As a wildlife photography tour guide, I have been very lucky to have the opportunity to travel to far flung places, such as the Brazilian Pantanal, the Colombian Andes and South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. All of which are incredible in their own right, but going to those places would have been useless had I not known my equipment inside and out, and how to adjust my settings to complement the lighting conditions I found myself in.
For this I owe my local patch an awful lot. Living in Hampshire in the South of the UK , my go to patches mainly consisted of the New Forest National Park as well as the South Downs National Park. Here I could perfect my skills, get to grips with my equipment and arguably most importantly observe animal behaviour. Having somewhere I could visit everyday after school or work meant I could fully immerse myself in nature and obsess over my subjects. Naturally, living close to these areas, I came across many species including great spotted woodpeckers nesting in the spring, red kites scavenging pheasants after a game shoot, brown hares feeding on arable farmland and roe deer in a variety of situations (my go to subject).
When asked by beginners how they can improve their photography, my answer usually contains the words “obsess over your local patch”. There’s much to be said for this, not just the reasons I have listed above, but simply spending time consistently out with your camera will do wonders no matter your experience level. To this day I still go to the same areas I learnt to photograph on over 10 years ago, and I still learn something. Nowadays my learnings usually come from simply observing the wildlife on my doorstep but this is something I have come to appreciate more than lifting my camera to anything I come across.
Many of us live busy lives, with cities seeming to become busier, it can appear difficult to find wildlife sometimes and suitable subjects to photograph. But, if you look for it, there is always something to turn your camera to.
Many cities still have green spaces or parks with subjects that are used to humans and therefore will allow you to get within photographable distances easily. Pigeons, squirrels, foxes, garden birds if you put feeders out even rats can make brilliant subjects if sufficient time is spent with them. Having something to solely focus your attention no matter how common can produce surprising results.
Should you find a subject you can spend your free time with, try and find new ways to photograph them. Especially with the more common species, make people care about them through your images. Take pigeons for example, they seem like pests to many in urban settings, but when you look closely they are just another animal adapting their way of living to suit the constant spread man’s cities and concrete creations. Not to mention that many of them are actually very beautiful and lovely iridescence to their feathers.
So next time you find yourself frustrated at not being able to get out somewhere “exciting” to photograph wildlife, try your local patch and don’t forget to bring your binoculars. Currently, I am using the 10×42 Noctivid binoculars which are fantastic. The brightness and sharpness of the image is second to none and the 10x magnification allows me to identify my subjects and frame up my compositions whilst at safe distance ensuring I don’t spook the animals I’m photographing. I think you’ll be surprised at what you can achieve in your local area.
To see more of Ben’s work, visit his website: www.bensutcliffephoto.com – and keep up to date with Ben over on Instagram