13 - Finding wildlife to photograph

This episode, number 13 is about where to find wildlife and take pictures of it. For us, as wildlife and nature photographers we need to be able to find subjects to photograph. What may seem a simple task is in fact quite complicated and can be a challenge to people starting out in wildlife photography.

The episode was inspired by one of our listeners who asked “How do you go about finding your subjects to photograph?” It was such a good question that we decided to do a complete episode trying to explain how we go about it.

There are loads of hints and tips for you to try for yourself. And we will explain the different methods we have tried and our preferred way of working. This episode should give you lots of ideas on how to find subjects to photograph and along the way will give you an insight into how we get our images. Images that we like to think are just a little bit different from the norm. You will also get a greater understanding of why we do what we do.

 

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Transcript

0:11

Welcome. You're listening to Mark and Jacky's wildlife and photography podcast. Explore, learn about the natural world and how to take pictures. This podcast is all about photography. Our aim is to help you improve your pictures. It doesn't matter what camera you use. We want to stimulate your creative side, get you taking pictures that you will want to share with other people. Episode 13 Finding Wildlife to photograph. We are wildlife and nature photographers, and one of the biggest challenges we face on almost daily basis is finding subjects to photograph, and it appears that we're not the only ones that have this problem. As this episode has been inspired by a question that we got from one of our listeners and he asked. Where do you find subjects to photograph? So this episode is all about where you can find your subjects to photograph if you're a wildlife photographer. The first thing I should mention is that we don't really specialise in one particular type of wildlife. We try and cover at least three of the five Wildlife Kingdoms. The classification Animalia, Plantae and Fungi. That is animals, plants and fungus to the rest of us. Fungi is, mushrooms and toadstools. We've always photographed all sorts of different things, from ants to elephants, duck weed to oak trees, from wrens to eagles. So our work covers a vast amount of the natural world. We don't specialise, we don't try and photograph only one particular mammal or insect or plant. We think that the natural world should be recorded and that's what we aim to do. So with that said, let's get on, and see how we find things to photograph. So before we really start and dive in, there is about the welfare of your subjects, and we're particularly passionate about this. No picture is worth damaging the natural world or disturbing an animal for there is no excuse. Full stop. That's it nothing end of story. You cannot disturb the nature. We have an ethos of take pictures, leave no trace that you've ever visited. We take that very seriously and hopefully you will too. When you're out trying to take photographs or just maybe observing nature. Unfortunately, we've seen people trampling flowers and damaging flowers, disturbing animals, by getting too close or chasing them, to try and get a photograph. It's not the way to behave, in our opinion. Imagine a photographer barging into your living space and trashing it just to get a picture of you, and then disappearing out the door, and away you wouldn't like it. It would disturb you and it would disturb your house. So why do it outside when you're in the room of nature? To give you just a small example, a popular spring flower in the UK, are Bluebells. The UK has 80% of the world's population of Bluebell Flowers they grow under trees. They come out and flower in the early spring before the trees flush with leaves. They grow in vast carpets of blue in ancient woodland. But unfortunately, this also brings the sport of trampling your Bluebells to try and get your photograph. People quite readily trample down these flowers just to get a picture. To sit children in the middle of Bluebell Wood to try and get close to it. The plants have a very, very short lifespan as soon as the tree starts flush with leaves. Their year is over. And in that time, they have to make enough energy to survive for the next year. They're very susceptible to being disturbed. Another example is if you take a walk somewhere popular, try and look out to see if you can see areas that have been trampled down or even cut down, for instance. Look carefully and you'll find out what people have been trying to photograph, especially if it's a very popular place to be, or there's something there that's maybe unusual like orchids or moths or butterflies. The problem is where the vegetation has been trampled down, people have destroyed the habitat, where the things live, that they're trying to photograph. Animals and birds are very easily to disturb as well by thoughtless actions. If you make a lot of noise, you frighten everything off. We've been in public hides or blinds at a wildlife reserve. People come in. It's like a crowd arriving at a game they will settle eventually and then the chatting phone answering begins. Why do people shout when they're on a mobile phone? Who knows! All birds, mammals have very sensitive hearing, much more attuned, than ours is. And if they hear loud noises, just move away to a quieter place to hide. For us, noisy and inconsiderate people are an inconvenience easily overcome but for plants and animals. It could be life and death. Now I know that sounds very dramatic. But hopefully it will bring the point home to you. It is quite dramatic, really. Plants grow in specialist conditions. Habitat surrounding them is just right for their life cycle disturb it, and you may damage the plant. Not visibly, but he could get too wet, or it could start to dry out because the vegetation around it has been moved. The microclimate surrounding that plant is important to it, as your living space is to you. Oh, and the bird flew away. Oh, what a shame. Oh, the animal that ran away? What a shame. You missed an opportunity bother! But to your subject, it could have altered his chances of survival. In cold weather birds, who have a higher body temperature than most mammals need to maintain a daytime body temperature between 41 and 43 degrees centigrade. They only have very short day lengths to find enough energy so they can survive the cold long winter nights. If you think that your actions don't matter, imagine what it would be like for you to try and find food in a food shop if they filled that shop with lions, very hungry lions. too animals, birds, you are a predator. Just as the lion is to us. How much would you get to eat being chased by a lion? You jumped in the car, turned on the heater driven home. When you get home, it's a bit chilly, so you just turn the heating up a bit. Try and imagine if you had to walk home. When you got there, there was no heating and no food and you're only alternative to get food is to go to the food shop filled with hungry lions. Hopefully, you getting the idea, and I don't need to keep going on and on, but think before you act. It may be just a bird flying away to you, but it could be very important for that bird at that particular time in the day. OK. That's the provision of let's try and not disturb wildlife while we're photographing it, and now it's going to finding wildlife to photograph. We believe you've got three choices. If you can think of more, well, fine. Let us know. We are going to present the choices and let you make up your mind. Yes, we've got a preferred method, but we've tried all three, and that's what allows us to tell you about all of them. So in no particular order, number one captive wildlife. Now, some species are almost impossible to photograph in the wild. Be it a Wildcat in Scotland or a Giant Panda in China. Ah come to think of it. You probably got more chance of photographing a Giant Panda than you have a wild cat. But that's another story. There are plenty of opportunities to go and photograph different wildlife species that are held in captivity. If you think of zoos and specialist photo opportunities. If you want to photograph it, I bet you can find someone who's got a captive example that they'll let you photograph. After all it ranges from birds of prey to big cats and everything in between. But as with all things, there is the good, the bad and the very, very ugly. For the most part, it's only the bad that gets all the headlines with welfare issues and cruelty. Keeping animals in conditions that are not suitable for them. Whereas most people that are doing a brilliant job just sail under the press, the media radar. Our advice is that if you want to go to the captive opportunity route, then check out the credentials of the organisation or the individuals before you actually book one of these adventures. Many will claim some a bit doggedly that they're part of an officially sanctioned programme to hold captive animals. Some will be. But if you're passionate about wildlife, as we are, always check. Find out more about the programme and then contact someone to find out if it is a controlled and regulated and inspected. When we say contact someone, contact someone who's not interested in getting your money from you. If they're all above board and legit, they shouldn't mind supplying you the name of the organisation that they work with. And that way, hopefully you're making sure that the species that are under their control are properly treated and are doing a useful job. In that they may be conserving the species. They may be the only few examples left in the world. And money that's raised through letting people photograph them or people access to them helps to keep them and helps the individual species. But unfortunately, that's not always the case. Just make sure that when you do go there, that you're not perhaps, harming the animals that you go to photograph. So, OK, that's covered photographing animals and wildlife in captive conditions. So let's move on to number two, and this is where you hire someone or a place to experience and photograph wildlife. These tend to be split into two further sections. There is wildlife that will come close to enough to hide for you to photograph it. This is where encounters are arranged. The subjects know very often that there's food that's been put out close to a hide or to a concealment, and they come for the food and for no other reason. But they do come close enough to hide for you to photograph them. Again, we're always cautious about animals being fed like this. Even if you're putting out bait food yourself, you need to be quite cautious about it. As an example, we're very lucky we have wildlife that visits our garden from the surrounding woodlands, do we photograph them? Yeah, we do. And over the years, we've probably captured a few images. They come because of the food we put out. We have no illusions about that, without the food being put out. They would not visit us. Now, originally, we may not have put the food out to attract that particular species. Ground bird food, seems to be a firm favourite with nearly everyone. This includes birds, and it was by accident that we discovered that a host of other night time visitors also like bird food. Which resulted in us changing their diet slightly and putting out food that was slightly more suitable for the Night-Time visitors. But we try and be as responsible as possible. When we're putting out this bait food. Because it will have some influence on the lives of the animals that come into our garden. We've taken the best advice possible from experts on what should be fed to these types of animals. But sometimes the year we'll provide more food. If natural food is in very short supply, normally that's in the winter or the summer. We always put out food every day without fail. And if we're not at home, somebody comes in to put the food out. The important point is that food is always available. It's not put out just to get photographs and then withdrawn suddenly. We have a plan, to withdraw the food we put out, over a number of months if we were ever to move away from the house. Yeah, we've taken photographs but only on a few occasions. Really, the food is put out because we enjoy watching wildlife. It's not really a commercial proposition for the amount of food we put out and the photographs we would get, for it to be anything other than for our enjoyment. We would always advise that you check out what you're booking, and if you're booking one of these opportunities, make sure that they are doing it responsibly. One point to bear in mind when you are doing this sort of commercial hide work, is that if you are trying to get a picture that's a bit different or unique. This is not your best way forward. We see pictures, and go that was photographed such and such a location. It's obvious because the locations don't change, obviously, and you can guess where they were actually taken. You can try it yourself. Have a look around and see, especially if it's a particularly difficult subject to get. If you look at that, you'll find. Oh, that looks very similar to the thousands of other pictures that are online. It's not difficult. Very often it's the rareer animals that are being photographed in this way at hides. If it's not a camera trap. Keep looking and see if you can find the pictures that are same. Sometimes you can even recognise the bits of log, or the same bit of water that's being used by the animal, over and over again because it's coming to a hide to feed every day. Now you can get guides and experts. This is still under number two. If you get a guide to take you to a place where you'll get good pictures, great. Experts are normally in tune with their surroundings, and will teach you how to approach animals, and how to photograph animals. And also in some parts of the world, I encourage you to find a ranger or a guide to take you out. In that way, your money is normally supporting the local community, rather than some large multinational in another country. Rangers, experts and guides are invested in the wildlife they're showing you. If they frighten it off, it won't be there tomorrow. The other thing to bear in mind when using experts is don't ask for the impossible. In some countries, these experts and guides are very underpaid, compared to you because you were there. If you wave a large wad of cash at them, you may just be able to get them to do something, that is not in their or your best interest. And this can lead to the possibility of very dangerous encounters or very large fines. If an expert says it's not possible, believe them, don't push the boundaries. There are plenty of clips on social media of people who've ignored the advice of experts and ended up in hospital or, worse, the undertakers. So let's move on to number three. And this is the do it yourself method. This is the option that we try and take most of the time. We will use guides they know and understand animals better than we do. I always remember a Masai guide advice when asked, What do you do if the lion starts to stalk you? The advice was. Walk straight towards it. Now we've never had to put this advice to the test. I'm not sure I have the courage to do so either. But the Masai grow up in the savanna grasslands and know and understand how to survive there. And we don't. So in that case, it's a good idea to hire a guide. But there are a lot of places that we know very well, where we can use our field craft skills to find and photograph animals. And to be honest, this gives us the greatest thrill. When we've used our knowledge, to be able to find and get close to a subject. Now, the one proviso is this is not foolproof. It takes time and commitment to get results. And to get you started, here's some hints and tips, if you want to go the route that we did. Tip number one. Never be in a hurry to get anywhere. Goals and targets are great if you're trying to get fit, but an incredibly bad idea, if you're trying to observe and photograph nature. Which leads me to another important point. If you go out to take photographs, go out and observe nature. It can take us all day to walk a mile or so. Mainly because we stop, stand or sit quietly and watch for perhaps ten or 15 minutes and then move on a few hundred metres. This stopping allows wildlife to get used to us and to start to ignore us. It gives time for you to look around and see what's around you as well. Always have a pair of binoculars with you. They are so important for being able to look out into the landscape, and see things. You can try and exercise if you like. That is when you're out. Look around you and see what you can find in the area that surrounds you. Then take your binoculars and scan the same area again. What did you see with the binoculars, that you missed without them? Binoculars are great for finding small stuff as well. If you're in the market for a new pair, try buying something that focuses to a close distance like a couple of metres. You can then scan things like wildflowers, to find a good specimen to photograph without having to crawl about on your hands and knees to achieve the same result. And when you go out, you're not really looking for wildlife. It may be an odd statement, but what you're actually looking for are the differences in your surroundings. It's a question of is that tree branch, moving in the wind or is it something making it move? If you look at trees moving long enough. Oh, what an exciting life we lead. You get to know when something is not right. You're not trying to see wildlife, trying to spot what is different or wrong with the vista in front of you. It's not easy. It's even more difficult thing to try and teach. We've been asked many times, where do you find all the things you photograph? When we say somewhere nearby to where the questioner lives. We get the. I haven't seen them there. The chances are a lot of people will walk straight by without noticing. Don't get me started about checking mobile phones or listening to music, while you're out looking for nature or for pictures. There's no chance that you'll spot anything. This skill will work, and let you see a lot more than most people will. It also helps to identify and spot things to photograph. In a bit of a by and by, the sort of did you know. We've been in Africa and our guides can spot all the major animals that we fail to see. For us, it's like, why didn't we see that! You're use to spotting animals in your surroundings. It can be quite disconcerting that suddenly you start to miss things or you didn't see the lion or elephant standing there and the simple reason is that we're not used to the surrounding habitat that we're in. It takes time for you to become familiar with different landscapes. When we moved to Scotland, we had to start all over again. Learning to spot the out of place in a landscape we were not familiar with. We're just starting to be able to spot deer lying in the heather. But it's taken time and effort on our part. As well as practical observational skills you need to bring to take better pictures. You also need to do a lot of research. So what do you do in the evenings? Well, we spend a fair amount of our time learning about animals and plants. We learn about the life cycles, the habitats and things we might find. A good skill and one that we're yet to fully master. Is identifying birdsong. If you're photographing birds, it's very important that you be able to hear the bird because sometimes you hear the bird before you can see them. If you hear it, you at least know it's in the vicinity. You can then start looking around, with the all important binoculars, to try and find where it is. One of the best reasons for not to be listening to music as well. That's a skill that you identified the bird and locate it. Now it may only be a Robin. But can you tell the difference between a Robin and a Wren? If you learn their calls and songs, you certainly will be able to. If you're into butterflies, moths and the like. Do you know the flight times? No, I'm not talking about when they take off and land. Most species of butterfly and moth have what is known as a flight time that is in a typical year if there is such a thing. When you might be expected to find individuals on the wing. This information, as well as knowing the food plant of the caterpillars, will stand you in good stead. Why? Butterflies and moths will normally be close to the food plants that there caterpillars are going to feed on. After all, their job is to mate and make eggs. The eggs are typically laid directly onto the food plant. What's the best time of day to photograph butterflies? Don't go out in the middle of the day is our advice. Butterflies need to be at a certain internal temperature to fly. If they can't achieve that temperature, they'll sit and wait for the sun to warm them. Early mornings and late evenings give you the best chance of a cooperative subject. That's not going to fly away in a few seconds, or normally just as you point the camera at it. Can you tell the difference between Fox and dog footprints? Well, perhaps more to the point. Fox and dog poo, these are important things, you know. Because that allows you to know what's in the area. If you're going up a riverbank, for instance, do you know, what Otter poo looks like, do you know what it smells like. Do you know, when deer move to the lower levels at the onset of winter? How does rain affect the species you're trying to find? All these things are important things to know, in our opinion, because they allow you to look at the landscape and think, Oh, there might be deer there or there might be birds there. If you photograph woodland species of bird, for example, do you know which trees are in fruit or seed currently? Because that's possibly where the birds are going to be feeding. Look at the edges and the open glades of the wood, not in the thick tree cover. Woodland birds tend to feed in the light, and the insects that they sometimes feed on tend to concentrate in the areas of sunlight. If you're looking for a particular species, can you identify it by hearing its song? Building up skills allows you to find your subjects. It's not going to be easy learning all this new stuff. It never is. It's a very, very steep learning curve. And you're not going to get results straight away. I can tell you that from personal experience, but over time you'll find more things to photograph. And for us, the importance is that the pictures that we take are individual to us. They're not taken from a well-known spot. The icing on the cake is that you get a better picture. Well, we think they are better types of picture, and we gain a deep understanding of our world, and the plants and animals that we share it with. Now, we're not going to tell you what you should do to find your subjects. After all, that's up to you, that's your individual choice. What we will say is that the way we work, we believe, is the best way. Well, obviously otherwise we wouldn't be doing it. But it also gives us the greatest satisfaction to know that we've done something that's not easy. That we've recorded something that perhaps other people have walked passed and missed. Hopefully, this podcast will have given you an informed choice about what you should do and how you should proceed, with your own wildlife and nature photography. We wish you luck in the future. Thank you for listening. And my name is Mark Bloomfield. You've been listening to a wildlife photography podcast produced by M & J Bloomfield. For more information and details about us and our work, visit our website at mandjbloomfield.com. Thank you for listening, and we hope you join us again soon. Chun an sin, mar sin leat.