Oh, Jessie, how I miss you so…
This past week, David duChemin and I spent a few days catching up and adventuring with Jessie. Our choices were limited by rain and more rain, so we made the best of our time by starting out at The Pinnacles National Monument.
It was cold, but mostly dry, so we set up Jessie’s accoutrements and just relaxed, drank beer, some wine and some scotch for good measure. The following day we took a spectacular drive through the Santa Lucia Mountains to the coast where Carmel greeted us with more crappy weather, but, also more good wine. From there we snaked up Hwy. 1 looking for locations to shoot some and to camp, but rain forced us back to Mountain View. We didn’t do any serious photography, but I did manage to take a few snapshots along the way. Jessie is quite the gal, I hope you all get a chance to meet her someday.
Only real, axe wielding, old spice wearing men drink wine named Purple Cowboy.
Heading west toward the Santa Lucia Mountains and the coast.
David setting up one of the GoPro cameras mounted on the roof of Jessie.
3 Things I Learned Photographing on Safari
I have never thought of myself as a wildlife photographer. While I truly enjoy photographing dogs, I just have never taken to wildlife photography as a hobby. Recently, while in Kenya, I spent 9 days on safari shooting nothing but animals. Not only did I really enjoy the thrill of shooting lions, elephants, giraffe and more, as always, when spending that much time with a camera in my hands, I learned a few things. As I reflect on my trip and as I sort and edit the images I made there I keep coming back to three things that I learned about photographing animals, particularly animals on safari. Here they are, in no specific order.
- Having a good driver will make your trip and therefore your photographs. I know this sounds obvious, but there are a few key elements worth mentioning. First, experience matters. Our driver, Dickson, has been driving for about 18 years. He knew how to read the behavior of the animals, where they tend to congregate, and, in some cases, he even knew about specific animals. A good driver also knows where to best position the car, to park perpendicular to the animals for the best shot and to turn the engine of to reduce vibration. A good driver is so key to your experience that it is worth spending the extra money to have a Landcruiser, not a minivan, and to have no more than 4 people in the vehicle. In short, a good driver has knowledge of the animals, a good vehicle(Landcruiser, not a minibus), and knows how and where to park for the best vantage point.
- Shoot a lot of frames. As my photography skills progress, I have been working on shooting less frames of higher quality rather than using the “spray and pray”
method. I found that when photographing animals, like people, a gesture or look can really make the photo. For example, I in this photo of the lioness with her two cubs, I really liked the way the cubs are leaning into their mother and the way that one of the cub’s tails is even wrapped around his the lioness-it makes the moment. This photo was selected from about 20 photos that I took in close succession. If I hadn’t shot so many, I may not have caught this moment, which, for me, best told the story of the lions interacting with each other as I really wanted to convey how the lions behavior mimics how house cats and dogs interact with each other. Finding a balance of overshooting and undershooting was really tough, and, as I look back at the photographs from the trip, there are definitely times when I am glad that I shot as many frames as possible. - Working within constraints. While photographing on a workshop in Italy, we
were constantly reminded to work a scene-change your perspective, change your lenses, to just wait for the right moment-until you were happy with your results. Having patients, focus and determination like this will definitely pay off. I found, however, while photographing on safari, that I didn’t always have these options. Sometimes, on safari, you have very little ability to change your perspective. You can shoot out the window, or from the roof to get higher or lower, but most of the time you can’t get out of or move the vehicle. Or course you do have limited ability to move the vehicle, but some animals scare easily, or, just won’t cooperate with a change in perspective. As far as changing lenses goes, I mostly shot with a Canon 100-400L. I also had another body with a Canon 24-70L mounted, but, I found that in general, I primarily used the 100-400, even when the animals were exceptionally close. The 24-70 just wasn’t getting the right framing or zoom. And, most of the time I couldn’t even change my aperture, as the available light was too low to shoot above f5.6 to f8 without lowering the shutter speed too much, even with Image Stabilization. Shooting within these constraints really focused me on working on making choices with framing, to constantly rethink and re-shoot.
On a side note, I’d like to thank my friend Marco Ryan for his help with figuring out WordPress.
Small Talk
While in Kenya, on one of our long drives from Lake Nakuru to Masai Mara, I got into a discussion about small talk with my traveling companions, my wife, Mary, and our friend, Tiffany. Both of them commented on how I was good at making small talk with people that we met along the way, from our guides and servers to locals at the lodges.
When I was making small talk I usually asked about families, local customs, living conditions, anything to break a sometimes uncomfortable silence. While both the girls commented about how much they did not enjoy making small talk, I realized that I particularly enjoyed it as a way to learn more about my surroundings-I also began to realize that small talk was helping me as a photographer.
While on a workshop in Italy, with Jeffrey Chapman and David duChemin, I finally overcame my fear of approaching people on the street to ask to take their photographs. In Kenya, while putting my new found skills to work, I often found myself making small talk with my subjects in turn opening them up to my camera all while learning more about them. Not only did this result in better pictures,-I think, at least-it gave me some context in which to remember my subjects and made taking the photographs a richer, more personal and fulfilling experience.
I’ve even found that small talk can be made when you don’t even speak the same language as your subject. Usually a few common words or gestures will do and will change the experience for all involved. Sometimes it may be meaningless, but in the right context maybe making small talk isn’t so meaningless after all.
