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Wildlife and Adventure Photography
Composition in the Wild E1/4: Great Wildlife Photography begins at home
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Foreign. People think that wildlife photography starts when you're on safari in Africa, in India, in Australia, wherever it might be, you're in a national park. The truth is, though, good wildlife photography starts at home. And that is the purpose of this short series of podcasts. There are four in all where we're going to take the principles that I covered in the previous mini series looking at composition, and we're going to apply those to real world situations. And the key one of these, because wildlife photography is the main genre that I work in and that this podcast is about, we're going to start looking at how you apply that in practice to wildlife photography. So if you look at social media or maybe magazines these days, perhaps not so much, but definitely wildlife photographers websites, that kind of thing, you see some amazing photographs, but it can make things seem very distant. And you might wonder, how on earth do you get that kind of shot? Well, yep, there are definitely situations that help you if you're able to spend a long time out there, that kind of thing. But the fact is, when you go on a safari, you might be limited, you might have a couple of weeks, you might only be out for certain times of day. And so in that situation, I would argue it's actually more important that you really understand your camera and you understand the lighting and you understand the behaviors or what to expect from the principal wildlife that you plan to be photographing. So this is the key point about this particular podcast. I have spoken about this before and it's simply that we all have access to wildlife in our day to day situation, regardless of where we live. And often we don't think of it that way, but in fact that's exactly what it is. And I think for a lot of people, wildlife only becomes wildlife when there's some are exotic, whereas in fact we have it all around. So even if you live in a city, we have birds, okay? Birds sort of do what they like pretty much. And that to me is a reasonable definition of wildlife in itself. If you're more country based, then the chances are you've got access to land animals, maybe foxes or possums or whatever it might be. And if you don't have access to wild animals, you either will have a pet yourself or the chances are you know somebody who has a pet. So there again we have another potential subject for you to practice on. So this is the first point I want to get across that it is really important that you practice photographing wildlife before you go on this trip, on this safari, whatever it is. But the Thing that a lot of people miss is that you have subjects all around you anyway, and this is the time to really get stuck in. So what do we do? How do. How do we apply this practically? And that is also what I want to give you in this particular podcast. So here are some ideas for you. Where to find wildlife. I've already suggested some. So birds in your back garden, if you've got a garden or a great subject. And I'll explain why. It might be ducks at a local pond. It could be bees, if you're lucky enough to see bees these days. It could be seagulls. It could be your dog just doing its thing. The point about this is that these are opportunities for you to start applying the observation skills that are absolutely fundamental to good wildlife photography. And it's really easy to undervalue these opportunities, but they really are valuable. And I thoroughly recommend that you do what you can to get the most from them. So the kind of things that you might be looking at, the first thing I would say is the very first thing to do is just slow down. Okay? Just stop, pause, take a look around. And that might involve looking at a particular bird that always lands on the same branch. What's going on there? What are the clues about why that bird does that? You could be looking at a duck that just shakes off water in the same way after diving, or any seabird. Cormorants are brilliant here in Australia, and I remember spending a couple of hours photographing cormorants off the harbor once. It could be insects that keep coming back to the same flower, or smaller birds. So when I was living in France with small birds, we'd often get at certain flowers, they'd attract certain birds, and it was sometimes a bit of a challenge to get good photographs of them. But again, these are opportunities where we can hone the skills that really separate average wildlife photographs from the good ones. So the other reason that shooting at home is so important is that it takes the pressure off, because when you're away, there's a real pressure to get it right all the time, because that situation might be fleeting, and if you miss, could well have gone for the whole trip. That could be it. And that's definitely something to be aware of. So when you're practicing at home, you really want to be in a situation where if you miss something, you can go back the following day and have another go, or even later the same day and have another go. And this is really, really important, because the best way to learn is to have some pressure on you, but not a massive amount. You really want to. If you're going to have a lot of pressure on you, you really need to know what you're doing. So you get out of thinking that you need to get something good, or this is your only chance, or you can't miss the moment. And once you take that pressure off, and I've already said slow down and start observing, it means you can even spend a few days, if it's a few days, just observing what's going on, maybe taking a few shots, but making the purpose of those days to just observe and start to work out what the kind of shots are that you would like to take and just watch a behavior. You know what, it might be a bird in flight, for example, it might be a bird doing something, it might be a bird catching a fish, for example, or. Or diving or whatever it might be. So when you. Once you stop and start looking at what's available, you'll find that there are. There's quite a variety of different shots that you can get, but you get to understand the variety and if you like what that smorgasbord of potential shots is by first of all, stopping and looking. Now, again, in a safari situation, you won't have quite the same opportunity, but you will be ready to go when an opportunity presents itself. And I talk a lot about preparation. I'll talk about that more in the next episode. But this is also really important. But the skills that you're developing here really help you in your preparation when you're getting ready to go and photograph something in, let's call it the wild, but the wild that you have to travel to. So again, just, I guess to recap the key points here, you can revisit the same subjects, the same locations, and of course, by doing that, it gives you some other options. And one of the most important things to understand is lighting. So if you are going back to the same place, start looking at the lighting at different times of day. How does the. Wherever the sun is for you as it moves around in the sky and the lighting changes? How do you need to handle that? What are the kind of compensations you need to put in? Do you need to rethink the kind of photograph you're taking? Is there an opportunity for, rather than an action shot, something that's a bit more atmospheric? Also different weather conditions? This is another really good one because when you go somewhere and you're only there for a few days, you might have, you know, in the. The holiday brochure or whatever it was. It might look amazing. Bright sunshine or whatever. And then you get there and it's cloudy and misty. And that's. That's not quite what was on the. In the brochure when you. When you ordered the trip, however you're there, you need to make the most of it. So again, if you understand lighting and understand how to get the most from a lighting situation with your gear, then it means that although you're. It's quite natural to be disappointed if you end up in that kind of a situation. But you know what to do, you can still work something out of it. And sometimes in those situations, we end up getting shots that we hadn't imagined before we went. But we really love them. We just fall in love with them because they are so different. They're not the stock brochure shots that everybody else is trying to get. You're getting something that is perhaps more atmospheric and has a deeper meaning for you. So that's one. And I would say this is a really important aspect of shooting at home because you can keep going back to the same location and experimenting with different weather conditions, different times of day, and looking at the kind of results that you can produce. Another thing you can do with animals at different times today is to, again, really observe the behavior and start predicting. Is there a change in behavior at different times of day? Because certainly when you get to wildlife, some wildlife anyway, there definitely will be. So, for example, a lot of predators. And here I'm thinking more cats. In Africa, they tend to be more active at golden hour, times the sunset, sunrise also at night. But during the middle of the day, when you've got very harsh flat lighting, often they're having a. They're asleep under a tree. Now, that might be a nice shot for you, but it's. It's not the ideal condition. You've got very flat lighting. So again, if you've been able to practice, you may still be able to produce something useful from that. So diving into this a little bit more, in a little bit more detail, I should say I want to talk a bit more about what specifically to start practicing. So we've spoken about times of day, different weather conditions. In the composition arc. I was talking about shooting, just changing position, changing the putting, turning your camera through 90 degrees, switching from landscape to portrait format or the other way around. So experiment with those aspects of composition as well, because they may well give you different ideas. But when it comes to putting the shot together. And here I'm thinking a bit more into the visual storyteller. Frame of mind that I talk about a lot. The first thing is to look at is backgrounds. Make sure they're clean because this is one of the biggest improvements you can make. Instead of just focusing on, let's say you're photographing birds as a practice, rather than just concentrating on the bird, which you'll obviously need to do, look behind the bird. What's in the background? Is there clutter? Are there distractions? Is it tree branches? Is it buildings? What's going on there? And then what can you do to handle that background? So one thing is to wait until the bird is clear of the background, but that might not be what you want. Another thing is to get really good with depth of field so that you push the background out of focus. So. And maybe even blur it. So if your photo, if a bird is gliding, you can experiment with longer shutter speeds, as in hundredths of a second rather than thousandths of a second. So rather than freezing the bird motion, the bird's motion in the air, allow some movement to come in. So if the bird is pretty much holding the same position, and if you're shooting at, let's say, 1, 125th of a second, if you're shooting in that slightly slower range, it gives you an opportunity to blur the background, which is brilliant because not only does it get rid of any distractions that might be in the background, but also you get that sense of movement. So you've got immediately a much more dynamic photograph. The other things to do if you're photographing birds is to practice just repositioning. Is there a better angle you can shoot from? You can move around, try different things. Another option is to wait for better light. So again, this is. It reinforces that skill of understanding how to handle different lighting situations. So again, if you're on safari somewhere, you may not be able to do much about the light that's there. Or wait for later in the day. You may be able to, you may not. Depends. Often it depends on luck and how the weather goes. But you want to come away with something to do. Experiment with different conditions. Now, diving into light a little bit more, ask about, or ask yourself, is this the best lighting available? So, for example, soft light tends to reveal textures, side light gives you shapes, and backlight creates atmosphere. So again, if you can experiment with all of those. So that might involve just changing your position so that you change how the lighting hits your subject relative to your position. It allows you to experience directly by doing the photography how those different angle, excuse me, how these different Light angles work. And again, that puts you in a much stronger position when it comes to dealing with whatever light situation you're dealing with. Again, you can return at different times and just look at how the lighting has changed on maybe the same subject. The other thing to do is to really watch behavior patterns. Now this, this is a really important thing when you're photographing wildlife. I mean, you kind of. Obviously you have to shoot what's there, but if you do understand a little bit more about behaviors, you'll know that you're more likely to see certain behaviors under certain conditions, which might be time of day, it might be certain temperatures, certain weather conditions, whatever it might be. So getting in the habit of looking at things like feeding rhythms, preening patterns, movement cycles, how different animals interact, that can prime you before you go and shoot in a, in a wildlife situation. So what's the best, what are the best things you can do? First thing is to slow down. So I've already suggested doing that, but it really is very important because instead of trying to just photograph everything and go kind of crazy, pick one subject and stay with it, just observe what it does. Wait, Take photographs. The reason, the key reason for slowing down is that it reduces overwhelm and increases awareness and that those two together will make photography much more enjoyable. And, you know, at the end of it, we want to enjoy what we're doing, want to enjoy the whole experience, whether we're practicing at home or we're away somewhere. So the best thing to do is simply to photograph with the wildlife that you have available, whatever that is. I've already given you some suggestions there. Hopefully you've got. Once you stop and think about it, you might find you've got more variety and more types of wildlife than you originally thought about. Do a Google on where you live. Ask about the kind of wildlife that you may see. Some of it might not be around during the day, obviously, and if you do live in a town, people around cars or that kind of thing. So that isn't the ideal situation for wildlife. But you never know what you can see. But really do a bit, do a bit of research locally, and if you find an animal, do a bit of research on the kind of behaviors you might be able to see, because this is all good practice for when you go again overseas or wherever you're going, because this is exactly the kind of thing I do as part of my preparation. So I'm going to suggest that you target certain things. So if you're photographing a bird, the birds are really Good, because not only do they get you thinking and reacting fairly quickly, but also thinking about shutter speed, movement, all that kind of thing. You also get very good at using your autofocus and getting that set up correctly because you do need to have that, that really working for you. And when you're on safari, again, it's not the time to do it. So over, over the next, let's say couple of weeks, see if you can capture one clean bird portrait. So by that I mean really get a clear head and shoulder kind of shot of a bird and try a few. And if you can get different angles, just I always try and get the, the light to go or go on the eye. Animals don't often, or they're not keen on doing that because it sort of degrades their vision. And a lot of animals need to pay attention because that's a good way of not getting eaten, for one thing. Another thing to look for is a wing flap. So think about when a bird is flapping its wings to get off, get into the air to get off a branch or wherever else it stopped. So set yourself that challenge as a shot to get and see if you can set up a well lit image at a local area where you get wildlife. So it might be a pond, could be ducks or something else, you know what you have around, or you can do the research, see what you have around and just set up, set up a shot that gives context for the animals that you are photographing. The reason for doing this and doing it over time is it does help you to just increase your confidence when it comes to taking photographs generally, but also more specifically where you have to react pretty fast to what's going on. And also when you do get out to wherever you're going, you'll feel a lot more relaxed about the shot because you're much better prepared. You've got photographic evidence that you can get the kind of shots that you're hoping to get when you go away. And if you do them frequently enough, you'll be, you'll know what sort of settings you need, you'll know how to make the best of the gear you have. And all of this stuff makes a massive difference when it comes to photographing on safari. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by the whole situation, because it can feel overwhelming, particularly if you've never done it before. Suddenly you are there in the bush looking at animals that you've only ever seen on television or in a zoo, and now you're supposed to be photographing them and things as I've said can happen pretty fast. So if you can get the skill set down to get the most from your camera before you go, that makes a massive difference. So in terms of the skill set you're building, there are really five things that doing these local shoots and experimenting locally will give you. The first is more, it's much better technical control. You'll feel more confident your technical understanding of your gear will be much, much better, particularly in different situations. You'll start really refining your, refining your observational skills. And if you remember with the Composition series of podcasts, that was the very first one. Before you do anything else, you really need to have good observational skills. The better your observational skills, the better the photographs you can come out with ultimately because you, you're going to be seeing things that other people won't see and that you're then able to photograph them. Patience is a really important skill to master as well. Just take a breath, pause and think about what you're doing. Field awareness is another name for just being aware of what animals are doing, the kind of the clues that they're about to do something. So for example, a bird is about to take off. What does it do? Does it kind of squat slightly before it leaves the branch? Or are there other clues, other tells in its behavior that let you know because you've studied the behavior that something is about to happen that's worth taking a photograph of and it just develops your self trust, it develops your confidence. So I've already suggested a photo or some photographs you can take. So I'm going to suggest an exercise for you and this is simply to choose one small area near where you live and commit to photographing it three times over the next two weeks. So what you're looking at, it's the same location but you, what you want to be looking at is different lighting situations, different days. And what you're looking for is just to really be aware of what changes, what stays the same. That's just as important. And in doing that exercise, what can you begin to anticipate? So I'm not going to give you any answers to that. This is a little journey for you to take and for you to see where it takes you. You're welcome to join the Graham Elliott Photography Group on Facebook and share your images there. You're always welcome to do that and you've got my details anyway on the podcast, but you can email me at Graham Photography, that's the website, so say my email address www.ge.com is the website. So just to conclude this first episode in this again short series. And the thing I will say is that I'm planning a more in depth training program specifically for wildlife photography that will be happening a little bit later in the year, but I will, if you, if you sign up and join my mailing list, I will let you know when it's happening. So the key thing I want you to take away from this is to recognize that when you see these amazing shots that were taken in Africa or wherever, India, usa, Canada, anywhere, you know, South America, anywhere where there's wildlife and you get these amazing pictures because there are some really good photographers out there. The thing you have to remember is, for a start, most really good photographers didn't start out that way. They've had to learn and they probably made loads of mistakes. And there's a, you know, a cupboard full of horrible photographs that they won't show anybody. But they're very valuable because they, they taught lessons. The other thing is that they have put in hours, thousands of hours of practice to get some of these amazing shots. Now, I'm not suggesting you need to do thousands of hours of practice to get really good photographs, but the more practice you do, the better. There is an element of luck as well, particularly in wildlife photography. But the more you practice, the more you make your own luck. And in other words, the more you practice, the more ready you are to just grab that shot when it presents itself. And again, you never quite know when that's going to happen. All right, so I hope you've found that useful. Next time I'm going to talk about what happens when you decide to head out on a journey specifically for wildlife photography. So the kind of things to be thinking about. But this skill set is an absolutely vital, I think, cornerstone of successful wildlife photography. So I hope you found that useful. Please give me a like and subscribe or even contribute to. You can donate to the podcast. That's great because it helps me keep this all going. And whatever you do, good luck with your photography and I will speak to you next time. The next podcast comes out on Friday and I'll speak to you then. Bye for now. Just before I go, I have a couple of things coming up. So on the 26th of March, that's Thursday, I'm running a one hour introduction to wildlife photography and that'll be a mini workshop. If you can't make the live event, there will be a recording. So you're very welcome to join me on the 26th and then on the 13th of April, I'm running the first module release of a six week course which is about composition. It's called Seeing Differently. So that will be one lesson per week dropped on the Monday. That includes some live sessions as well. So there are details on the website and you'll find the link below. If you don't have the link, just go to www.ge.photography and have a look at the Improve your photography tab. So thanks for listening. Please remember to like and subscribe and I'll speak to you next time. Bye for now.