by Lorne Sulcas, APSSA – wildlife photography (digital), APSSA – wildlife photography (slide)
“leopard portrait” ©Lorne Sulcas (click to increase size)
My now thirty-something (apologies, neither maths nor memory are my strong suits) year old love affair with wildlife photography was born whilst working for close on a decade as a game ranger-guide in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, in my opinion one of the greatest places on earth to photograph wildlife — and especially Africa’s Big Cats — at close range.
But believe it or not, I was guiding safari game drives there six hours a day, every day, for a whole year before I even picked up a camera. Of course, I kick myself every day at all the photographic opportunities I missed. And of course, this was back in the pre-digital age (that’s right, I’m quite old😊), so the medium of choice at the time was transparency (slide) film, where every frame counted and had a definite monetary value.
Thankfully private guiding my own Big Cat photographic safaris for the last twenty-something years since leaving the Sabi Sand has given me many subsequent photographic years and opportunities in the bush – and a digital camera😊! But I’m grateful for those unforgiving early years of photographing wildlife when all I had was a fully (and solely) manual film camera, which forced me to learn the skills of taking a quality wildlife photo to start with rather than making one after the fact (no offence to probably everyone who’s reading this, who have digital post-processing skills I can only be in awe of). Everything for me was trial and error — the latter of which I made many — and so the learning curve was steep (and expensive; as I said the cost of processing slide film was crippling, especially on a game-ranger’s meagre salary). There was no “saving” an image through post-processing, and no “delete” button. Every mistake or less than perfect image literally went into the bin.
There’s a saying: “Learn from experience – other people’s”. So in an effort to possibly help shortcut the process for anyone interested in wildlife photography, and help you avoid some mistakes, here are a few things I’ve learned over the thirty-something years of photographing the planet’s (mostly) four-legged magnificent creatures.
Make it different
With the advent of digital photography and the rapid amazing advancements in technology (e.g. automated settings and focus, now mirrorless cameras, post-processing tools such as Photoshop and Lightroom, etc.), it has become relatively easy to take wildlife photos that are sharp and decently exposed. With wildlife photography becoming so popular and accessible, what is going to separate your wildlife images from everyone else’s? What can you do to take photos that are unique, that the world has not already seen? In-camera it’s about your choice of framing, composition, exposure and timing. In post-processing, you have the tools to crop, adjust pretty much everything, and even apply effects (provided of course that you are not entering the image into a wildlife photography competition where the rules are purist and allow only very specific/limited adjustments). For me personally, I have a deep interest in and understanding of animal behaviour, so capturing unique moments of behaviour and interactions is one of my favourite ways of creating unique images.
But this takes… Patience, patience, and … did I say it yet?… patience. NatGeo-type doccies are often incredible, with unbelievable footage, where in the maybe 40 minutes of each episode, you can see five kills, two births, and seven inter-species interactions, all of which has taken 15 YEARS to film! Great wildlife sightings (and photographing/recording them) are without a doubt a function of spending time in the bush. And here more is definitely more. When my kids grew impatient waiting in the (often sweltering) car for hours for the lion to look up out of the grass or for the leopard (if we were lucky enough to find one) to emerge from its hiding place in the thicket, my motto was always: “Wait long enough, and you’ll see great stuff.” Now that they’re adults I can come clean with them that in the majority of the many trips to the bush we took them on as kids, this motto was not strictly accurate. In fact most times your patience won’t pay off. But the extent to which it will pay off is, absolutely, directly proportionate to the amount of time you spend (immersed) in that environment. Great sightings and wildlife photography can be about luck, and sometimes you can get very lucky in one game drive, or other times you might have very few photo opportunities in five game drives. The more willing you are to patiently sit at a seemingly lifeless waterhole for the whole morning, or to wait for hours for that sleeping lion to wake up and yawn, or for that instant when that leopard turns its head to face you, or for that split second when the oxpeckers fly off the giraffe as it walks, the luckier you WILL get. In wildlife photography patience is a way to make your own luck.
“on the way to the Ark” ©Lorne Sulcas (click to increase size)
Now, that said, there are ways to be smart (and of course not so smart) about when you exercise that patience.
Time of day
Winter or summer, the animals are most active in the cooler hours of the day. So, the soonest after sunrise and the latest before sunset you can be photographing, the more chance you have of seeing and capturing great behaviour and sightings. Fortunately this also coincides with the “Golden Hour” immediately after sunrise and before sunset, when the light is so warm and beautiful you feel like you want to drink it. THAT’S the light in which you want to be photographing. You might have heard the expression that “photography is painting with light.” As with all photography, the light is so important. Even a fairly “ordinary” scene or subject in beautiful, warm, soft, light can have huge impact and appeal. Conversely photographing wildlife in the harsh midday light will often yield blown-out and/or flat images that even the most skilled post-processors will be challenged by.
P.S. Because of the higher density of dust particles in the air in the more arid/semi-desert parks of Southern Africa like the Kgalagadi or Etosha, the “Golden Hour” and the sunsets there are typically qualitatively richer, more photogenic and beautiful. And for the same reason photographing in the middle of the day in those places is qualitatively worse because of the harshness of the midday light there.
Knowledge
I count myself extremely lucky. The decades of guiding safaris throughout Southern and East Africa and the cumulative time I’ve been fortunate enough to have spent watching and photographing Africa’s great creatures over so many years, have given me a deep knowledge of both the animals, their behavioural ecology, and of so many different ecosystems and places… I can honestly say that this knowledge is what has been the most valuable to my own wildlife photography and to the help I’ve been able to impart to my safari clients and lodge guests. Understanding your subjects and being able to anticipate their movements and behaviour, as well as the particular environment and conditions, and knowing exactly when (and when not) to press the shutter, or where/how to position yourself for the optimum light and critical moment, is all so key to shooting great wildlife images. Of course, there are some incredible resources out there to expand one’s knowledge, certainly of facts and figures, not least of which is (the newly reinvented AI version of) our trusted friend Google. But I have to say that nothing replaces empirical experience of repeatedly personally witnessing and understanding particular behaviours and patterns. And that, naturally (excuse the pun), although admittedly perhaps expensively, comes with years of time.
No shortcuts to success. Actually, maybe there is one…
Now, I can already hear you saying: “But Lorne, I don’t have years of time. I want to have that knowledge and be able to take great pics right now.” To that I answer: “You’re in luck!” As I said earlier, you can still learn from experience — someone else’s. You can shortcut those years … by standing on the shoulders of others who’ve “been there and done that”. Find someone with credibility, real and long experience and empirical knowledge of the bush and that region/national park, who can accompany and guide you in real time on safari right there. I can honestly say, without meaning for a second to sound arrogant, that in the decades I’ve been doing this, I have had so many clients and lodge guests so grateful for genuinely helping them to dramatically accelerate their learning curve and to come away from their safari with incredible photos they took that they acknowledge they couldn’t have done on their own at that point in time. Please forgive me if this sounds like I’m blowing my own horn here, I really don’t mean to be; I’m not the only photographic safari guide who’s ever lived 😊. It’s just that I’ve genuinely and repeatedly seen how much this can really help busy people with limited time on their hands and/or who are still serious about growing their wildlife photography.
Folks, great wildlife photography is not a fluke, it is an art developed over time … lots of time. It takes resources and requires investment of time and money … sometimes lots of it. Make that investment count. Enjoy every moment you’re in the bush — not just when you’re looking through the viewfinder. There’s a never-ending body of so much to learn from Nature and it’s incredible and infinite organisms. Stay in the now. And be patient … with yourself.
And please — and I mean this — don’t hesitate to contact me anytime if I can be of any help. I love wildlife photography, and it’s genuinely my pleasure. It’s constantly challenging, changing and exciting. There’s always something new to learn. And there’s always room for more of us crazies…
Happy shooting, fellow wildlife lovers!
Lorne Sulcas
mobile: +27-(0)728333555
email: lorne.sulcas@yahoo.com
website: www.bigcatguy.com
African Wildlife Photography FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063595546169
