When you Google “wildlife photography images,” the pictures that pop up are a collection of large cats, wolves, foxes, bears, red squirrels, and monkeys, along with a couple of elk, eagles, owls, and penguins. Oh, and a smattering of people behind very long lenses in different environments. With the exception of Karine Aigner’s 2022 Wildlife Photographer of the Year image of “The Big Buzz,” only one other image of an insect made the first page of image results. Granted, a lot has to do with SEO, but when was the last time you saw an image of a beautiful butterfly or a brilliantly photographed beetle and thought, “Wow! What a great wildlife image?”
So why do we as wildlife photographers focus so narrowly on just certain very identifiable or colorful species such as the “Big Five” or magnificently colored birds? Unless you happen to live somewhere like Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA; Phalaborwa, Limpopo, South Africa; or Monteverde, Costa Rica, photographing these “iconic” megafauna species means having the ability and financial resources to travel. However, there is wildlife all around you!
With this in mind, I want you to start considering the vast amount of wildlife you may have around you on a daily basis. Maybe it’s the caterpillars that eat your herbs on the back porch or the sparrows that visit the puddles in your garden after a rain. The biodiversity within each small greenspace offers us a chance to connect and spread awareness of all the various species that coexist in both urban and rural environments.
Set Up a Natural Studio
Instead of spending a ton of money to travel across the country or internationally, consider investing in creating a better backyard habitat for the species of wildlife native to your own region. This can be something as small as a few plants in a container to a full acre or more of habitat. Not only does this boost biodiversity, but it also provides you with an ongoing local shooting location to capture amazing images.
When I moved into my current place in winter 2020, there was only a single small flowerbed with all ornamental plants and a small yard covered in a cultivated hybrid turf. As I looked around this sprawling newer neighborhood, all I could see was what amounted to a food desert for pollinators. As spring emerged, I set about installing nearly 50 square meters/500 square feet of native perennial plants that offer a variety of blooms throughout the growing months. This in turn attracted insects of all shapes, sizes, colors, and textures.
When picking native plants, consider the types of insects you want to attract. Which plants are host plants for certain species of butterflies? Which plants bloom throughout the growing season? Which bloom early or late in the season to support pollinators that start early or need that extra boost in late fall? Also, consider which ones grow the best for your particular microclimate, be it wet, dry, sunny or shaded.
Within days of the first plant blooming, I started seeing more butterflies coming through my yard. By the second fall season, when here in central Texas we get our second large bloom of the year, I had weeks where the sheer number of butterflies was beyond dazzling. For two weeks in a row, I had more than 40 endangered monarchs feeding and resting in my garden each afternoon.
With this garden in place, I now have the ability to step just outside my back door and photograph wildlife for hours. I made sure to design the garden with sitting spots and “shooting lanes” in mind, being mindful that I wanted to have plants of various sizes and shapes that would provide good backgrounds and disguise the fence that surrounds the property.
Observe the Light
Just as we should study the light we will most likely encounter when traveling to some far-flung location, we need to observe how the light travels around our homes to understand the best times to photograph in our natural studios. This changes not only based on the time of day but also by the time of the year. Learn how to anticipate the lighting based on the time of day and season when in a particular location. This is a huge perk of having a local photography location you know like the back of your hand.
Understanding that one side of my garden falls into open shade later in the afternoon is paramount to the timing of when I photograph in this section. Why? Because the open shade gives me bright, consistent lighting while the late afternoon gives me the warmer temperatures that allow insect species, such as butterflies, bees, and wasps, to be most active.
Backyard wildlife photography is not just something to be done during a pandemic, but should be encouraged to promote conservation and connection with the smaller, less iconic wildlife species that are our neighbors. Next week, I’ll share tips on macro and close-up photography in order to capture these smaller creatures for your portfolio, which can help you with your entry in this month’s photo contest! Check out journalofwildlifephotography.com/monthly-photo-contest for more information on that.