Photographing Wild Life
- Written by David Rees
‘Avoid filming children and animals,’ suggest the film-makers, maybe because they know just how many consuming hours it can take to obtain a reasonable animal picture. Firstly, let me say that I am an amateur and do not pretend to have any professional expertise or even professional equipment.
At heart, I am a naturalist and have learned a little about photography in order to capture the wonders of animal life.
Often the very process of photography enhances one’s admiration for a particular creature. I remember recently a friend, no naturalist by nature, remarking upon how incredibly beautiful and fascinating was a scorpion which I was photographing. It was only when he look down the lens and saw the scorpion in close-up that he appreciated the wonder of an animal that would normally have been crushed underfoot on sight. Therefore, I am sure that photographers can become keen naturalists and that naturalists can learn and profit from an understanding of photography. But where does one start?
Finding the subject
This is perhaps the most difficult part of all. A captured tree-frog is not difficult to photograph, but where does one find a tree-frog? I am fortunate to have naturalist friends who provide me with all sorts of finds. Children also are excellent finders – particularly for safe subjects like frogs, toads and salamanders. But I often travel round with a net, bucket and bags in the car just to be ready when something interesting crosses my path. I must admit that I have been bitten and stung by various animals but when a snake slides across one’s path, the keen photographer can hardly worry about gloves!
My equipment is simple and fairly inexpensive. A single-lens reflect camera (SLR) is essential so that one can change lenses and focus through the lens, not through a view-finder. I use a Praktica MTL 3 which is inexpensive but robust for field work. Added to this I use a standard 50 mm lens or a Tamron 80-210 mm zoom lens.
These two lenses, with a set of macro tubes (hollow tubes to act as pre-lens spaces) cover almost every eventuality. As a general purpose film I use Ektachrome 200 which usually allows me to film at a shutter speed of at least 1/250s, even when using the zoom lens with macro tubes.
Getting to work
I generally use natural light and try as often s possible to photography the subject in its natural surroundings rather than producing a ‘studio shot’. As a general rule, it is important to get to the same level as the subject. Photographs from above (apart from butterflies) can look lifeless, so try to get down to eye-to-eye level.
This at times produces a certain amount of frustration! A large Ocellated Lizard I was photographing attacked me each time I lay down. It has a ferocious bite and at one time grabbed my boot in its mouth and would not let go.
The point of most interest is the eye which should be one’s focusing target. Normally one needs as much depth 9f field as it possible, but one often has to compromise between shutter speed and depth. A speed of 1/250s to 1/500s at f8 or f16 suits most subjects.
One point to remember is that it can easily take six to ten shots to get one that is presentable. Animals just don’t pose very well and one has to hope that one shot caught the moment ‘just right’.
Small lizards can be photographed easily when they are tired. Chase them into an open area and keep them running until they stop. They will then sit quietly for a while as they catch their breath.
Snakes can be calmed down by putting them into the fridge for half an hour or so. Transport them to one’s ‘set’ in a cool box and take photos while the snake gradually becomes more animated as it wakens.
One can use the same cooling technique for butterflies. Go prepared with a cool box with ice and drape the butterfly within the net into the cool box for a few minutes before taking pictures. Even so, ‘cooled’ butterflies do not always look right, and a natural shot is always better. I usually approach the butterfly slowly and low down, with a zoom lens with medium macro set up, then I switch to a 50 mm with macro if the butterfly allows me close enough. In the autumn, butterflies sometimes become drowsy from feeding on rotten fruit and literally intoxicated from the fermented juice. Leave some rotting fruit on the ground to attract autumn butterflies, including the beautiful Two-tailed Pasha.
With frogs and toads it is better to venture out at night with a torch and bucket. Follow the sound, catch the frogs or toads, and photograph them in their habitat the following day in the sunshine. Always return the animals to the same place once they have been photographed.
The smaller the subject is, the more one needs some form of support. When I can place the subject, for example, an insect, where I want it, then I use a tripod. With it I can reduce the shutter sped to give greater depth of field. When photographing in the field, for example, butterflies, I often use a monopod as I can easily work in a tangle of brambles where an ordinary tripod would be unusable.
Birds and mammals are by far the hardest to photograph. To get close enough to birds, one often needs a hide, but one can start with garden birds by attracting them to a bird table. Sometimes one can be lucky and come across a juvenile bird that can only fly weakly and will pose sufficiently well for a photo.
Larger mammals sometimes exist as pets or else can be attracted into the right place with food. Still it can take days on end to find the animal’s whereabouts, set up a hide, bait the area and wait…and wait… A single species of butterfly can take all day to photograph. A mammal can easily take a week.
On the seashore, one has reasonably stationary subjects but also you have the problem of photography under water. It is perhaps better to find the subjects and then place them in shallow pools where enough light enters to allow them to be photographed.
Wildlife photography is, in the end, really a matter of getting out into the countryside and getting on with it. Like many hobbies, it is easy to start and one never stops learning.
By David Rees
