Painting wildlife with light

By Marcus DeHaan

Ever since I can remember I’ve read hunting magazines and dreamed of the hunts told within. Australian writers such as Nick Harvey, Col Allison, Phil Steele, Ted Rose and Jack Boswell told stories that were the stuff of dreams to a young, impressionable kid from the Snowy Mountains. Publications such as Sporting Shooter, Australian Gun Sports and Peterson’s Hunting were bought with saved pocket money and read cover to cover during those formative years.

Each article was accompanied with a selection of glossy images usually taken by the author of scenes from the hunt, camp or holding their favourite hunting rifle in one hand and trophy in the other. Often there were also images of the undisturbed wildlife they pursued and it was these images that sparked my childhood imagination. I wanted to be there, taking those photos, living those moments.

Imagined hunts of stalking in on roaring red stags or croaking fallow were sparked by those images and soon I had saved for and bought my first camera – a little compact Konica MT11. 'Grab 'n' grin' pictures were the order of the day for many years before adulthood took over and work became the number one priority. Cameras were still there though. Happy snaps and family holidays of kids jumping into pools were recorded and printed.

So, how did I get into wildlife photography?

It wasn’t a conscious decision for me, but more of an evolution of an offshoot interest from my passion for hunting - I guess similar to how target shooters begin with a love of shooting competition that spawns a side interest in reloading. Sometimes the chase for ever tighter groups leads a shooter to venture further down the rabbit hole than they intended and without realisation, reloading gear soon takes centre stage in the gun room and thoughts turn to handloads more than shooting itself.

About seven years ago I met a beautiful and truly inspirational woman. Ilona, or 'The Hungarian' as she became known, with the utmost love and affection, is a creative soul whose passion at the time was high-end portraiture and boudoir photography. Her workhorse camera was one of Canon’s finest DSLRs and with it she created a darker, moodier style of quality image I had not seen before.

This kicked off a more serious interest in photography which was fuelled with an introduction from her to social media apps such as Instagram and the wealth of international images contained therein. I soon found myself reliving my childhood appreciation for hunting photography and started my own account, @alpine_deer_hunter

Without realisation, I too began my venture down the photography rabbit hole.

I began researching what would be a good starting point camera that could do a bit of everything and settled on one of Canon’s superzoom bridge cameras, the now superseded Powershot SX60 HS.

It is a smaller style of camera that resembled a DSLR in appearance but with a fixed lens. It is called a “bridge” camera because it bridges the gap between the small compacts you see families take on holidays and the larger, heavy duty DSLRs and mirrorless camera bodies with their removable and interchangeable purpose-use lens systems.

With a lens extending from the body of the camera as you zoom in on faraway subjects, it has proven itself to be more than capable of the job originally intended and soon I was zooming in on every animal I saw out to several hundred metres, using it as an impromptu spotting scope as well as a camera. Lightweight and able to be hung from the belt in a readily accessible padded case, it is capable of taking quality photos. Not long after its purchase, I was shooting in manual mode, developing my own style of image and had landed my first magazine cover with Wild Deer Magazine.

I now firmly believe this style of superzoom bridge camera is the perfect hunting camera and a quick Google search of “best bridge cameras” will give you a top-10 list. Mine is still hung on my belt every time I’m in the bush with a rifle or bow and even if I’m also carrying my DSLR.

As a bonus, most of these small digital cameras not only have the ability to shoot and store image files in both the most common format, known as a JPEG file, but can also shoot in RAW.

What advice can I give someone considering or just beginning to photograph wildlife?

In the beginning, like shooting a rifle or bow, your focus should be more on learning how to use your equipment and technique, and learning how to brace yourself while taking the shot to achieve nice sharp images. As you become more proficient and upgrade gear, you will want to customise various buttons to do different things, such as back button focusing. A lot of photographers use a technique where they press and hold a button on the back of the camera with a thumb when they want to focus on the subject instead of half depressing the shutter button before taking the shot.

A trap to be aware of is tunnel vision - getting so caught up in trying to capture the moment you’re witnessing unfold before you that you don’t notice exactly what is going on with the image and your focus point. I learnt this one the hard way only recently in the gloom of a misty and wet pre-dawn morning in the mountains.

I was moving through waist-high grass and scattered timber when I rounded a bush and there, not 20 m away, was a good Sambar stag just putting his rack to a tree and beginning to rub. Up came the camera and I proceeded to capture what I thought were 30 or 40 great images of something I had not captured previously. Later, back at camp, I transferred them to my tablet and my heart sank as I realised I had taken a heap of excellent, sharp shots of a single blade of grass that rose above the others about 2 m in front of the stag. It had crossed directly over the stag’s shoulder and because I’d had my aperture so wide open to let the most amount of light into the camera, the stag was now completely out of focus. Not one salvageable image.

Watching a wildlife documentary one afternoon early on in my journey, I had a realisation regarding why camera manufacturers advertised how many frames per second their cameras could shoot. Sports and wildlife cameras often have very high frame rates.

A photographer was using a camera with a bazooka-like lens, the combination of which was probably worth more than any car I’ve ever owned, to photograph birds in flight. He saw an eagle above him, lined up for the shot and pressed the shutter button. This thing sounded like he’d just let go a burst on a mini gun. He lowered his camera, turned to his gear porter and, with a smile, stated “nailed it”.

My first thought was “of course you did, you just took 200 pictures”. I soon realised why he’d taken the shot the way he had. Have you ever taken a picture of a group of friends and one of the group has a stupid look on his face, or was blinking? The same thing happens with animals. Set your camera to shoot on burst and one of those images should capture what photographers term the “defining moment”. That is the one image where the animal’s eyes are both open, that blade of grass is not covering an eye, or it is perfectly still and the image tack sharp. I usually shoot in bursts of three to five shots, recompose and squeeze another three to five shots. Your “keeper” rate will improve immediately. And over time, as you become more proficient, you’ll capture whole series of images that are keepers.

That can be applied to most situations. Got a deer looking like it’s getting ready to jump the fence? Want it mid-air, feet tucked up as it gracefully leaps over? Compose your shot and get ready until you think it’s just about to jump. Take a burst until it lands on the other side. One of those shots will be the “defining moment” just as it clears the apex of the jump.

Everything you learnt as a hunter has a place in wildlife photography. I guess that’s one of the things that appeals so much about it. You’re still out in the bush hunting, you’re just using a camera now instead of a gun or bow. Your “trophy” is now the best image you can capture of the best animal you can find under the best, or worst, conditions you can hope for.

Prepare as much as you can for that moment, often only seconds, when the animal you’re chasing is at hand.

Study your quarry, read as much as you can and learn its habits. That’ll give you the best opportunity of being in the right spot at the right time. Prepare your gear by clearing memory cards and carrying spares, charging batteries and having clean lenses. Treat your gear with care - cameras are more like computers these days.

Wear camouflage clothing and only wash it in unscented washing powder that doesn’t have UV brighteners in it. Animals such as deer have especially keen senses and can see into the ultraviolet spectrum, so if you’re not careful you will look like a fluorescent blue blob instead of melting into your surroundings. And they will smell your fragranced clothing from hundreds of metres away.

Pay attention to the surfaces of your gear and camouflage your camera. Nothing will alert an animal like sunlight reflecting off the barrel of your lens in just the same way as it would off the barrel of a rifle. Glass your surroundings as much as possible so you can see your undisturbed quarry before it sees you. This will give you the opportunity for composing nice distanced shots and planning your stalk using the terrain and watching the wind, to get as close as you can for those tight, intimate portraits.

As a beginner, try not to get too hung up on your camera settings. Just shoot in the general setting and let the camera take most of the guesswork out of your task. Even relatively cheap cameras today are powerful tools and will do a lot of things very well. Begin your journey transitioning from general to full manual settings by reviewing the settings your camera chose in the image information and research about how shutter speed, ISO and your aperture settings are all intimately connected to expose an image. Eventually you’ll develop a style of your own and learn what you need to do to achieve it consistently.

As you move through the bush, try to slow down and look at everything. Your personal aim might be to capture an image of a preaching fallow buck in his scrape, but you’ll begin to notice the other, little things. Photographing birds, bugs and insects as you go are great ways to practice using your camera and adjusting the settings as the light changes through the day. That way, if a buck suddenly steps out of the gloom, your camera should be ready to shoot.

The 'golden hour', just after sunrise and just before the sun sets, is the photographer's time to shine. This is when the light is perfect for outdoor photography or inside near windows for natural light portraits. It gives a warm glow to your image and if you start to play with your exposure, stunning images will be created with gorgeous colour and deep shadows.

In the past, composition of your images when you took the shot and having the exposure spot on for what you were trying to achieve was far more critical than it is today. There were no apps or computer programs to undertake post-production editing as there are now. Don’t get me wrong, your aim is to become competent enough to be able to capture the image without needing to do a lot of editing, but if it’s not exactly what you’re after straight off the camera, don’t necessarily think it’s unsalvageable. You’ll be able to recompose your shot in post by cropping your image as you need to and adjusting how it looks.

I’m sometimes asked about focusing. You should have your camera's auto focus set on the finest point offered and aim this right at the centre of the eye for each shot. The eyes of the subject in a photo are what your eyes are initially drawn to and if they’re not sharp, the whole image will seem soft and out of focus.

As I get older, I find I’m prowling around the bush more and more with just a camera. I still love hunting. I always will. But the focus for me has slowly changed with age. When I was younger I was consumed with getting an animal on the ground, antlers acquired, meat in the freezer and a rug on the floor. As I matured, it became more about the hunt. I began to enjoy the bush itself. The chorus of birdlife at first light, the colours as the light changed. More and more for me it has become about slowing down, living and enjoying the moment, watching the animals and just … breathing.

Being able to take high quality, detailed images home of those moments and the animals is a blessing and helps to prompt the memories when life inevitably gets uncontrollably busy again.