Wildlife Photography and Context.... Tell a Story with a Complete Scene

Great video as always! As a photographer, how does it impact you when the photos that you like most are not received well by your audience? I mainly post on social media, and I find that the photos I like the most are often shunned by the viewers and only get a lukewarm reception. And what seems to add to this perception is that the more experience I get as a photographer, the more refine my personal preference and the less people seem to respond. It seems if you get a tight shot of your subject and then over process the image with color saturation and increased contrast, the more people love it?

A bit too full of yourself

Talking about colour and seasons, here in Australia, brown, dry grass and dull green colours represent our summers. Strong greens represent winter and colourful flowers represent spring. For autumn the nice leaf colours come from non-native plants so I don't see any defining feature for Autumn in Australia.

Something these images largely have in common is the subject is fairly small in frame. Some of these I liked and others did nothing for me.

Great video Scott. I am totally agree with you here about the story telling in this photos. The last photo was not only context, but a really peace of art. What a stunning photo.
Wishing you and yours a great weekend.
Cheers, Bjoern.

Great video Scott! Context is everything!

Good video thanks. It would have been helpful if you could have included the setting used by the photographers to obtain I.e. Bokeh or sharpness etc

Beautifully done. I would love to see more of your videos incorporating other photographer's work. The hawk in the tree, Pygmy Nuthatch, and that final Egret in the swamp were outstanding and inspiring. The subjects were first rate. And the supportive cast of the environment made these photos a work of art.

Good job! Liked the great thought provoking perspective. Thanks,

Excellent point. Thanks.

Hi Scott. Love what you do online and truly love your photography. Thanks for this video! I have an idea for a video, which goes to the typical styles used by wildlife photographers. You seem to bridge both worlds, but a good chunk of the online community like the very low light, wide open, tight depth of field. This gives one set of effects. Another "school" prefers bright, diffuse light, f/8'ish - enough depth of field to capture the entire subject, in sharp detail. Most people from both schools prefer a fore/background that isolates the subject. There are pro's and con's of both schools. Both are interesting toolkits. Both might expand the "normal" hours a photographer uses to do their photos. An idea.

Your video shows the relevance of context. This idea flits across my mind from time to time, but this vid helps remind me of its value and I hope to make the environmental context more central to what I do. Thanks!

I haven’t really, in this point of my photography journey though a lot about this or even planned for it in a image, but what I like about your videos is that you make me think about possibilities such as composition and story telling. So now I have to program myself to think about these things and really look at the subject and surrounding environment to find a story to tell instead of just snapping a picture.

Good video and great concept. I have a question though. If you enter a context in the "bird" category, will a good portrait shot always beat a context shot? I feel that if the bird is too small in the frame it will never beat a good large portrait.

Nice video with a good message and great photography. Your microphone looks nice, but sounds terrible. It sounds like you’re in a tin can and your “S” sounds are getting clipped or something. They echo annoyingly.

Wonderful video and some stunning images. I like to anthropomorphize birds as I'm looking to keep a childlike freshness to my images. You are spot on about context. It's all about context I reckon!

LOVE these kinds of photos! Going to try pulling back and trying something more like this.
I think having a ‘landscape photography’ background separates those that can envision these images from those who take ‘portraits’ or ‘document’ shots… although there’s plenty of merit and beauty in all types of compositions!

Another great video Scott. Always enjoyable and thought-provoking.

I love this! I have been a little bored with my photography lately and this inspired me!

Great video Scott it is probably the most difficult part of wildlife photography especially in one frame 👍

I think you nailed it in this video! Story telling in photography is becoming a lost art. I think it is mainly due to social media and the vanity metrics. Everyone wants to post the perfect sharp subject with perfectly blurred backgrounds. I always enjoy the photographers and content creators that share their learning experiences when they are out in the field. I know I look at the medium of photography as an art and science. Finding creators that treat it as such is becoming rare due to algorithms in social media. Thanks for this great thought provoking production!

I thought your presentation was great. Putting a bird (or any wildlife) in context is important. It is also a good approach for those of us who are not blessed with really big glass (e.g., 600-800 mm). For example, those of us with 400-500 mm lenses, we necessarily get context along with the portrait of the critter. Why not use that to our advantage?

I don't know about 'telling a story' but it 'Grounds' the birds in the scene. In the last image, the Egret was a supporting element for the cypress more than the reverse, but, it really depends on the viewer's perspective.

It's almost impossible to tell a "story" with a single image, unless you change the definition of story. You need a series of images or a video. An image of a cattle egret with a cow doesn't tell a story. It just gives you more information and another visual element to work into the composition, possibly enabling you to create a composition with more visual and/or emotiotional impact. I once heard a photographer say " I'm not a photographer. I'm a visual storyteller." Don't encourage this egocentric crap!

This is what I have tended to do since the beginning. I love creating a scene that makes the viewer feel what it was like for me taking that photo in that place on that day. I do "bird portraits" as well where the birds are taking up the vast majority of the shot, but I usually take at least one photo of the same bird that includes the environment around him or her. I love knowing that someone who really knows his stuff does the same thing!

What a great video and discussion! This is exactly the type of content that most of us need to expand our vision and improve our photography. Thank you!

Sometimes you just need to zoom out!