The Hunter's Perch
This particular photography session wasn't planned. We'd just returned from a swim at Ningaloo with a few rather large spotty fish when, on the way back into Tantabiddy boat ramp, I noticed an Osprey flying in the distance. Once we'd disembarked, I grabbed the camera and headed a few hundred metres along the beach, part of the greater Cape Range National Park, to see if I could find it.
Rather than immediately chasing the bird around with a camera, I spent some time watching. Before long, a pattern began to emerge.
The Osprey seemed to be using an old post as a regular stopping point. It would leave the perch and head out, apparently searching for food, then return before either continuing towards the nest or heading back towards the reef. Suddenly, photographing it became a lot easier.
I didn't need to follow every flight. I had a pretty good idea where it was going to come back.
On one of those returns, it arrived carrying a fish. I hadn't seen the catch itself, but clearly the previous excursion had been worthwhile.
The temptation with wildlife photography is often to get as much bird into the frame as possible. Bigger lens. Tighter crop. More detail. For this image, I deliberately went the other way. I wanted the Osprey to have some breathing room. By pulling the composition back and including the grasses and surrounding landscape, the photograph became less about a portrait of an Osprey and more about the bird in its environment.
At 400mm I still had plenty of reach, but enough negative space remained around the bird to give the composition the feeling I wanted. I used a shutter speed of 1/1250 second. The bird might have been sitting patiently when I pressed the shutter, but an Osprey doesn't exactly provide notice when it decides to leave.
Most importantly, I didn't have to chase it. Once I'd taken the time to understand what it was doing, I could concentrate on the composition and simply wait for the bird to return. Much easier. The Osprey was doing most of the work anyway.
Sometimes wildlife photography is less about following your subject and more about spending enough time watching to understand what it's likely to do next. And occasionally, it even comes back carrying lunch.
馃摲 Photography Notes
Photography Settings
- Focal Length: 400mm
- Aperture: f/8
- Shutter Speed: 1/1250 sec
- ISO: 250
- Approach: Observing from a distance and anticipating the bird's return to a regular perch
Tips & Techniques
Watch before you follow
Wildlife often has patterns. Spending time observing behaviour can tell you far more than constantly moving around trying to keep up with your subject.
Give wildlife room in the frame
A tight portrait isn't always the strongest composition. Including some of the environment can tell us much more about where and how an animal lives.
Anticipate the moment
If you identify a regular perch, feeding area or flight path, you can compose the photograph in advance and let the wildlife come to you.
Keep enough shutter speed available
A perched bird can become a flying bird very quickly. Choosing a shutter speed that allows for sudden movement gives you more options when behaviour changes.
Keep your distance
A long lens isn't only about filling the frame. It's also a valuable tool for photographing wildlife without unnecessarily approaching or disturbing it.
One of the most useful skills in wildlife photography has surprisingly little to do with cameras - It's learning to watch.
Animals rarely behave completely randomly. Given enough time, patterns begin to appear. A favourite perch, a feeding route, a direction of travel or a repeated behaviour can give you clues about what might happen next.
Once you recognise those patterns, photography becomes less reactive. Instead of chasing the moment, you can be ready for it.
And sometimes the strongest wildlife image isn't the closest one. Leaving space around an animal can show something a tight portrait cannot: a sense of place, scale and the world the animal belongs to.
Workshops & Photography Lessons
If you'd like to improve your wildlife photography, Rick offers personalised one-on-one photography lessons as well as small-group photography workshops.
You'll learn how to work with longer lenses, choose appropriate shutter speeds, compose wildlife within its environment, and use observation and animal behaviour to anticipate opportunities rather than simply reacting to them.
Whether you're interested in wildlife, landscapes or developing stronger camera skills generally, photography lessons can be tailored to your experience, your equipment and the areas you'd most like to improve.