By Graham Springer, field crew
The following are some of my own rambling musings on the subject of photography. Feel free to disagree with or deride them – after all, if we all had the same ideas, life would be very dull indeed!
Like all visual art mediums, photography is simply a vehicle for an artist to convey his or her perception of the world and a personal reality. A photograph is, in its purest form, an insight into the mind’s eye of the artist. Simply by framing a subject, by deciding what to include and what not to include within the border of the frame, we’re making and imposing our own perceptual judgements.
The actual act of making a photograph is simplicity itself. A camera is a simple thing to operate. In these digital days of fully automatic artificial intelligence, anyone can pick up a camera and make correctly exposed and sharply focused images.
Ironically it’s because of this that it’s becoming more difficult to create unique and engaging images.
Because the technical aspects of photography are being made simpler, images that jump out and grab us in this modern age have to have that “something extra”. This comes down to the creative insight of the photographer – in conjunction, of course, with the requisite technical acumen needed to realise this.
Scientists have tried, using complicated forecasting techniques and state-of-the-art equipment, to replicate some of famous American master photographer Ansel Adams’ images, but they haven’t been able to come close to evoking the sense of atmosphere that Adams managed to create 40 years ago – with what today would be considered obsolete equipment. It’s not about the camera!
Minor technical discrepancies aside, the digital medium is a double-edged sword in a creative sense. The ability to immediately access images is remarkably convenient and allows for on-the-spot evaluation and fine-tuning of experimental techniques. There is also no incremental cost so extensive experimentation is made more feasible. The advantages of this are obvious and can no doubt lead to some really creative work.
Working remotely, as we at Earth-Touch do, it can often take months to get developed film back, and by then I’ve forgotten how I shot something! The value of this ability to immediately evaluate is immeasurable. The flip side is that I now so often see people adopt a wild machine-gun approach.
Because there are no restrictions in terms of film and cost, the temptation, and all too often the reality, is to shoot wildly, hoping that the law of averages will hold fast and you’ll get a couple of workable images (which does often turn out to be the case).
Shooting on film, however, forces you to consider more carefully how you create images. This is crucial – I feel strongly that one must engage in an intellectually creative process if one’s images are to have any sort of consistent creative and narrative integrity.
Technical acumen is non-negotiable in the discipline of photography. The technical aspects of exposure, focus, etc, and familiarity with your equipment must be relegated to instinct. Thus all your attention can be directed at the creative aspect of making the images. How you choose to deploy the various technical options offered by your equipment is then entirely at your own discretion and can be used to most effectively enhance the creation of images.
This is especially so in the instantaneous arena of wildlife photography, where creative decisions must often be made in a split second if one is to capture those all too fleeting moments effectively.
In my mind, the most important skill a wildlife photographer needs to have is an understanding and anticipation of animal behaviour. Things often happen very quickly and you have to be proactive in your thinking, always trying to put yourself ahead of the action. In any event, you frequently have to make do with a less than optimal position. But then how you deal with this becomes part of the challenge. Often you have to work from a hide where you’re relegated to one (hopefully carefully chosen) position, and must make the most of it.
The more I work in and understand the natural world, the better my photographic realisation of it becomes.
Most often the direction of the light source will be dictated by the constraints of the scene, but wherever possible I try to avoid front-light of any kind. It flattens images and drops contrast which makes for one-dimensional and visually boring images.
When photographing a scene I always try to recognise and then capture interesting and unusual compositions; symmetry, asymmetry, abstract elements, partial forms. I constantly look for that unusual perspective. Sometimes just a suggestion of the subject is most telling. Less is so often more. I try to play with depth of field, or slow my shutter speed right down to blur motion – anything that will add some extraordinary visual dimension to an image.
By removing elements of visual information, we can force the viewer to engage with an image on a subconscious level, requiring more cerebral activity. When we’re presented with all the required information, very little neural activity is stimulated and it’s all too easy to glance at an image and move on.
Take the impressionist art genre – this style of art made, and still makes, a huge impact, partly for this very reason – it stimulates the imagination. This is also largely why good black and white images have such impact.
An important caveat here is to be very careful not to go too far with this element – to avoid doing something weird and wonderful purely for the sake of doing something different. Always honour the essence of the subject. Indeed, most times this means creating a true and untainted replication of a scene or subject.
There is an unfortunate misconception that the defining elements of a good wildlife photograph are expensive equipment and luck. Often good fortune does lend a gracious hand, and we’re lucky enough to be granted ample opportunity, but for the most part it’s a combination of skill, patience and sheer hard work.
It’s all about understanding light. It’s about understanding and anticipating animal behaviour – and then positioning yourself and reacting fast enough to capture the image. It’s about recognising interesting compositions and then capturing them creatively. It’s about being prepared to try something different, knowing that you may well wind up getting nothing at all.
But most of all, it’s about understanding and respecting the natural world and all its components. You must truly appreciate, understand and revere your subject matter before you can even attempt to capture its essence.
I try wherever possible to create interesting and creative images that have artistic photographic credibility, independent of subject matter. I try also, as much as one ever can, to capture the ineffable spirit of the wilderness in which I’m lucky enough to live.
The result, I hope, is delivering engaging images that convey my love for the African wilderness and that evoke some sense of the spirit of the place in those who see them.
Images © Graham Springer / Earth-Touch 2007
As it gets hotter on the edges of the Makgadikgadi Pans, so does it get busier around this waterhole. A group of six elephant bulls came running towards the water as their thirst intensified. Animals compete fiercely for water in Botswana's arid Kalahari desert because it’s a scarce resource.
About 30km (19mi) north of the Nxamaseri Channel on the Okavango River, Botswana, is a place where the river breaks out of the papyrus-dominated wetland and streams out into the Kalahari. Hundreds of carmine bee-eaters return to settle on the vertical face of a river bank, their brilliant plumage vivid against the red earth and the deepening sky. 
In this clip, groups of southern right whales play in pockets of warm water close to the coastline. It was a still and calm morning with a slight fog carpeting the mouth of the Breede River where it spills out into the Indian Ocean near Cape Infanta on the south-eastern coast of South Africa.
