Half a century ago, way back in the 70s, my high school photography teacher, Mr Vogel, taught us some basic rules to follow for nature photography. I still try to follow them today.
Back then, I was shooting with a Pentax K-1000 SLR camera, a manually-operated 35mm. Today I shoot with a digital Canon Powershot SX70 point-and-shoot set on “auto”. (I like the SX70 for its long zoom and its nice macro, which lets me get many shots that I would otherwise miss.)
Mr Vogel’s rules:
Get close. When I started out, my K-1000 only had the standard 55mm lens which gave the “normal” human’s-eye view. So most of my pics were also from a normal human’s-eye view. It didn’t work. My subjects, whether birdie or deer or scenery, were small in the frame and didn’t make a visual impact. That is why Mr Vogel stressed to me: get close. Fill that frame to the brim. Get as close as you absolutely positively can—and then get closer. With my old Pentax, I approached this from two sides: I got a nice telephoto lens to fill the frame at long distances, and I got a macro-lens for close-ups of small subjects. (And I learned how to stalk like a hunter, though I shoot with a camera and not with a gun.) Today I use the zoom lens and the “macro” setting on the Powershot to do the same. With a long zoom I can fill the frame from far away, but it is still best to get close—the longer the zoom the less clear the photo will usually be, especially if you are not using a tripod (and I never carry one).
Jumping Spider. Shot with a long zoom.
Focus on the eyes. As a newbie, I would often just snap a shot without any planning, and got a lot of animal “butt shots” showing a backside disappearing into the bush, or a bird or animal looking away from the camera. They didn’t work. The eyes, Mr Vogel kept repeating to us, are the windows to the soul. A portrait in which you can’t see the eyes is lifeless and soul-less, while a portrait which focuses on the subject’s eyes conveys life and emotion. Humans have an innate attraction to a subject’s eyes. It is the difference between “a picture” and “a portrait”.
Bullfrog. Lovely golden eyes.
One subject. I would often, as a beginner, try to fit everything into one photo. Especially for landscapes, I would try to reduce a wide sweeping vista into one shot. It seldom worked. The camera’s field of view is not as wide as a human eye, and it simply cannot capture those wide-open vistas—it inevitably shrinks them down and makes them look, to the human eye, small and insignificant. That’s why Mr Vogel taught me to focus on one subject. That one spectacular mountain, or waterfall, or palm tree, often makes more visual impact. With wildlife, there may be times when you want a sweeping wide view—to show the variety of life that inhabits the African veldt, for example. But in that case it is the veldt itself which is the subject. If you want the animals to be the subject, you must focus on the animals. Every individual photo has its individual subject, and if someone asks “what is this a photo of?”, you should be able to answer in three or four words. If you try to focus on several different things at once, you end up with just visual chaos and confusion.
Banded Sunfish. Of all the fish in the tank, I focused in on this one looking at me.
Pay attention to the background. The background, Mr Vogel always said, should not attract any attention away from the subject, and should not have any distractions. The camera flattens the view, especially with a telephoto lens, so that tree behind your subject may look as if it is growing out of their head, which you don’t want. For most shots, adjusting the aperture to get a nicely-blurred background is a good way to focus attention on the subject. In some cases, though, you may want a nicely-focused background as a complement to the main subject.
A stranded Sea Nettle jellyfish. The sand sets the scene and also sets off the colors of the jellyfish.
Capture the action. Animals, by definition, are animate. They move. While the still camera, unlike a video camera, cannot literally capture motion, it can capture the essence of it. “Documentary” photos—a portrait of a static animal—have their place and can be visually stunning, but to really capture the essence of wildlife, Mr Vogel told us, we have to show it in action. A photo in which the subject is actively doing something is always more dynamic and visually interesting than a plain static portrait. It shows us a slice of the subject’s life.
Anhinga with lunch. A little chewing, a little tenderizing, and down you go.
As Mr Vogel himself always stressed to us, these are not hard-and-fast laws, and there will be times when you will want to deliberately break these rules for an intended effect. But they make good guidelines, especially for beginners.
I have always tried to follow them.
Thanks, Mr Vogel.
