natural History Photographs....

A question that has been going around my subconscious for some time - Just what makes a good natural history photograph? I know this is an impossible thing to answer but I feel I need to put something down to try and help me work though some ideas. The first place to start is to look at what the rules of competitions/groups say. In essence they are incredibly conservative. There seems to be some serious concerns about a 'true record' - as if there is ever any such thing when dealing with photography. A clear example of this is the recent outcry about the winner of last years Wild Life Photographer of the Year. The image must have integrity and an accuracy that few other disciplines demand. Does this make then great photographs?

I am really uncertain about this. One of the reasons is that I have a passing interest in how animals were recorded/painted before photography. The truth is not very well. Well not very well you apply the 'true record' criteria. However, when looked at as a work of art then a different criteria is applied and they become 'good'.

The two photographs on this posting are another case in point. The first, a wood pigeon in snow, has a charm to it. To me this bird appears to be enjoying the sensation of standing in falling snow. In short I am anthropomorphising the bird - I am projecting my feelings and experiences onto the bird. It is unlikely that the bird ever had any of those feelings at all and this is just a fluke of the camera shutter. The second is a composite shot of a bird feeding station. It was taken over about 20 minutes and shows the activity going. In truth, it portrays the frantic activity the birds go through just feed in the depths of the winter. However, it could never be entered to a wildlife photographic competition whereas the first one could - yet both say something about the experience of being a bird in winter

Birds Feeding on a wall - Calke.

So what is the point of this rambling? I guess I am getting disillusioned with the restrictions of natural history photography - interesting these restrictions are not placed on the documentary film making world. In a recent Life episode a whole hill side was replicated in a studio to recreate the change in the seasons. A fantastic invocation of the passing season but totally false - yet it told so much more about the whole process of passage of time on the creatures on that hill than any amount of stills or 'normal' film making would have. Could it be that I am just frustrated that I cannot get my work accepted and so are striking out at the rules? I hope not but you can never totally sure on this matter.

In the end a great photograph is just that, whether it meets the rules of the game is another matter. I guess the view taken is that natural history photography is a branch of photojournalism and so should be authentic - a true record. I just don't feel that few are - when you take into account hides, cropping and the impact of the technology.

Images for next weeks meeting

Start and Finish

I have spent an interesting day putting together a series of images for next weeks meeting.  I have been interested in the question of what makes a good photograph (I know that is an almost impossible question to answer as it is always very subjective but it is one I have been thinking about for a while now).   Anyway, what I have been working on is the difference between an image at the start of the process compared to what it end up like.   

To examine this I made a series of prints based on the RPS submission.   They are diptychs comparing the image at the start and end.   I find the result very revealing about how I work as photographer.  I clearly like images that are fully saturated or with strong blacks and contrasts if they are black and white images.  They also benefit from extensive work in Photoshop.  I am going to keep them in a folder of other images that I printed off over two years ago.  This too is a fascinating comparison of how my photography has changed over time.  In short and enjoyable days work.

As this progressed I decide to produce two images based on composite images.  Again looking at the images now after a few months it is interesting to see how I constructed the images for a particular effect.  I think you can define me as a photographer when you compare the raw images with the final product.

To end the day I printed off a couple of images that just took my fancy.  I have to say the printer appears to be working much better compared to with the previous computer.

Thinking about the next project/module

We have to present/bring in 7 to 10 images at the next meeting to show our current work.  I have been working on composite images over the past few months and I am looking at producing something about this.  I am not sure what this will entail at the moment but an idea has been itching at the back of my head for sometime about 'contact sheets'.  Why was a particular image chosen and what lead up to that image.  As you can see this is not a very well formed idea at the moment but it is something I thinking about.  Not sure how this will play out?

More about Composite Images

Feeding Time - Staunton Harold Reservoir

I have been working on producing a composite image this morning and the results have been very encouraging.  However, I think I need to reflect on the issues raised by the approach I have taken.

Set Up

The set is very simple.  Find an area where the birds come to feed.  Place your camera nearby with a wireless remote attached and when the birds arrive - take the images.   

Technical issue with this approach

Living in the UK the light is at best marginal.  On very rare days we get brilliant sunshine.  When this occurs then there is sufficient light to mean that you can use high shutter speeds with low ISO.   However, on most of the other days you have to do battle with poor light an high ISO.   This causes the image to degrade.  No doubt the best pro cameras don't suffer from this problem but I haven't got the luxury of this so I have to make do with the technical limitations of the Canon 40D.   At high ISO it starts to suffer.  Also it will only take 6 FPS on JPEG which also adds to the problems.

This brings us onto flash.   I have tried to use a flash before but this has two problems.  Firstly,  it scares the birds - bit of a show stopper this!   Secondly, most cameras are only sync'd to a maximum of 200th of a second shutter speed - a slow speed for what I am trying to achieve.  No doubt there are technical fixes to these issues but I am not willing to spend the money just yet.

I will need to think about this some more and see if I can't come up with some better solutions.

Boy was it cold!

Nuthatch - Calke Abbey

Well I am finally warming up having spent most of the day out in the field taking photographs.  Well, this is not strictly true.  Most of the time I was sitting in my car pressing the wireless remote as the camera took the brunt of the cold.   However, I did spend about half an hour or so standing outside at Calke abbey - that was enough even through layers of thermal fleeces, long johns and coats.   Was it worth it?  Yes and no.  Yes because I was able to capture some interesting studies of the Nuthatch and no because the montage images are a little disappointing.  I relied on the auto exposure and for some reason when shooting at high speed, circa 6 FPS and 100th plus a second the images were under exposed.   Something to ponder about.   For the record I took over 1800 images which I was able to whittle down to just over 300 - these in turn will be used for 6 montage images.  The rest were portrait of birds and the odd landscape.

All in all a good day, with a few reservations.

Progress - I have a short list...

Progress of sorts.  I have reduced my black and white images from last year to a final 8.   However, I have no idea yet how to reduce these to 4 or 2 or 1...now I have got to do the same with the colour images and then come up with some form of selection for the final 4.   Still this is showing progress I think.  I have to submit the images by the 4th Feb to the RPS.

On a more positive note I am off to try and capture some more images of birds for the montage/composite/superimposed series this morning.  The light is looking good so lets hope I get some good results.

My Head Hurts

Great Tit Feeding

Decisions Decisions Decisions.   I cannot choose, I need help! 

Why am I in such a confused state?  Well I am trying to choose 4 images for the RPS print competition.   Do I submit 4 black and white images?  This would be the easiest to print but I have some really lovely colour images and should I not use this as an exercise to raise my printing game to the next level?  Oh I just don't know.  I think I will have to go away and thing about this.  The only decision I have made is to restrict myself to 2008 so this has left me with a long list of 90 images I have to choose from.   I have looked at last year's catalogue and this doesn't really help.  The judges comments weren't much help either.  Oh what a to do.

On a brighter note I have worked on another composite image.   This is really quite interesting to do from a technical point of view.   It also allows you to view bird behavior that, as my wife rightly points out, is over in a flash.  I hope to capture some more images this week.  My intention is to shoot in JPEG format so that I can crank the FPS over the 6 mark compared to RAW's 2 -3 FPS .  This should provide even greater detail.  If only choosing the images were so easy!

Printing and other things

Birds at Staunton Harold Reservoir Car Park

I got around to installing the printer today.   I had to down load the new 64 bit drivers and they installed no problem.  The printer appears to be very stable but is printing a little dark at the moment.  However, I have got to calibrate my screen yet and this might over come some of this.

As I mentioned a few days ago I have been playing around with creating images of several birds superimposed onto one another to make a montage.  The above effort is my first attempt.  I think this shows great promise.   The question is what type of photograph is it?   Is it a photograph at all as this was created with a great deal of digital processing?   In the end I keep coming back to a question that was thrown at me from one of the seminars - Does is matter?   Well in one sense it does matter - I couldn't enter this as an editorial photograph.  However, as I am not that type of photographer that is not a great consideration.   In the end I like it and for me that is all that matters.

An Idea

Chaffinch Taking Off

I have been toying with an idea since shooting a series of images with my wireless remote.   Superimposing them to make a more impressive shot than one image.   I have done this before with such images as 30 minutes at Heathrow.   I have also made other images of birds but this is different.  This is a single background taken again and again from the same angle.   This has some interesting variations that is worth pursuing.   Only time will tell if it works.

30 minutes at Heathrow