I think, for those of us who are wildlife or landscape photographers, we each have our own reasons for being so. For me it’s an interest in wildlife which I’ve had since I was a kid, together with art, something I was always good at, joining up with photography, a subject I took up as an art student at college. Together, however they make up a third part. Living and working in a city I find the noise, crowds and even the day to day stupidity and selflessness of people more and more oppressive.
So, going out early in the morning, preferably somewhere remote and quiet, I find relaxing and if you can watch a Fox hunting or a sunrise over the sea, it just makes the moment just that little more special. Unfortunately it’s hard to avoid people when out and about. The first below three images were taken in a hide. Now I normally stay away from these places exactly because they tend to have a lot of people and worst off, photographers. On this occasion, I was by myself at first but was followed soon after by two photographers who spent most of time talking with intermittent rattling off at full frames per second, at anything that went by.
Then came in the worst kind of ‘wildlife photographer’. He was the type who was decked out head to toe in camouflage though clearly never walks more than a hundred or so metres from his car. He then proceeded to non stop talk about how much gear he had, how many camera’s he had brought over the years, but had to ask ‘how to make the picture on the back screen go bigger’. He later phoned a camera store, hands free so everyone could hear, asking about a Sigma tele lens and talking to the poor woman who answered as if she should have known him personally because he had visited the store before!
Whilst he was doing this and with the other two still talking, a Kingfisher, what they’d seem to be waiting for, landed in front of the hide (below image) for less than a couple of seconds and, possibly scared by the noise, was off. If everyone had remained quiet they would have heard the call of it before it arrived and maybe managed a picture or so. With the noise continuing and more people arriving, I left.
I try and avoid other so called, wildlife photographers. When you go to a hide or even go to online forums and you listen to what they say, they mostly seem to be the same. They are either gear heads, obsessed with their equipment, the mega pixels, the dynamic range (though often don’t understanding what any of that actually means) or they collect images of wildlife, like a type of modern day stamp collector – the rarer the animal, usually a bird, the better. Then they will put it up on a forum or Flickr in the hope of fame or adulation. Usually they know or care little for the subject or it’s wellbeing as long as they get the image. Thankfully, I see little of them out in the actual wilds as that would involve their requiring patience and some skills and knowledge of the subject and with often only a slim chance of success, I’m guessing this would be too much work for most of them.
Images like the below Wagtail was taken at a location I’ve learnt from experience I can find them, but they will normally be spooked by someone nearby, but if you just sit there quietly there’s a chance they will come to you as in this case, a pair of them did, but I was there for nearly an hour.
Landscape photography has it’s own set of problems. Sunrise is my preferred time but this regularly means lots of dog walkers. Many of places I go to have restrictions on dogs, such as the location of the two images shot below where, at the time, dogs were not to be using the location or meant to be on a lead. These were completely ignored. Not by one or two people but by everyone! So finding a quiet spot without dogs running round you, barking, sniffing your backpack and either the owner shouting at it at the top of their voice or just ignoring what their dog is doing, is nearly impossible. It also just really spoils a tranquil moment.
And then there’s the dumb questions you get asked. Your camera is set up on a tripod, it’s sunrise and your pointing the lens towards the sunrise and some bright spark askes what you’re taking a picture of!! Or ‘are you that photographer who took that picture in the paper’! And of course there is the ‘that’s a big lens, how close can you get with it’.
So, yes I am an anti social photographer. I like to get away from people and avoid them when I’m out. I like the peace and the quietness. Being out in the woods, waiting patiently for a deer to come by and managing to photograph it without it knowing you were there and achieving an image that might have an technical and artistic merit is a bonus, but if I don’t get anything, that’s ok because I still enjoyed the walk, the exercise and just being out in nature.
