Finding Inspiration in Others

Wildlife photos can be ruined because the backgrounds are cluttered, distracting to the viewer, or just plain ugly. An example, black bears on a seashore can be beautiful… black bears at the local dump just seem wrong. It is just far less natural and not inspirational.

A general rule to follow… “Anything that does not make my photo better makes it worse.”

This does not mean you can’t take a good wildlife photo at the zoo. You just need to manage the setting. A good tip to remember is the following. If your background is spoiling your shot, zoom right in on the subject to eliminate as much of the background as possible.

By zooming in, you will also reduce the depth of field to a minimum, so any background that does appear in your photo will be out of focus and less distracting.

On the flip side, a wildlife photograph that captures the subject in a beautiful natural setting can be even more effective than a simple close-up. This is my preferred way to take a wildlife photo. My inspiration comes from the paintings of Robert Bateman, a fellow Canadian. 

In some of the Bateman paintings I admire, I notice that Robert pays less attention to the detail of the animal and more attention to form, light, leading lines, and space. His ability to create a painting that conveys a sense of place for the animal is inspiring to me. If you study his paintings you will notice that he uses negative space, environmental items, and the indigenous flora and fauna to convey that sense of space. Robert also uses neutral tones in his art. He holds back extreme whites and blacks in his paintings, and only uses these extremes when he wants the eye to focus on one particular area. I identified with that aspect of his images, and you can see that inspiration in many of my images. It’s just a little harder to achieve with the camera than creating the environment with a paintbrush. :-)

Robert Bateman Paintings

The following are some of my favorite Robert Bateman images. Each of these has inspired me to research and travel to photograph these species in their environments.

Let’s look at a few of my images from my travels. I want to use a few examples to help you better understand how I approach backgrounds and how Robert inspired my own personal style of photography.

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Robert Batemans painting of a female lion in the tall grass was one of my inspirations during one of my trips to Tanzania. I used a combination of his minimalism. and a washed out look I had seen on the walls of Namiri Plains camp.

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This is one of my all-time favorite images by Robert Bateman. During a trip to the Great Bear Rainforest I was in a very similar setting. I could have easily created an image identical to his. Instead, I chose to create my version of a black bear coming out of the darkness.

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Dozing-Lynx-by-Robert-Bateman.jpg

The sleeping Lynx photo by Robert Bateman is one of his most famous paintings. The subtlety of the light, and the use of darkness to draw the eye down to the Lynx is beautiful.

In my image I chose to use the darkness on the top left as an element to frame the Lynx, but also surround the Lynx… hoping it would make it pop off the screen better. The rest of the image I wanted to be complimentary to show a typical winter setting in northern Canada.

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Here are a few other images that were inspired by the Robert Bateman’s painting style.

Conclusion

I am not suggesting you go out and find a photographer and painter that you like, then copy all of their images. I am merely suggesting you find someone that inspires you. Someone that will help you pursue your style of photos. Thanks to Robert Bateman, I have started to refine my style when the situation presents itself.


Check out my workshop page for my lineup of wildlife workshops.

I also have a wildlife eBook that you might enjoy reading. You can read about that book here.

Kevin A Pepper