Wildlife Photographer of the Year

I can picture the scene. In the past month thousands of devoted followers will have been frantically googling my blog in search of new and juicy topical articles on the wildlife photography issues of the day, only to be disappointed, trying again a few hours later.

Time to roll out the excuses, fully aware of sounding a little too much like a racing driver. My last post was on the 29th of November, with my term ending on the 11th of December, complete with a flurry of deadlines. This rendered me a little to busy to dwell in the blogosphere

Between the 11th and 24th I was in the States; a trip which included a two day road trip around the beautiful Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Although it was not really the right season to visit, the scenery was stunning, and (some of) the wildlife was out in force.

After arriving back late on Christmas Eve I discovered myself to be not quite as dedicated a blogger as Niall Benvie, so did not publish a Christmas day post before shooting up north for a whirlwind tour of the family. Excuses over and back to the matter in hand.

Those of you following photography forums and other blogs will be aware of a whirlwind of controversy blowing up around this years winner of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition... again!

The earlier controversy related to Jose Luis Rodriguez's use of a camera trap to take the photograph, a matter I discussed in an earlier post

In this post I stated that I believe "the primary duty of the photographer is to inspire and inform members of the public by showing them images of animals and behaviours they would not normally see". Camera traps allow photographers to do this in a non-intrusive way and my opinion is that if a photographer uses significant field craft and technical ability to produce such an outstanding pre-envisaged camera-trap image, then presenting them with a wildlife photography award is justified.

This commentary was aimed largely at Jose Luis Rodriguez's image of a leaping wolf. At the time, all evidence suggested that this was a pre-envisaged image of a wild wolf that had been baited over the course of many weeks such that it would enter a field by leaping over a gate, triggering a waiting camera trap. This would be a huge technical achievement and is certainly is the story Jose has been telling at events such as WildPhotos. If this is the case then I think Jose definitely deserves the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

However, evidence collected by a group of Spanish photographers, and published in a Finnish photography magazine, suggests that the photograph was taken of a tame, and possibly even trained, wolf in a wildlife park.

This has in no way been confirmed, and neither the competition nor the photographer have released official statements. However, I feel I can still comment on the ethics of this were it the case.

In my earlier post I mentioned that to educate, inspire, and inform members of the public with images of wildlife they would not normally see, a photographer needs to be honest and trusted. This is because many wildlife photographs and wildlife spectacles seem, at first glance, to be simply unbelievable.

If I saw a photograph, and was inspired because it showed an unbelievable spectacle in an unbelievable way, only to find out later that the photograph was unbelievable not because of the spectacle itself nor the techniques used to capture it, but because the spectacle does not exist, or because undeclared pre or post capture techniques were used, I would feel cheated. I am sure the same is true of most other people.

If it turns out that Jose Luis Rodriguez's image does not show a wild wolf displaying unusual behaviour in a new unusual way, then I will feel cheated. This is probably a lot less strong a feeling as would be felt by those who were pipped to the post in the competition by an image of a captive animal that was not declared.

I have nothing against photographers taking images of captive animals assuming it is done with the animal's welfare as a foremost concern and it is immediately obvious that the subject is captive. If the image turns out to be of a trained wolf it is still an unbelievable technical achievement and a stunning image.

The problem is that to fail to present a captive animal's photograph as such is highly misleading to the point of lying, not to mention that in this case £10,000 of prize money is at stake so it would amount to fraud.

I sincerely hope that the image is proven to be of a wild wolf, for the photographer sake, the sake of the competition, and of wildlife photography as a whole. If this is not the case, then the trust of all wildlife photographers will surely take a hit.

The rules of the 2010 competition have been altered in a way relevant to this post. The competition no longer accepts images of captive animals. No reason for this has been given, so it is up to us to judge whether this is a reflex action to this controversy or not. This has been discussed in more detail in this post by Paul Harcourt Davies.

Seal Silhouettes

There is a running joke amongst my course mates on Nottingham University's MSc in Biological Photography and Imaging, that I am perhaps a little too fond of silhouettes.

I do love shooting silhouettes, but why would you not?!? Almost all of the most striking wildlife photographs are simple compositions, have simple colour schemes, and reduce wildlife spectacles down to their core elements.

Typically, when shooting with the light, this involves using a wide aperture to blur foreground and background details, or recomposing until as little unwanted detail as possible is visible. This differs from landscape photography, where the aim is often to show all of the landscape, from foreground to background, in exquisite detail.

Of course, there are exceptions to both of these rules. If there were not, photography would not be an art (que debate)!

Silhouettes automatically reduce the complexity of an image down to the foreground (the silhouette) and background (whatever it is silhouetted against). The lack of texture automatically reduces the subject to its purest form, and the comparison with the background automatically shows the subject in perspective.

There are practical reasons, as well as artistic reasons, for shooting silhouettes. You do not need the subject itself to be lit. In fact it is often better if it isn't, and is as tonally different from the background as possible.

So what is my technique for shooting silhouettes? They are actually one of the simplest forms of wildlife photograph to take, involving three different steps:

1) Position yourself so your subject is against a bright background. This is often the hardest part of the task as the background is usually the sky, so you need to position yourself as low as possible in order to shoot up at the subject. Hills and ridges are useful for this, but I have often found myself in ditches and even golf course bunkers!

2) Meter on the background. This means it is possible to shoot silhouettes when other forms of photography simply are not possible. For example, just after sunset the sky is often still bright, but the land is not illuminated enough for telephoto photography. Shooting with the light is not possible but shooting into it is.

3) Focus on the edge of the subject. For other types of wildlife photography, it is usually best to focus on the eye of the subject. However, in silhouettes these will disappear into the blackness the silhouette. All that matters is that the edge of the subject is in focus.

As an example, I have decided to discuss this technique in the context of the seals at Donna Nook.

The technique described above still applies, but there are one or two minor ways it has to be altered to suit Donna Nook. Firstly, there are only two bright backgrounds available at Donna Nook; the sea and the sky. Shooting against the sky involves getting as low as possible to the sand, usually by lying down.

To silhouette seals against the sea, you may need to stand up. Normally, there is no way I would condone standing near seals. However, if the seals are in the sea, their own environment, they feel they can escape at any time so are much more relaxed. Often they inquisitively swim closer and closer to investigate people on the shoreline.

So where do you focus on a seal to get the best silhouettes? The edge of a seal is fuzzy, so focus on the edge of the seal is not 100% critical, although it is of course advisable to get it as sharp as possible. There are two parts of seals which simply have to be in focus; the whiskers and the teeth. Both of these have defined edges, so it will be immediately obvious if they are not in focus.

There is a little caveat to trying to get a seals teeth in focus. Usually if a seal close to you has its mouth open, this is a threat display and it is time to get the hell out of dodge for your sake and the seals. However, if the seals are fighting or warning each other whist ignoring you, then you are justified in snapping away.

With this in mind you should be ready to start shooting seal silhouettes, perhaps even grabbing some more challenging silhouettes than portraits!

Fun at the Shore

This weekend Sam Waldron, Lee Webb, and I were lying down by the shore photographing Grey Seals frolicking in the surf zone. Much to our surprise, the area's small flock of Sanderlings seemed either oblivious to, or unconcerned by, our presence.

Sanderlings are small waders roughly the size of plump blackbirds that constantly patrol the shoreline looking for tidbits left by waves. This is amusing to watch as they engage in a never-ending cycle of chasing the tail of a retreating wave, only to be forced back by the next breaker.

I would recommend a telephoto lens of at least 300mm for photographing Sanderlings. Although they are very sociable birds, they are also rather small. I was only just able to get full frame images using a Nikon 80-400mm lens on a crop sensor camera.

Key to photographing almost any animal is to get down to its eyeline. In the case of Sanderlings, this involves lying down at the edge of the sea and being prepared to occasionally be swamped by rogue waves whilst protecting your camera gear at all costs.

To support my camera gear at this level I used a three-way tripod head attached to a frying pan. This not only provides support but allows the camera to be pushed almost effortlessly across the sand.

Photographing Sanderlings is quite challenging due to their frenetic movements. When they do stop moving, they usually do so for less than half a second so you have to be ready to take the shot immediately.

This involves placing a focus point on the head of the bird, continually focusing as they scamper about, and releasing the shutter immediately as the bird stops.

I used an aperture of F8 to give me a little bit of leeway in terms of focus, and an ISO of 400 to allow me to get shutter speeds between 1/320th and 1/640th capable of stopping Sanderling's movement... most of the time!

I photographed the Sanderlings roughly an hour before sunset so the light conditions were fairly challenging. The birds were lit by warm winter sunlight but the background was a deep shaded blue. To overcome these problems I used the technique of underexposing the shots by a stop or so described here.

An additional problem was the directionality of the lighting on the birds. As they ran towards the waves their face was shaded preventing their eyes from being lit by catchlights. I had to wait for the birds to face the sun, usually while retreating from oncoming waves, to get a nice catchlight.

Edit: I have just found two posts by Andrew Parkinson, one on photographing Sanderling at Donna Nook, and one on photographing seals in waves in relation to originality at frequently visited sites.

The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

As promised in my last post, here is the first in a series of articles about the types of light I encountered at Donna Nook last weekend.

This article is about shooting well lit subjects in front of a background of a contrasting, usually blue, tone.

In photography we encounter three types of contrast. The first of these is where two or more subjects in an image contrast with each other. For example a steam train in front of a gleaming skyscraper-adorned cityscape would be a perfect example of contrasting subject types.

The second type of contrast is contrast between bright and dark areas of a subject. A perfect example of this is a silhouette where the tones of the foreground are so much darker than those of the background that no detail is preserved except the subject's outline.

The type of contrast important to this article is colour contrast. Warm colours such as reds and yellows contrast with cooler colours such as blues and purples, even if they are of the same luminosity.

A perfect example of this is when a subject is lit by the first warm light rays of the day against a blue sky background. Here is an example of this from Saturday morning.

The matrix metering systems in most cameras normally copes admirably with situations such as this. However, I prefer to underexpose all of my shots a little to prevent colour information being lost in the highlights and to produce a more vibrant image. This is particularly important when your aim is to showcase natural colour contrast.

In this case I used Aperture priority and underexposed by two thirds of a stop, resulting in an exposure of 1/250th of a second at F11 at ISO 400.

In some cases, colour contrast can be even more severe than in the case above. An example of this is when a storm cloud moves behind a brightly lit subject. This weekend at Donna Nook, not only did this occur but a triple rainbow formed behind the seal I was photographing.

I shot this photograph using my usual tactic of underexposing by two thirds of a stop. However, because the scene was significantly darker than the previous scene, this was not quite enough to accurately render the image.

Luckily, the highlights in this image were not clipped colour so I was able to decrease the exposure of this image by roughly half a stop without losing too much information. Despite the fact that this image turned out well, I have learned my lesson and will underexpose similar scenes more markedly in the future.

A Great Weekend at Donna Nook

I am afraid once again the promised Wollaton Park and Bradgate Park articles are going to have to wait. After a weekend with Sam Waldron and Lee Webb at Donna Nook my poor little mind is bursting with thoughts and tips just waiting to explode onto the page. As I am pretty tired after the weekends travel and photography I am just going to give you a sneak peak of what should be appearing in this (hopefully watched) space over the next few days.

I have visited Donna Nook three weekends over the last two years resulting in images like the two above. Although the seals have always behaved themselves, practicing perfect poses in front of my lens, the weather has ranged from "ten foot visibility fog" to "slightly overcast", never reaching the heady heights of "low-angle winter sunshine".

Not only was this the case this weekend, but the light somehow managed to be perfect in every direction in a way I never thought possible. Saturday was a full day of winter sunshine, and during Sunday morning I had a beautiful sunrise behind me, pink fluffy cumulus clouds to my left, spotless blue sky to my right, and a huge stormcloud flanked by a triple rainbow ahead of me.

With stunning light hitting my retinas from all angles, I tried my best to document as much as this as I could through my sensor. I will share how I attempted to deal with the different light types in the next few posts. In the meantime here a few images so you can judge whether I failed or succeeded.

Although they are approachable, photogenic, and extremely cute, Donna Nook is not only about the seals. The area's most approachable wader is the Sanderling. Photographing these birds is quite a challenge as they never stop for a second, constantly feeding to keep their plump physique. An article on Sanderling photography can be found here.

Unfortunately, I am afraid I am going to have to add another less upbeat article. The Grey Seals at Donna Nook are wild animals and deserve the respect due of any wild animal. I will be adding an article on how best to approach the seals to cause minimum disturbance as it appears not all photographers are doing so.

I seem to have promised a lot of articles here, but before getting around to writing them I really must get some sleep.

Until I blog again!

Camera Trap Ethics

I know I promised my next article would be a location report on Donna Nook, Bradgate Park, or Wollaton Park, but I got a little sidetracked by Andy Rouse's blog.

Andy has been asked to write a column in a photography magazine on whether camera traps are "cheating" following the results of this years BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. The winners of the last two years competitions have been camera trap photographs.

On his blog Andy has asked for opinions on the debate and I thought I would share mine (I also emailed him)

I think the primary duty of the photographer is to inspire and inform members of the public by showing them images of animals and behaviours they would not normally see.

For photographers to be able to do this, the need to be trusted. This obviously impacts on practices such as HDR, excessive use of photoshop, and images of captive animals. I also think it would be extremely dishonest for a photographer to fail to disclose that an image was taken with a camera trap.

As for whether I think it is justified to award a photographer for a camera trap image, this is a more complex issue.

I think it depends upon the intentions the photographer had when setting up the trap. If the photographer set up the trap randomly and a Golden Eagle caught a Reindeer in full view of the camera then I do not think it would be right to give an award.

However, if the photographer placed the camera with the specific intention of capturing this image and used a large amount of field nouse to do so, then I think the award would be justified.

Field craft is as much of a part of wildlife photography as technical ability, and although this scenario would require more field craft than technical ability it still requires both so is in my opinion a true wildlife photograph.

Anyway, as this post has been a large block of text, I have included a seal picture from last year's trip to Donna Nook to wet your appetite for the pictures I will hopefully be getting this weekend.

Edit: Since this post a further unrelated controversy has erupted and been resolved surrounding the now disqualified winner of the 2009 WPOTY competition. To see my discussion of this matter click here and here.

Deer, Seals, and Eagles

As it has been over a week since my last post, I am going to make this one a little longer than usual to make up for it.

I am also going include a few promises for future blog posts, partially so you know what is coming and partially because I will have to do it once I have promised. An extra little motivation for me!

This has been a busy week. Firstly, the first deadline of the MSc course is coming up next week; a research poster. I have had a week of frantic photography and design work trying to get it up to scratch.

Thankfully, I have got myself a seriously cool subject matter to keep things interesting. The Golden Eagle! "Now, where does one find a Golden Eagle in urban Nottinghamshire" I hear you ask?

Luckily, one of our course supervisors, David Fox, is a published world expert in falconry and has a pair of these magnificent birds and was perfectly happy for me to accompany him on one of his daily flights and take a few photographs. David is not only a lovely chap but a photographer himself so was perfectly willing to tailor the bird's flight patterns to suit my needs.

The eagle himself was also brilliant. I have never before photographed animals with such perfect poise. David likens them to big cats; constantly alert and scanning the environment. I agree to this to some extent but I have to admit the wild lions I have encountered spent 90% of their simply sitting or sleeping in a housecat-in-front-of-the-fire-like slouch!

An amazing experience though it was, I have also managed to fit other things into my week. Chiefly among this has been designing a new format for reports on wildlife locations I have recently visited. I am currently working on articles on Wollaton Hall in Nottingham and Bradgate Park in Leicestershire.

Last but not least, I am heading off to Donna Nook this weekend with Sam Waldron and Lee Webb. I hope to post some new seal photos and a site report on here pronto. Over and out!

A Potential Client Base of Everyone

My fist real post is inspired by something the course video tutor Christina Fox told us.

Christina is an ex BBC camerawoman (although she repeatedly called herself a cameraman!) who now works freelance training camerapeople. She is an excellent tutor and teaches many levels from amateurs to BBC camerapeople in training. This is her website:

http://www.urbanfox.tv/

Christina pointed out that in the 21st century, pretty much everyone everywhere has access to the internet. As modern photographs are digital this means a photographer can sell their images to anyone anywhere in the world. The mind boggles.

For a small fee anyone can buy their own domain name and Christina could not recommend strongly enough to us that we did this. Even if you are not planning immediately on making a website, owning your own domain name stops anyone else snapping it up. This is my new domain name:

http://www.moonlightimaging.co.uk/

Secondly, blogs are even easier. It took me around 10 minutes to set up this blog and it could not have been simpler. Blogger.com comes with many different templates and no knowledge of HTML is needed to publish with them.

Now anyone anywhere in the world can read my ramblings.

Everything has an Explanation

As an avid fan of both Richard Dawkins and House MD I know that both humans and animals do everything for a reason.

Why then am I starting up a blog?

Well firstly because I am not brilliant at remembering where and when I photographed what. This blog should act as a diary for myself allowing me to remember these details in the future.

There is however a less self centered reason for me starting this blog.

There are plenty of wildlife photography columns gracing the pages of the internet. Andy Rouse frequently updates his blog with new pictures from the wilds of Svalbard; Naill Benvie has a joint blog with two other photographers, and you can even follow Heather Angel on Twitter.

All of these are interesting, educational, and certainly worth a look and I wouldn't even class myself anywhere near the same league as these hotshots. What could I possibly hope to add to the mix?

Well whereas these photographers have fully cemented their positions in the wildlife photography hall of fame, I am just starting out on the road to (hopeful!) success.

I have been a passionate amateur photographer for a good few years now and have just started on Nottingham University's MSc in Biological Photography and Imaging. I am now in a very privileged position surrounded by similarly passionate budding wildlife photographers and a superb teaching staff who thoroughly enjoy sharing their large knowledge base.

Hopefully during the rapid learning curve I will learn things not immediately obvious to self taught photographers and be able to pass these on.

Here goes!