In wildlife photography, we often only get a small window of opportunity in which to take photographs (bird flies past, dolphin jumps out of the water, etc). Sometimes though, we have the chance to spend more time with a subject, which gives us the ability to make the most of the scene by trying out different compositions and techniques.
This image of a juvenile Red-Billed Gull is what inspired me to write this post. I like this photograph, and I wanted to share the process I went through in making it. I noticed it preening on the upturned boat as I was walking along Pilot Bay at Mt Maunganui. Something I’ve been pushing myself to try more often is shooting wider and closer to my subjects – and as I only had the Fuji X100 with it’s fixed 23mm lens on hand, this was a great opportunity. Gulls are relatively tame (because they expect you to feed them), so I was confident that this one would stay put if I approached. I ended up spending around 15-20 minutes trying different things until I was happy with the images I had made – my knees were not so happy after spending this time on the gravelly ground!
I would have preferred a better positioning of the flying gull, but that opportunity didn’t present itself. So there you go – a walkthrough of how I worked through a scene to make better photographs. Try everything – one thing will lead to another and you’ll be able to decide what’s working and what isn’t. In total I took 46 different photographs of this particular scene, and came away with one that I liked, and one that I really liked, and felt was successful.
The key to making better photographs? Shoot a lot of images, and try different compositions and techniques until you find something that works well.