ORLANDO, Fla. — “Please don’t change your pose right now,” implores photographer Dallas Gadberry to his subject, who for the moment is cooperating for the camera. But this isn’t a human subject he’s dealing with; rather, it’s a black vulture with its wings spread in the “horaltic pose” to warm its body in the sun.
This vulture is one of more than 120 bird species that Gadberry, a Florida native, has cataloged during his extensive travels throughout the state. In short social media episodes he started earlier this year, the wildlife photographer aims to capture around 330 “annually occurring” species of Florida’s avian residents.
Between Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, his 120,000 social media followers tune in regularly to see the latest installment of “Capturing All of Florida’s Birds.”
“I didn’t just want footage of them as an ID. I wanted them doing things — eating, hunting and their behaviors,” Gadberry, 32, said during a visit to Orlando Wetlands Park. “Ninety percent of the time, birds aren’t really doing much. It’s a test of your patience, which is what I’ve had to learn as I’ve been doing this series.”
The series began when the career photographer started to feel burnout from the busy schedule of freelance photography. Although his passion has always been photography, he needed a hobby that wasn’t associated with work and something he could just go out and do for himself, which ultimately led him to capturing wildlife and starting this series.
“I didn’t have to ask anybody or look for clients. It was just something, if I was feeling overwhelmed, that I could just go out and do,” he said. “That’s when I got kind of obsessed with this.”
The first episode, which came out in late December of last year, takes place at Circle B Bar Reserve, a wildlife hotspot near Gadberry’s home in Lakeland. Slow-motion video shows his first six subjects: a tricolored heron, common gallinules, an osprey, an anhinga, a blue-gray gnatcatcher and a palm warbler.
On his next visit, Gadberry got lucky and filmed a resting barred owl in his first few minutes, then a belted kingfisher, a purple gallinule and a little blue heron. All of these are captured using his Nikon Z8 and 100-400mm lens, usually set on a sturdy tripod with a fluid head.
Each video showcases Gadberry’s unique vlogging style, which includes a 360 camera mounted close to his face for an extreme angle that distorts his features and includes commentary as he searches for birds.
“A lot of people recognize me just by the 360 camera on my head,” he said. “First they’ll either see the headset on me or second, they’ll recognize me from my voice.”
In the Orlando area, the filmmaker visited Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive to see wading birds and gators, Orlando Wetlands Park — where he saw spoonbills, a green heron, a red-shouldered hawk and woodstorks — and Deltona’s Lyonia Preserve, where Gadberry dedicated an episode to the endemic Florida scrub-jay.
Episode 10, which focused on North America’s rarest heron, was the one that moved the needle for Gadberry’s growing social media presence. The video racked up 117,000 likes and more than 15,000 shares on Instagram.
“The reddish egret basically changed my life because that episode did so well,” he said. “Episode 10 was such a success. That bird basically changed my life. It made me feel like this is something that I could maybe do full-time in the future. It gave me that hope as well.”
In addition to his regular episodes of “Capturing All of Florida’s Birds,” Gadberry has started sharing occasional minute-long “Bird on the Street” videos that focus on a single bird. The first episode focused on burrowing owls in Cape Coral, while the second highlighted one of Gadberry’s favorite birds of prey, the snail kite.
“On average, it’s about 20 different shots that I need of a bird. I like them to be around a minute. That takes quite a bit of time,” he said. “How do you do a ‘Bird on the Street’ of a snail kite if you didn’t get it eating a snail?”
It takes a lot of time to support this passion project, with around 8 hours of editing required per video and countless hours of shooting. It also takes money to fund the travel, which comes from the full-time freelance career Gadberry maintains in addition to collecting bird footage.
“It’s fun, but it can also get expensive with gas. If it needs to be a multi-day, like going down to Fort Myers, I can’t drive up and down in one day, so I’ll do an Airbnb for a night,” he said. “I’m trying to be consistent with this challenge to keep content coming out, but at the same time, it does cost quite a bit of money. I’m not really monetizing. Social media platforms pay like breadcrumbs.”
Ultimately, he finds the effort worthwhile for the educational content he gets to share with his growing community of fans and birders.
“I started this because I love it. You have to be passionate about it, whatever you do, because you’ll get burnt out so quick trying to read into your metrics and trying to figure it all out,” Gadberry said. “The community has already grown to something that I never imagined. The only way to keep building the community is to keep educating, vlogging and being a personality. That’s what I want to do.”