The standard of modern wildlife photography has become phenomenal over recent years. The technology of modern cameras and lenses has for most people pushed the bar well out of their reach. Unless you can afford the very latest of equipment as well as trips to far off locations then you will always be at a disadvantage. So what do you do with if you use more basic equipment.
It's perfectly possible to get great images of common species close to home. Garden species and local parks provide lots of opportunities. However wildife images these days seem to be mostly frame filling, pin sharp action(?) shots. Never more so than with bird photography.
What about great images with animals in them rather than great animal pictures? What about images expressing feelings rather than precise scientific copies.
The Wildife Photgrapher of the Year competition has some amazing entries where the animal itself is not important, but is an important part of the aesthetic of the image.
I'm extremely lucky in that my backyard includes the sea and I have access to it for my work. I have literally hundreds of shots of 'frozen dolphins' (animals caught in mid air with high shutter speeds and ISO settings), whales against clever backgrounds or pin sharp gliding birds, but where is the expression? Where is my artistic intent in the image?
Don't get me wrong I would still love to photograph breaching Orcas in Alaska, but hey, why go with the crowd when I have such amazing opportunities right here. I now intend to spend nearly all my wildlife time trying for those more expressive images. I'm not after a image to go in an identification book, I'm after trying to capture the feelings I had at the time of the encounter.
Another image in Latest Work.