It's in the Eyes!

English

While watching Joel Sartore’s photography video tutorials I remember how this well known National Geographic photo journalist often stressed the importance of capturing the eyes of animals when dealing with portraits of pets and wild life in general. He mentioned that this sometimes meant getting uncomfortable, down on the ground in the dirt, dealing with mud, climbing trees and of course using a decent zoom lens to capture those important animal facial features on camera. Putting in the effort to capture good close ups could mean the difference between taking decent animal portraits and pictures that mean little indeed.

Of course the above is nothing new to the experienced wild life photographer but I felt they were useful tips for complete novices like myself. I decided I needed to try Joel's tips out!

Elephant cub, Tangkahan Rehabilitation Centre, Sumatra, Indonesia.

So, over the course of the past year I made an effort to put Joel’s words into practice and in the process discovered that it’s not as easy as one might think. Wild life photography is hard at any level as getting close to an animal in it's natural habitat is hard enough on it's own let alone taking any decent pictures. Luckily Joel, well aware of the difficulties, suggests in his videos that that national parks, wild life sanctuaries and zoos are all good places to for beginners.

The Indonesian National Park of Bukit Lawang in North Sumatra is a location that I enjoyed very much. This park isn’t far from the port town of Medan and is known for being an established orangoutang rehabilitation centre. Orphaned and injured apes are brought here from other parts of the country that have been ravaged by deforestation (Java, Borneo). The animals are cared for, fed and healed and slowly nursed back into the wild. However, many apes loose their fear of humans during the rehabilitation process and even after years in the wild will allow humans to approach them up to within a few feet's distance. Taking pictures of these extraordinary apes is therefore not difficult, actually it’s pretty easy. Of course, flash photography is not advised and you need to keep an eye out for any sign of frustration especially from the bigger adult orangutangs who's mission it is to protect their young. Generally there are no issues at all. A 300mm lens is sufficient to capture some extraordinary scenes.

The past few months have taught me that taking pictures of animals is tricky. Your camera needs to be set up with the right aperture and shutter speed and ready to catch what is often a fleeting moment, an instant in which a monkey, ape, cat or dog, turns its gaze to the camera or looks away with an interesting gaze. The eyes are certainly key! A fast and efficient autofocus is good to have. Sometimes a continuous shot function is very useful too.

Black Palm Cockatoo, Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, Malaysia.

Will a smart phone allow for good wild life pictures? Yes, for sure! But it’s general opinion that the quality of pictures you get from a smart phone isn’t quite as good as what can be obtained from a CSC or DSLR camera.

In the end though the type of machine you have is hardly relevant. Joel Sartore always makes a point in reminding his followers that the best camera in the world is the one you have available!