When I used to be starting out as a photographer, all of the professionals I knew lugged around lenses that cost five-figures that allowed them to take incredible close-ups. I couldn’t tackle debt and buying a lens longer than 100mm was not an option, so I needed to enter the photography scene through one other door. I continuously engineered ways of getting near animals without disturbing them using custom camera hides and low cost after-market devices like intervalometers and radio triggers, which cost one-one-hundredth the worth.
We all want the full-frame portrait of a bird so as to add to our archive. The compulsion to gather is universal. Fine, do it, but what I also discovered while nestling into my newly found area of interest was that, besides the frugal practicality, there was an elegance, beauty, and importance of landscape-scale imagery made in the 16mm to 85mm focal lengths. These images don’t all the time fill the frame with the protagonist, slightly they aim to inform stories about their habitat, in regards to the places that outline their behavior, and the environments that shape their character.
It can feel daunting, and will take rewiring your brain a bit. But additionally it is freeing to experiment with more complex images. They may not work out, but in the event that they do, they may reveal deeper truths about how that animal lives. Here are some easy suggestions that may help elevate your craft.
Don’t even bring a telephoto lens. Sometimes you must eliminate the temptation to let your creativity take the wheel. A very good practice to encourage creative composition and force recent vision is to take a set focal length lens with you whenever you photograph wildlife. Some of my favorite images have been made when limiting myself to the “nifty fifty” (50mm).
Think like a landscape photographer. Let the landscape share the load of the image. Seek to include a fascinating foreground, midground, and background, with the bird accentuating one among these realms.
Pay attention to composition. Before I trigger the shutter, I wish to ask myself: “Is this image distinct?” And if it’s not, “What can I do to make it new?” Usually, the reply to the latter is tied to a few things: behavior, composition, and lightweight. You can wait for hours or days for behavior and lightweight to enhance, but you may get immediate results by changing your composition. For example, physically get lower and permit the topic to seem larger in the frame, step to the side and utilize peripheral vegetation to border the bird, or let the animal go partially out of the frame. Sometimes using a tripod really helps to slow me down enough to pay close attention to the composition and the perimeters of the frame.
Minimize distractions. This is the hard part. The wider your angle of view, the more deliberate you will have to be to be sure that the whole lot else in the frame compliments the topic. When you zoom out, it becomes easier to introduce non-essential or distracting elements into your composition, resembling uneven lighting attributable to overexposed hot spots from the sun, other animals competing for attention, or obstructing branches. The easiest solution to avoid solar hot spots hitting waxy leaves or dappling the water is to plan to work in early or late afternoon light. Sometimes the background or other elements in the frame are too distracting and also you’ll either have to wait until they add to the scene or move to a recent vantage point to eliminate them.
Learn about your subject. Getting to know a species or specific individual’s habits, movements, and behavior can assist show the way it’s a meaningful a part of a landscape. You’ll turn out to be more deliberate about where and whenever you go photograph, and have the option to hunt down more precise locations or circumstances.
Let your backyard encourage you. Birds are all over the place, yet I even have seen only a few creative takes on more common species just like the Carolina Wren, American Crow, or Canada Goose. An image, irrespective of what it’s, becomes striking and exciting when a photographer takes the time and thought to indicate us something recent. It’s also easier to find out about your subject when you stick closer to home.
Set high goals. Be more ambitious and artistic with what you desire to achieve, and it can repay. While boating on a river in Florida, for example, I saw a cormorant sunning on a half-submerged log in clear water. The easy thing to do was to photograph it with a telephoto lens, but I have already got loads of those images. Instead, I grabbed my underwater housing, approached slowly while keeping a secure distance, and attempted an improbable photo to create something unique. If I had stayed on the boat with an extended lens, I’d have never discovered the potential of this scene.
Remember, the stuff you’ve seen and the ideas they encourage are uniquely yours; if acknowledged and employed, they manifest into the brushstrokes that distinguish your art.