Comments on: 3 reasons to photograph wildlife at eye level

By: Steven T Beard LRPS

Steven T Beard LRPS — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:46:59 +0000

My favourite position is to sit on the ground with my knees crossed and my elbows resting on my knees to support and steady the camera, I will often adopt this pose before trying the classic supine one, as its easier for me to get up. Although I came home yesterday from the marshes covered in mud and all damp from head to foot tring to hide the fact that I’d ruined the new trousers my wife had bought me at the weekend.

Well in my defence I did go out with the idea of scouting for landscape shots!!! and not wildlife.

By: Weekend Links | iffles.com

Weekend Links | iffles.com — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:07:40 +0000

[...] don’t think I’ve taken a great picture of wildlife yet. Maybe these 3 reasons to photograph wildlife at eye level will inspire [...]

By: Steve Berardi

Steve Berardi — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:07:12 +0000

@Rick – Great point! I need to start doing that more often.. those photos from above are also sometimes helpful for identifying the bird/dragonfly/etc later.

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:11:12 +0000

Good photo and good points.
As a footnote, consider taking a few shots from the standing position before lowering oneself to eye-level. Movement, at least for me, frequently frightens the subject to take flight, so this “backup” is some solace for missing the shot altogether.

By: Carl Nicholson

Carl Nicholson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:45:50 +0000

Henk

You forgot about the eye level shot of the sleeping Lion.

Steve thanks a very good article. Shem Campion showed on his blog how beautiful an elephant’s eyes can be http://www.shemimages-blog.com/2009/11/eye-of-elephant.html

By: Steve Berardi

Steve Berardi — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:19:18 +0000

Thanks all for your nice comments!

@Jason – I agree, lying on your stomach isn’t too bad, although it becomes a problem when you want the camera somewhere between you lying down and kneeling.. which means some awkward positions..

@Henk – lol, good point. I guess for giraffes you gotta climb up a tree to get the photo?

@Larry – yeah, it’s unfortunate california has so few undisturbed beaches left, making it really hard for the plovers to breed and get enough food (they’re constantly being scared away by humans). When I took this photo, I made certain never to approach them directly and instead let them come close to me, if they felt like it. It worked well, and most importantly: I didn’t scare them.

By: Larry Jordan

Larry Jordan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:50:12 +0000

Nice shot of the Snowy Plover, a threatened species on the Pacific Coast.

Thanks for sharing the great photography tips! I never thought about the focal plane in relation to being eye height. I will concentrate more on this in the future!

By: Pat Ulrich

Pat Ulrich — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:51:37 +0000

This is absolutely true — I know it wasn’t a good day for photographing shorebirds if I make it back to the car without about 3 pounds of sand or mud in my pockets and pants! And really interesting observation about the focal plane and subject sharpness, I hadn’t connected that with low-angle photography before. Beautiful shot of the snowy plover as well!

By: Henk Coetzee

Henk Coetzee — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:37:38 +0000

It’s a little more difficult when the subject is a giraffe (sorry I couldn’t resist that one).

By: Jason Collin Photography

Jason Collin Photography — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:06:07 +0000

Ah, yes, the getting dirty factor, no doubt the biggest reason to not get quite at eye level of a wildlife subject. I do think photographing from a lying on my stomach position is very comfortable though, but I am hesitant about getting totally filthy sometimes if I wasn’t exactly dressed for and planning on making a wildlife shot.

The info on only one plane of complete sharpness is really informative and I will keep that in mind on my next photo excursion.