Wild surroundings
Q
How much of the environment should I include in my images of wildlife?
AThere are no hard rules on this. I think it very much depends on the scene you are faced with – but it’s true that including the environment as well as the main subject is a great habit to get into if you love wildlife photography. I always try to capture a range
of images at different focal lengths, although I know the temptation can be to use the extreme end of your telephoto. In the excitement of a wildlife encounter, it’s easy to forget to experiment: it’s not until afterwards when you’re reviewing your images that you realise you shot everything using a tight composition.
There may be times when this is the right approach, such as a captive animal in an enclosure, but if you’ve taken the trouble to find a subject in the wild, why not show its relationship to it? While a close-up of the animal will show details of fur, feather or scales, a composition that includes its surroundings will often be more effective. If you look at my two example images of a polar bear in Greenland, the tightly framed shot is all about the animal’s stride, plus the colours and textures of the fur. It was shot at 400mm on my 100-400mm lens. However the second image, taken at 150mm and from further back, really gives a stronger sense of place as the bear walks along the snow line at the base of a basalt cliff. Both are valid shots, but each one tells a slightly different story – and that’s what you should endeavour to do.