Skip to main content

I wonder how many of you can relate to this scenario?  You are excited beyond reason to be at a wildlife sighting that you have yearned to see and capture images of for a very long time.  So excited, that you grab your camera and shoot away non stop frame after frame.  The adrenaline rush takes over and very little thought is given to YOUR CAMERA SETTINGS, THE SURROUNDINGS, THE LIGHT and as the sighting unfolds before you, THE CHANGES that need to be made to your camera.

Subsequently, when you excitedly look at your pictures, you are terribly disappointed and you get this awful sinking feeling of a missed opportunity!!!

I am not going to tackle the more obvious photographically technical side of things in this blog.  I will tackle them in future blogs, but I want to highlight and point out how your  “often forgotten” invisible surroundings can drastically affect the final outcome of your pictures.

You may not have heard the expression “Clean Background” used in photography before.  This refers to a picture of an animal or creature where the subject matter and its surroundings allow you to successfully capture an uninhibited image with no distracting backgrounds/foregrounds.  When showing your pictures, you would like the viewers primary focus to be drawn to the main subject matter, not to a log or tree or highly coloured object, that has also inadvertently been included within the frame!

In order to achieve this type of shot, I really encourage you to curb your excitement, stop and “take stock” of your surroundings before pressing any shutter button.  Look at your surroundings, look at what is behind and in front of your subject! and ask yourself a couple of questions:- Is there anything in my viewfinder that will distract attention from the subject matter?  Would the picture look better with a cleaner foreground/background?  If this is the case, then consider asking your ranger to move the vehicle or boat position slightly so that you are able to exclude that distraction from your pictures!!

Paying attention to this often “invisible/ignored/forgotten” detail and taking the corrective action, will improve your photography and pictures tremendously.  It is easily overlooked in the moment, but in final picture production can be oh so very important and can save disappointment.

I hope this blog assists you in the future and happy clicking everyone.