Some of my favourite images are those where I remember to zoom out and show the animal I am photographing in his or her environment. It can be difficult sometimes to resist the temptation to just take hundreds of close up photographs, especially with very photogenic subjects like tigers but it is worth doing! These wider angle images give a real sense of the animal's place in the world, how he/she lives and are often very atmospheric.
Some other benefits of making wide-angle images of the animal in its home environment are that you don't have to have a very long telephoto lens to get great images and the wider angle allows you to use a slower shutter speed and therefore have a lower ISO (particularly helpful in low light conditions).
These are some of my favourite "animals in their environment" images.
An Oryx makes his way slowly across the Namib Desert in Namibia with the famous huge red sand dunes in the background. Incredible that these large antelope and so many other species can live in this harsh climate and environment.
A jackal crosses the vast expanse of the Namib Desert in search of his next meal. This image gives a sense of the incredible scale of this seemingly empty landscape that is, incredibly, teeming with life.
A large flock of ostrich graze in the Namib Desert during the "golden hour" before sunset.
A lion and lioness survey their Kalahari kingdom in the green season, Botswana.
A tigress appears out of nowhere in the post dawn mist in Tadoba National Park, India.
One thing writing this blog has made me realise is that I need to do this more often! I am going to try and make more of these wider angle shots in the future....stay tuned!