Wildlife Portraits
Most photographs of birds and animals are what we would call Wildlife Photojournalism. The photographer stalks the animal and tries to capture it doing something interesting, if possible in a photogenic setting. Successful practioners of Wildlife Photojournalism produce some exquisite images of which we are envious. Although it is usually obvious that the image was captured with a telephoto lens.
But in this portfolio we are trying to do something a bit different. We are trying to do Wildlife Portraiture. We would like to move animals into the controlled environment of the studio and photograph them much as we would a human portrait subject. We cannot do exactly that. But, with recent advances in photo technology, we can achieve a similar effect.
First, the animal is captured where ever we manage to find it -- alongside the road using the car as a blind, in a zoo, wherever. My wife, Judith, does most of this capture using a Nikon D300 with a vibration stabilized, 80-400mm telephoto lens. Then, using the tools of Photoshop, the animal is isolated and inserted into an ecologically appropriate background. I take most of the backgrounds using either a 4x5 view camera or a Mamiya7 roll film camera and I do most of the heavy duty Photoshoppery. And then we both sign the print since this is definitely a collaboration that needs both our talents.
I hope you like the results. If we do it right it looks like the image was captured with a short focal length lens and we were figuratively sitting in the animal's lap. In other words, like a real portrait.
Giving credit where due, we were inspired to make these images by the wildlife photography of Nick Brandt. As I understand it, he makes his stunning portraits of African wildlife by actually getting extremely close to his subjects. Well, we are impressed, but we never intend to get that close to a grizzly, or a wolf, or even a bison. You can judge whether or not we have managed to obtain a similar impact by less life-threatening means.
But in this portfolio we are trying to do something a bit different. We are trying to do Wildlife Portraiture. We would like to move animals into the controlled environment of the studio and photograph them much as we would a human portrait subject. We cannot do exactly that. But, with recent advances in photo technology, we can achieve a similar effect.
First, the animal is captured where ever we manage to find it -- alongside the road using the car as a blind, in a zoo, wherever. My wife, Judith, does most of this capture using a Nikon D300 with a vibration stabilized, 80-400mm telephoto lens. Then, using the tools of Photoshop, the animal is isolated and inserted into an ecologically appropriate background. I take most of the backgrounds using either a 4x5 view camera or a Mamiya7 roll film camera and I do most of the heavy duty Photoshoppery. And then we both sign the print since this is definitely a collaboration that needs both our talents.
I hope you like the results. If we do it right it looks like the image was captured with a short focal length lens and we were figuratively sitting in the animal's lap. In other words, like a real portrait.
Giving credit where due, we were inspired to make these images by the wildlife photography of Nick Brandt. As I understand it, he makes his stunning portraits of African wildlife by actually getting extremely close to his subjects. Well, we are impressed, but we never intend to get that close to a grizzly, or a wolf, or even a bison. You can judge whether or not we have managed to obtain a similar impact by less life-threatening means.
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