AdventurAfrica

Reflections on Wildlife Photography

AdventurAfrica — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:30:15 +0000

Know what you want!
Wildlife photography is a wide enough subject to escape the possibility of being covered in one article. Hundreds of books and articles have already been written, and little can be added without running the risk of being just a repetition.
One thing, though, seems like a fresh subject to me: how to approach wildlife photography from the point of view of the involved photographic language. More specifically: how to portrait wild subjects and with what goal in mind.
Many times, or too many times should we say, when presented with the opportunity of photographing wild animals, photographers tend to act automatically, popping out the longest lens they have, trying to move as close as possible and taking face shots or extreme portraits of the subject. While there is nothing wrong with this, it might be useful to remember that this is not the only possible approach, nor necessarily the one conducive to the best shots.
Trying to identify the type of photography we want to achieve in a particular situation can help us make the right decisions and can broaden our creative horizons.
In general terms, almost every wildlife picture falls in one of the following four categories: portrait, ambient portrait, behavior and panning.

A typical portrait shot (upper left: Laysan Albatross, Kaena Point, Oahu Hawaii); ambient portrait shot (upper right: lions at Lake Manze, Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania); behavior shot (lower left: Olive Baboon, Ruaha NP, Tanzania) and panning shot (lower right: walking Wildebeest, Mikumi NP, Tanzania).

Let us briefly analyze each of them and see when to favor one or another, depending on the scene before us.

Portrait
Portrait is the hands-down winner of the bunch. When a bald eagle is spotted perched on a branch, or a lion is drove upon during a safari, gloves come off and the tendency is to fill up the frame with as much of the animal as possible. The vast majority of wildlife images are shot with this goal in mind. The quest for this type of photography requires long telephoto lenses and the ability to get in close range with the subject.
In my opinion, this type of images tends to be somewhat static to really grab the viewer's attention. Don't get me wrong; it is still possible to get beautiful shots and I shoot a lot of these images myself; but I do it fully aware that they will hardly be never-seen-before compositions.

Pygmy Marmoset in the Ecuadorian Rainforest. Canon 300mm f/2.8. This is a typical example of animal portrait. There is no background worth looking at. The subject and its expression are the only elements of the image.

Lion's cubs. Ruaha NP, Tanzania. Canon 600mm f/5.6 (300mm f/2.8 with 2x extender). These cubs were lying about 20 meters away from me. Unable to move any closer, I used all the “power” I could to isolate them from the surrounding environment.

Burrow Owl. Salton Sea, California. Canon 600mm f/5.6 (300mm f/2.8 with 2x extender). Another example of extreme portrait. The image is the subject, and the subject only! There is nothing else to look at, the background being completely blurred and nothing more than a splash of color.

If the situation allows for it, that is, the animal is calm and not moving, it is worth exploring different approaches and experimenting with different compositions, which leads our discussion to my favorite type of wildlife photography: ambient portrait.

Ambient Portrait
Simply put, ambient portrait is when the ambient surrounding the animal becomes an integral and important part of the image, with a visual weight to it and an eye-catching composition to match. We can think of it as landscape photography with an animal in the scene. Where, and how, the animal appears in the shot determines the very rational of the image itself.

Giraffe. Ruaha NP, Tanzania. Canon 17-40mm f/4. I took this image at midday, when I normally avoid shooting due to harsh and uninspiring light conditions. However, this composition was so powerful I could not pass it. I created a genuine landscape image using a polarizing filter to make the cloud stand out from the sky and employing converging lines to reinforce the composition. The giraffe and the Acacia tree are placed close to the right third of the image, where the cloud line also draws the viewer’s attention.

I have long admired the work of Thomas Mangelsen (www.mangelsen.com), in my opinion one of the masters of wildlife ambient portrait. Many of his images portrait grand natural scenes where the animal might even be difficult to spot at first, but once the eyes see it, it becomes the center of gravity of the image and the mind stays locked on it, revealing that the animal, despite its small size, is THE subject of the image.
These images are sort of two wow-factors images. The first wow-factor hits you when you enjoy the landscape the image highlights; the second one arrives when you spot the animal in it and you figure out the photographer's logic behind the scene.
This type of images looks very lively and foster, through the image itself, a dialogue between the photographer and the viewer. It is a more complex and articulated language being used to interact with the viewers.

Walking Elephant. Mikumi NP, Tanzania. Canon 17-40mm f/4. On safari inside Mikumi NP, I saw a large group of elephants crossing the plains en-route to a water hole. I isolated this young elephant and composed the image in order to highlight the dramatic sky and placing the elephant on the right third to give more weight to its direction of movement. The result is a dynamic, yet well-balanced image.

There are simply no rules to follow, but a few advices can be worth remembering.

Analyze your scene first. Is the landscape behind and around the animal interesting per se? Would it make for a good landscape shot, even if the animal was not there? If you answer yes to these questions, then the shot is a good candidate for ambient portrait.

Treat the landscape photography aspect of the image with the utmost importance and shoot for the landscape, not the animal!

Try to avoid positioning the animal in the center of the image. The animal can be “discovered” later, so disguise it in a position where it is not immediately evident.

If your position is not ideal for the landscape you want to portrait, move, and, using Edward Weston’s words, find “The strongest way of seeing”, that is, the strongest composition you can visualize.

Don’t be concerned with the animal being too small, that’s the goal of the image, and in the end the animal will always be recognized as the main subject of the image, regardless of its size.

Try to get everything in focus, closing your aperture to increase the depth of field, if needed. A blurred landscape very rarely makes sense in a landscape shot.

With these simple guidelines in mind, it is possible to start thinking about wildlife photography in a different, fresher, and more creative way.

Wildebeest. Mikumi NP, Tanzania. Canon 17-40mm f/4. The strength of this image lies in the sky and its dramatic visual impact. Even without the wildebeest, the image would remain a powerful one.

One huge advantage of ambient portrait is that it does not require long telephoto lenses. So, if you don’t own one, don’t panic before a lion and remember to tinker with this concept. You might be able to take better pictures than the guy next to you sporting a 800mm f/5.6!

Laysan Albatross, Kaena Point, Oahu Hawaii. Pentax645N, 33-55mm. This image was taken with a medium format wide angle lens, getting very close to the chick and employing a non-central composition.

Cheetah. Ruaha NP, Tanzania. Canon 300mm f/2.8. This is a typical image of cheetahs. We have seen plenty of these already. The sea of dry grass conceals the cheetah and the composition is carefully crafted removing the main subject from the center.

Wildebeest. Northern Serengeti NP, Tanzania. Canon 17-40mm f/4. This is another example of a composition built around a visually overwhelming sky. The horizon line is placed even below the third of the image, to give all the power to the sky itself. The clouds create a naturally converging line drawing the attention to the lower right third of the image.

Behavior shots
Behavior shots are images that portrait some key aspect of the animal’s life cycle, or behavior. It could be anything among courtship, predation, mating, care giving to newborns, fleeing, fighting… etc. These are not easy images to create, as animals quite often go about their daily chores afar from human presence. For instance, everyone who has spent some time in Africa will tell you that lions are not particularly difficult to see. What’s difficult is to see them doing something!
When presented with the opportunity of taking behavior shots, the advice is to focus on the action, trying to get sharp, well-composed images (panning will be discussed later). Don’t be shy with the shutter release: shoot, shoot and shoot some more, keeping in mind that the appeal of these shots is the behavior displayed and not necessarily the technical qualities of the shot itself. Actually, some behavior shots have been regarded as great and unique even if they lacked technical perfection in some department.

Snow Geese. Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico. Pentax 645N, 33-55mm. Thousands of snow geese in flight, calling each other and circling above your head, is something you need to experience live to fully appreciate it! This image is an attempt at rendering the power of this lavish natural display. I placed the camera on a tripod and I filled the frame with the birds against the dark, blue skies of New Mexico, allowing some motion blur to retain the sense of movement.

Yawning Coyote. Yosemite NP, California. A full description of how this image was taken, can be found here: http://www.manfrottoschoolofxcellence.com/2010/07/12/giorgio-trucco-how-did-you-shoot-that-winter-boredom/

Elephant. Ruaha NP, Tanzania. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8. This image depicts the efforts of a male elephant fully stretching his body to reach the young, green and soft leaves of an Acacia tree.

Panning
Panning is the art of creating motion-blurs!
Motion blurs stem from following the movements of the animal in its environment. By using a slow shutter speed, the background will result blurred, as a consequence of the camera moving during the shot.
It is useful to force yourself to try this type of image whenever you have a chance. Panning is not easy and it takes a lot of practice to master it, and a certain level of luck to bring home stunning images, but it can be very rewarding.

Running Caribou. Denali NP, Alaska. Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8. This is an example of a close-to-perfect execution of the panning technique. The focusing and the panning are very accurate resulting in a very sharp image with a smooth blurred background.

Let us dig into some details about panning.
The ideal situation for a panning shot is an animal moving in clear view against a uniform background and with a motion path that is not directly towards to, or away from, us, but rather at 90 degrees, so that its distance will remain about the same.
In a panning shot the list of photo elements that move -faster to slower- goes like this: background, animal legs/wings, head, body.
Keep in mind that completely blurred images defeat the very concept of panning, and even if they can retain some appeal, they are not well executed and make little sense to me. An acceptable motion blur must contain areas of the pictures that are sharp and still, ideally the animal head/face. So what should we try to focus on?

Running Zebra. Mikumi NP, Tanzania. Canon 300mm f/2.8. This is an example of a not-so-perfect execution of the panning technique. The focusing is ok, but the panning lacks precision, resulting in an image where virtually nothing is very steady. It still renders the idea and some people might like it. Me? I don't dislike it, but I use it as an example of a panning shot that needs improvement.

The body is arguably the best target. The head, on the other hand, might be in line with the body movements (with an elephant for example), or swing back and forth, or up and down, compared to it (in a giraffe for instance). Therefore, whether the head will be as still as the body or not, is largely a matter of conditions and the animal being involved in the shot, and it is difficult to predict.

Walking Elephant. Ruaha NP, Tanzania. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8. I like this image a lot. Both the focusing and the panning are accurate and the subject is not in the center! Elephants walk slowly, so this gentle giant allowed me to focus and recompose while panning, resulting in the uncropped image that you see here.

Here is my list of advices:

Panning is best rendered with a shutter speed in the range of 1/4- 1/30th of a second. Set your camera to Aperture Priority and choose an ISO-aperture pair that gives you the desired shutter speed (this is what I do). Or set the camera to Time Priority and choose your desired shutter speed. Keep in mind that it’s better to use higher ISO and small apertures than the other way around, because small apertures will help you with focus by increasing the depth of field.

Set the lens focus mode to Continuous (Nikon) or AI Servo (Canon). Once the subject is in focus, you want the camera to lock and track that focus!

Set the Image Stabilizer mode to Normal (Nikon) or Mode 2 (Canon). These modes will only compensate for vertical shacking and will not try to override your horizontal movements.

Select the centre focus point and keep it on the animal body as steadily and smoothly as possible. Don’t shoot right away. Gauge the animal speed by checking the alignment of the centre point with the animal body and adjust your panning speed until you can keep them aligned. Then start shooting.

Don’t shoot just one or two images. Shoot an entire sequence in continuous-high mode and take as many images as you can in one batch.

One problem with panning shots is that the subject will always be in the center of the frame. Focus and recompose is close to impossible while panning (it can be done though…), so one solution is resorting to compositions that don’t fill the frame with the subject and retain some headroom for post-production cropping.

Running Baboons at golden hour. Ruaha NP, Tanzania. Canon 300mm f/2.8.

Panning should be attempted with the right tools to maximize your chances of getting good images. Hand panning is only viable with up to mid length lenses. With telephoto lenses, pun intended, a panning mount is paramount!
My favorite panning mount is the Manfrotto 393 Gimbal head. It works very smoothly and is very inexpensive compared to other options. I find it very quick to balance and super smooth in use. If you are serious about panning, and you shoot with anything above 100mm, chances are you need a panning head!

Leaping Dolphin, southern California. Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8. This is to date one of my favorite images. I took this shot from the bow of a boat that was following a group of dolphins. It was sunset in southern California, and the low sun colored in pink and yellow the water splashes. This image is a variation on the panning theme, because the background is blurred as a consequence of the movement of both the subject and the photographer, who move at about the same speed. I released the shutter at the exact time the dolphin dove his head into the water, resulting in the wonderful splashes that look a lot like sparkles from a grinder.

Conclusions
We have seen that wildlife photography is such a broad topic that it can be useful to draw some lines and decide what type of image we want to create, every time we spot wild animals we want to take pictures of.
Deciding this at production time can help us increase our awareness of the photographic process and it can guide us in making the right technical decisions.
Making a mental habit of thinking out of the box and beyond the usual “animal portrait” can foster a more creative approach to photography, which, in turn, will help us develop a personal style, which is the ultimate goal of our learning.

Shooting blind, or not shooting at all…

AdventurAfrica — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:40:04 +0000

Sometimes, as photographers, we find ourselves in situations where it becomes painfully clear that we are not welcome. It happens especially to travel and reportage photographers who often deal with radically different cultures or sensitive environments.
Photographing women in a Muslim country is one good example of a difficult task. You immediately realize your artistic inspiration is not welcome, neither fully understood and you are more likely to get the cold shoulder than any level of collaboration. A good smile, a warm heart and the right attitude can work miracles sometimes, but there are other times where it just doesn't work, and you have to be creative. Of course, we always have to respect the right of people not to be photographed, if so they wish.

Another problem that photographers have often to deal with is that people knowing they are being photographed, tend to lose their natural look and their behavior is affected by the awareness of being your subject.
In these situations, it can be very useful to master a technique that seems quite impossible at first. Shooting without aiming, that is, taking pictures without looking through the camera. As difficult as it seems at first, I guarantee you it is a powerful technique that can sometimes earn you THAT otherwise impossible shot!
Let’s see how it works.

The in-camera settings are pretty straightforward. You won’t be looking in the viewfinder, so there is absolutely nothing you can check and correct during the shot. You have to resort to auto-everything.
As far as autofocus is concerned, you have two options: single focus point or multipoint. With the multipoint option selected, you can be sure that –something- will be in focus in your shot, but there is no guarantee it will be your main subject. With single point (I suggest selecting the central one) you have more control over what gets focused and, with practice, you can even focus on the subject and recompose the image to move it away from the center. Again, this is not easy but it can be achieved with a fair amount of trial and error.
For shooting mode I use aperture priority and I select an aperture (and ISO value) that gives me the shutter speed I need for a particular situation. If I want steady shots, I use maximum aperture and high ISO; if I want to experiment with creative panning and camera movements, I select low ISO and smaller apertures to get me in the 1/4-1/8 of a second shutter speed range.
Once these settings are dialed in you are ready to shoot and it’s time to test and hone your skills...
Keep in mind that not bringing the camera to the eye will lower your angle of view, opening a new world of creativity. Also keep in mind that people knows you are shooting when you are bringing the camera to the eye AND you are holding it with your right hand AND you are holding it straight up. You can easily deceive your shooting by changing all of this

How to hold the camera to shoot in disguise...

If you have a battery grip attached to the camera (highly recommended) it is actually easier to operate the second shutter release button using your left hand. Or you can hold the camera upside down and press the second shutter release button with your right hand index finger. By doing this, your “average subject” will not suspect any shooting going on and you can get some impossible shots.
Of course the most difficult part is getting the composition you want. There are no secrets to be taught or shortcuts to be taken here. You must try and try and try again, until you get familiar with this technique and you start getting good results. You are basically eye-balling everything but it’s not impossible to even focus and recompose and become good at it. Even with a lot of practice, though, you will still miss a lot and you have to play the game knowing it is really a hit or miss one.
But when the result is spot on, you can enjoy unconventional shots that will foster a more creative approach to photography. Grab a camera and go shoot blind!

A short gallery of images taken with the technique described in this article...

AdventurAfrica at BIT2012

AdventurAfrica — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:33:09 +0000

AdventurAfrica will be attending the Borsa Internazionale del Turismo (Bit), in Milan (Italy) February 16-19, 2012.
You will find us at:

Exhibition Area: The World, stand L24

and we will have photos and sideshows of our recent trips plus all the news about the upcoming 2012 trips, safaris and worskhops.

Pleasae stop by to say HELLO and to grab one of our new reprinted brochures!

AdventurAfrica’s August-September 2012 Tour

AdventurAfrica — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:49:01 +0000

"We feel surrounded by forest spirits who appear and disappear at their pleasure. Unseen, they look at us, controlling without effort their distance from us. We feel like intruders in a world that is not ours, one we do not belong to, clumsy and unable to move effectively; easily lost."

It's dawn and after a warm night and a regenerating breakfast made of coffee, chapati and fruit jam or Nutella, we leave our tents and we head for the Udzungwa Mountains National Park (UMNP).
The mountains, which rise from the flat and fertile Kilombero Valley, reach their highest elevation at 8461ft (2579m), with Mount Luhombero, and are covered by lush primary forest that scientists estimate to be more than 30 million years old. UMNP is a place of primary importance for biodiversity and many endemic species that call this place home, have been recently identified and studied.

...on the road to Udzungwa Mountains National Park, southern Tanzania

Today we will reach deep into the forest in search of the Sanje Mangabeys, a new primate species discovered recently and which lives exclusively in this area.

A call in the forest (short story of a discovery):

The Sanje Mangabeys have lived in the shelter of the Udzungwa Mountains forest from time immemorial, known only to the local populations. However, due to the lack of a strong written tradition, their existence was never documented. The official discovery of this group of primates is credited to the anthropologist Katherine Homewood and her coworker Alan Rogers in 1979. During a survey in the forest, for the first time they heard the call of the Mangabeys, a type of primate that, as far as anyone knew at that time, did not live in the area. Homewood and Rogers investigated thoroughly, stimulated by that clue, and were able to contact a local who kept a specimen as a pet. They asked to see the animal and with much surprise and elation theyimediately understood they were the discovery of a new species of primates, the Sanje Mangabeys indeed, an endemic species that live only here and which we know today survive only a few thousand individuals.

Along the lines of the tracking programs of gorillas and chimpanzees, in the last fifteen years the Park's authorities have identified a particular group of Sanje Mangabeys, and thanks to the daily work of a patient group of ranger-trackers who follow the monkeys as they move, these primates have gradually become accustomed to human presence. The result of this laudable project is that, since 2007, UMNP visitors can observe, at relatively short distance, the Mangabeys, a normally secretive and extremely difficult to approach species.
The still and warm air of the night covers like a blanket the surrounding forest, still quiet and sleepy. Our trackers have already been out in the forest for a couple of hours, following the Njokamoni group and are in constant radio contact with our guides who are waiting for us at the Njokamoni trailhead.

Starting out at the Njokamoni trailhead

We hit the trail and the sight of a group of elephants in a clearing gives us the enthusiasm to continue, longing for more excitement. After about one hour of hiking, we reach our trackers. We are told that the monkeys are everywhere around us but despite all efforts we do not see anything. All we hear are the thuds of wild mangoes hitting the ground after being consumed by their invisible eaters. We leave the trail and we start climbing the steep slopes of the mountain. Occasionally, we are able to glimpse some monkeys in the trees in front of us, but it's always too high, too distant or too brief. We feel surrounded by forest spirits who appear and disappear at their pleasure. Unseen, they look at us, controlling without effort their distance from us. We feel like intruders in a world that is not ours, one we do not belong to, clumsy and unable to move effectively; easily lost.

Hard to see at first, Sanje Mangabeys become very friendly and curious once reciprocal trust has been established

Our trackers invite us to continue with firm and reassuring hand gestures. We are invited to trust and be patient. After another climb up the steep sides of the mountain, we reach a small, level, clearing. According to our trackers, it's time to sit quietly and to wait patiently, so we sit together and we keep silent. The tranquility of the forest envelopes us like a cloak. Gradually, but distinctly, the sounds of the monkeys start approaching. On some far away branches we discover individuals watching closely, suspicious and wary. With binoculars we observe distinctly some members of the group. It's already a great thrill, but even more exciting is discovering that, little by little, the entire Njokamoni group is closing in. We have earned their trust and the monkeys have become naturally attracted to us and they begin to approach. In a few minutes, we are literally surrounded by the entire group, quietly resting on the branches around us, just a few feet away. We have the rare opportunity to observe their behavior at close range and to take thousands of photographs under ideal conditions. We observe the adults constantly busily extracting the pulp from wild mangoes; we look at the youngsters playing and chasing on the branches at lightning speed. Then the entire group falls quiet. The adults find a spot on the branches and slowly fall asleep. The little ones get close to their mothers and subside, reassured by the physical contact with the adults.
It was well worth waiting and sweating on the trail. We are in the middle of the forest surrounded by the silence and peace that only unspoiled natural places can convey and, above all, we are at the feet of a large group of seldom seen primates resting around us. We bring home plenty of good pictures, but it is the mix of thrill and emotion that makes us happier. We will meet the Njokamoni group again and again, but the thrill of the first encounter remains unique and unrepeatable.

Enjoying and photographing the spirits of the forest!

Join us, on one of our tours for the upcoming 2012 season. We'll enjoy walking safaris and Sanje Mangabeys tracking on any of them!
Please visit our safari page for all details regarding these trips.

AdventurAfrica’s August 2012 Tour

AdventurAfrica — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:10:05 +0000

AdventurAfrica's tour - August 2012
This trip is our most popular and we are proud to offer it once again, as it represents an alternative to the overcrowded tracks of the notoriurs northern circuit (composed of Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti, Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Parks). Our choice to travel to Tanzania' southern circuit is also in line with the recent directives of Tanzania Tourist Board, whose efforts have recently focused on promoting the southern regions and attracting more visitors to its wonderful and still seldom-visited parks (Mikumi, Udzungwa Mountains, Ruaha and Katavi National Parks and Selous Game Reserve). The rationale behind this move is both simple and logic: it appears that the northern circuit has long reached its peak in terms of numbers of yearly visitors and little can be done to increase this number. The cash-cow is simply running already at full speed and there has been a growing concern about the impact induced on the parks' ecosystem by the large number of visitors. You also have to consider the kind of safari experience you are prepared to endure, or willing to experience...
If waiting for 10 cars ahead of you to clear a group of lions and having about 5 minutes to take your pictures before the other 10 cars behind start putting pressure on you to move on -IS NOT- exactly your ideal safari experience, then we are on the same page!

No kidding, this is what we are talking about...

These images were taken in July 2011 inside Serengeti National Park, Seronera area, and they are proof of the conditions likely to be experienced in all northern circuit parks and conservation areas.

Our journey starts in Dar es Salaam and after a day or two of relaxation on the white sand beaches of the Indian Ocean we are on our way to the wonders of Ruaha National Park, the true highlight of our itinerary. This park is regarded by many (including, of course, ourselves!) as one of the finest parks in Eastern Africa. The park feels endless and boasts amazing and undisturbed wildlife, matched by awe-inspiring scenery and peaceful solitude. The Ruaha and Mwagusi Rivers offer great and ever changing opportunities for unspoiled safaris and wildlife viewing. The entire region is prime lion country and large prides can be seen here with relative ease. Below is a YouTube video, produced by the Tanzania Tourist Board, highlighting Ruaha National Park.

Join us, our tour starting August 3rd through August 19, 2012. We'll take you to the heart of African nature on board our safari truck, and together we will enjoy a timeless Africa in this part of Tanzania.
Please visit our safari page for all details regarding this trip.