is small enough to be routinely hand held causing the need for VR at slow shutter speeds to be needed more often. I don't think VR/IS needed as much for the 300mm f/4 lens we got in Step 3 since that lens is primarily a in-flight bird lens tool which means you have a fast enough shutter speed to defeat the need for VR/IS. Also, I like a wide f/2.8 aperture lens for two reasons. First, the aperture of the f/2.8 lens is exactly the same as all of Nikon's other f/2.8 lenses--77mm's. This means you need fewer filters or filter rings in the kit you take out into the field--less is good. Second and most importantly, the wide aperture allows you to shoot even longer in low light situations while maintaining higher shutter speeds thus improving your chances to getting a sharp image with moving subjects in minimal light conditions.

The next item in this step compliments the short to medium telephoto zoom mention above. It's a matched tele-converter. These increase the focal length while sacrificing the aperture of your lens. If we made our purchases correctly, this tele-converter will work correctly with your medium telephoto purchased earlier and the zoom in step 4. The important thing is getting a "matched" tele-converter verses a third party version that may have subtle optical differences that diminish optical quality. Generally buying the tele-converter made by the same maker of your longer lenses will give you the best quality--that's why their called "matched".

I suggest at least getting the 1.4x tele-converter which increases your lens' focal length by 40% while reducing its aperture by a stop--doubles your subject size while halving the light entering the camera. Remember, you don't get something for nothing in this business.

Now that you have a moderate selection of camera gear, you have to start worrying about how you'll carry it out in the field. As I noted before, there's so many camera bags to choose from this whole issue becomes quite muddy. I won't get into too much about the merits of one system over another but I will say you'll need either a moderately sized backpack style camera case, a dedicated photo vest like those with padded pockets, or a modular belt system like my Kinesis equipment. Obviously, I prefer the latter because it fits so well with my shooting style but all will fill meet the needs for carrying equipment out in the field.

Synopsis - Short to medium telephoto lens, 1.4x matched tele-converter, equipment carrying system...

So ends step 4.

Step 5 - Very special equipment.

Now we are in the world of specialized equipment. To adequately pursue your nature photography passion there are unfortunately very special equipment needs to be able to make some of those incredible images like frame filling head shots of in-flight bird. Or, the eye-balls of tiny frogs. The point here is by now you have a keen idea of which direction you want your photography to go and are now ready to get to the next level. I'll split this segment into three sections; macro, landscape, and long lens photography.

Macro - If you like shooting wildlife at very close ranges, working distance is probably your most important parameter. In that case, the longest close focusing lenses you can find are your best choices. In the Nikon world that means the venerable 200mm f/4 Micro-Nikkor. I instead went with the 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6 Micro-Nikkor because of its zoom capability. The shorter 60mm or 105mm macros are great lenses but have significantly less working distances and thus may be more difficult working with tiny little critters that you're trying to giant-size.

Landscape - You've probably figured out by now when working with a basic Arca style lens plate and attempting to make a vertical oriented image requires you to put tilt the plate of your ball head on its side making the whole apparatus a bit unstable. Instead of dealing with that Kirk Photo and Really Right Stuff make great L-brackets. These plates are actually two plates in one. There's one at the base of the camera and the other on the cameras side giving you the option when shooting vertically of simply removing your camera, rotating it 90 degrees and re-attaching the camera. The entire setup is much more stable since the cameras center of gravity is straight over the main part of your tripod.

Next, if you're like me you've discovered the beauty of panoramic photography. This is a world that believes there's more to life than a standard 35mm frame 1.5x aspect ratio. I personally like aspect ratios about 2.0, where the width of the image is twice the height. While you can easily make these aspect ratios by simply cropping a single image, with digital photography, it is now very easy to seamlessly stitch image files together in a panorama. There are a large number of technical details that have to be worked out to easily do this post processing. To simplify the problem a number of attachments designed specifically to integrate with your Arca style quick-release plate made by Really Right Stuff simplify this process significantly. You can also get specific pano heads at equivalent prices to the gear from Really Right Stuff. Personally I like RRS's equipment since it integrates so well with my ball head. But, if you need more refine your cameras positioning, the other guys equipment might suit you better.