05/02/2021
Settle in, its story time...Admittedly wildlife photography for me, while being something I am passionate about and enjoy has always been opportunistic. I get my camera, head somewhere and I get what I get. Part of that is down to locations, in that there isn't a huge amount of 'interesting' or exotic animals that live around here and another part of that is down to me not really having the time or patience to spend hours or days in a hide (I also don't have a hide). Full respect to those who can, like the guys making I think it was BBCs perfect planet who spent two whole winters in hides in Russian forests trying to film a tiger which never turned up other than triggering a camera trap they'd set up strapped to a tree, I mean they got the shot but that must be pretty crappy to do all that and a box on a tree is what gets the shot.
This makes things unpredictable, which can often be somewhat frustrating as I go home empty handed having spent the last hour or so staring at a duck in the vain hope it does something interesting then wondering why the local creatures don't want to play nice. For me though, part of the wonder of nature is in its unpredictability, so although sometimes I go somewhere and watch a seagull drag what's left of yesterdays £3 meal deal out of a bin, other times it can result in an expected treat.
Thats where this photo comes in. I always take my camera when I go for a walk around the park and its rare to see herons around here, so seeing 7 was quite a sight, and seeing a couple of those performing what I can assume is a mating ritual of fanning their feathers, and dancing their heads around was a very rare treat and a welcome few minutes of distraction from everything going on in the world.
Theres no doubt that this opportunity approach isn't an ideal one, Im sure that if I spent time planning and researching locations like I do with events, researching the behaviour of the species (also like I do for some events) and organised trips based on a plethora of information then it would result in a more targeted success rate than my current approach does. The downside to that approach is two-fold though. The first being we are currently in lockdown meaning that although technically speaking professional photography can go ahead as its impossible to do from home and wildlife photography being almost inherently socially distanced, I don't think it would be right to be out and about the whole time during this pandemic when so many people cannot be. Anything we can do to minimise the potential of spreading anything is for the better. The second downside is that for me it takes the fun out of it. Seeing as photographing wildlife is something I enjoy and whilst prints are available (shameless plug: message me or email through nhortonphotography.co.uk for pricing if you're interested) and its beneficial for my business to be taking photos, its also something I like to do. So all the planning, the research, the weather forecasts, the drive routes etc... sort of takes the joy out of it, and I'd rather be out taking photos than sitting in front of the laptop, so yeah an opportunistic approach will have to do.
If you made it this far without falling asleep or rethinking your life choices then drop this post a like and share and/or nip over to instagram to give me a follow or check out the website www.nhortonphotography.co.uk
Im also considering starting a blog where I could type out more of this general waffling and be sarcastic about varying aspects of photography, the photo industry in general and poke some fun at some photographic stereotypes. If you'd be interested in reading something like that then let me know by leaving a comment.
Have a good weekend everyone!
