In mid-December I realised that it was exactly 16 years ago that I posted my first nature picture in a Nature Photographers' Forum in Germany. Somehow I started to reflect a little and would like to share a few insights from that time - so if you're interested, read on now.
As explained in my bio, nature photography started for me when I bought a good camera for surfing anyway and suddenly my interest in ornithology, which I had had since childhood, was reawakened. So I spent years "chasing" after animals before discovering other details of nature and landscape photography.
Here are a few - rather randomly selected - thoughts on these last years of nature photography:
3 decisions that were good (and went better than ‘feared’)
1. Investing in your dream equipment
At some point after getting into nature photography, or even later, a classic question arises for many: should I spend thousands of euros just to end up ‘photographing a few birds, for example?’ When I realised in 2009 that my Canon 100-400 at the time was often too short, I had to switch to a 500/4, for example, which had a ‘street price’ of 6k at the time. That was a real hurdle and I really had to scrape the money together (it's just the lens, without the camera, tripod, head etc...). If you're not earning your money with it, it's definitely a kind of luxury item from my point of view.
Now I have gradually come to understand something that I can only smile about in retrospect: There somehow seem to be ‘socially acceptable’ and less socially acceptable luxury items. Very similar things are valued very differently here (sometimes even by photographers). My circle of friends and family at the time had nothing to do with photography/technology and when I made an investment of this magnitude, I was labelled as ‘now he's gone mad for good’. This made little sense - because these were the same people who once bought a huge house, owned an expensive car or rode a motorbike with a seasonal licence plate three weekends a year, to name just a few examples... But these things are usually applauded rather than met with the comment ‘is that really necessary?’.
If in the end only ‘rational reasons’ speak against it, I can counter with the following: I have never regretted such investments afterwards, not even 2 years ago with the purchase of a Z 600 TC-S. I don't just use these lenses with seasonal licence plates, I use them enthusiastically many days a year and appreciate every hour I spend with them. Besides, because I have to do without other things and it simply corresponds to my passion.
2. Taking the ‘weather risk’ when travelling to Nordic locations
If you take a closer look at nature and landscape photography, you soon realise that it's not just southern Europe that has worthwhile holiday destinations. Especially the rather cold regions like Northern Norway and Iceland have beautiful landscapes, but also areas like Scotland, England and many more.
Before our first trip, Christina and I were really sceptical as to whether we wanted to invest so many days of our holiday in a region where, with a bit of bad luck, you're pretty much left out in the rain. Like many Germans, we had always been drawn to the south, especially the Mediterranean.
We've now made an estimated 30 such trips to central or northern Europe and I can say that there hasn't been a single one that we've regretted in hindsight - weather-wise. On our very first trip to Iceland, of all places, we had the worst weather. But even at the end of this trip, we were certain that we wanted to do it again. Today, I would recommend anyone interested to take the ‘risk’ without reservation - the many special moments make it worthwhile... like this morning, when the sky turned colour 1 hour before sunrise....
3. To consistently get up early
Well, what's one realisation? Certainly not that getting up early is fun. And yet I've been doing it for years now when travelling and at weekends. Because it's simply worth it, that's my conclusion.
Apart from the fact that many spots are simply much emptier, the whole atmosphere is usually completely different to in the evening. Some weather phenomena also occur much more frequently then - such as fog, dew, frost, hoar frost etc....
Personally, however, I couldn't simply do without sleep, but usually catch up on an hour at lunchtime. That works well and, incidentally, you significantly increase the likelihood of great light moods if you don't miss the morning...
3 things I wish I had known or used earlier
1. Less research and more trial and error
In the early years, I learnt a lot about internet research, especially when it came to technology from the ‘big names’ - even today - such as tech blogs and YouTube. With these reviews, there is often a massive discrepancy between the theoretical evaluation and the relevance in your practice. I went into this in great detail last year in this article using the example of cameras.
If someone is faced with a costly technical decision today - such as the question of whether they would prefer to work with Sony, Canon or Nikon - I would advise everyone to pick up their favourite combos at local dealers and test them instead of watching the 100th review and the 50th YouTube video.
There is a lot of talk in this area and even so-called experts would usually not pass a ‘blind test’. Let the haptics and the most intuitive operation decide for you, most of them now produce sharp photos 😉
2. Using bracketing in landscape photography
If you want to cover several genres of nature photography, the consequence is that you can't (yet) judge the subtleties everywhere. In landscape photography, I held on to the idea for too long that a single shot would suffice given the now solid dynamic range of the camera sensors. I mainly paid attention to whether, for example, burnt-out areas were displayed in the histogram after reducing the ‘highlights’ in an image.
Today I see it like this: for most landscape shots this is also true, but in some lighting conditions there is a big difference between processing a single shot (whose histogram I ‘compress’ so that it fits) and creating a clean HDR in which the sky is not heavily processed, but simply perfectly exposed in the second single shot. Looking back, I'm annoyed about a few scenes, especially between 2014 and 2019, where I simply took everything in a single shot. It's not really an extra effort; you can set the bracketing so that the exposure bracket is simply created at the touch of a button.
By the way, I usually also photograph other nature detail scenes (plants & colour forms) with bracketing, as in my experience I always like a brighter or darker exposure better at a later point in time. Here it's more about getting the best single shot and not about getting to grips with a high dynamic range
3. Flexibility and freedom can be influenced 😉
Over the years, I have realised more and more that it is important in nature photography to celebrate the festivals as they fall. Since I have been planning and carrying out my photo sessions in a very selective manner (only a few years ago) - only after short-term satellite simulation - my success rate has improved significantly. I always report on this ‘statistically’ at the end of each year, in the annual review.
For example, if I go photographing in the heath for 2 hours on a morning in midsummer with a 99% chance of fog and corresponding dew, it's usually just as effective as if I go there ‘randomly’ and according to availability on 5 half days according to the calendar.
Now I often hear the objection to this topic ‘well, my job/hobbies/private life/you.name.it wouldn't allow that’. I have a clear opinion on this: only very few people who say this to me really can't do it. Most of them simply prioritise other things in their lives and often do so unconsciously. For many, there is also simply a high degree of heteronomy due to various - mostly self-imposed - so-called ‘obligations’.
At this point, I can say that I have put a lot of effort into organising this flexibility both professionally and privately, even if it quickly appears fluffy and random on the outside. I'm also giving up a lot of comfort zones in my life and accepting financial restrictions every month, as I've now also reduced the amount of work in my main job in order to have this freedom - with all the specific disadvantages that entails.
However, it brings me a lot, especially in terms of energy. I'm just giving this as food for thought, in case anyone thinks to themselves, Thomas, he always has a lot of time on his hands, lucky him 😉
3 skills that I still don't have
Now I'll reveal a few issues 😉
1. Handling the darkness
I still can't really come to terms with it - I find the constant confrontation with darkness, not just when photographing at night, simply annoying. I was like that again last month in Portugal. I don't need to do all the driving and hiking trails in the dark in the morning before the session and usually also in the evening after sunset - at least if you want to benefit from the best light. What's more, you always end up in awkward situations, for example with loose dogs that don't like tall people with tripods.
That's certainly another reason why I love photographing Iceland in summer, as you have the best light but it never gets completely dark. Even though I always find it fascinating from a photographic point of view, like here under a full moon on Mallorca...
2. Creative photography with friends:
There's one thing I've come to terms with over the years: when I go out photographing with friends and acquaintances, I basically don't get anything done 😅 The only exceptions are static hideouts.
I get far too involved in the interesting conversations and enjoy listening to the private or photographic anecdotes far too much. That's not a bad thing, I know it by now and plan for it. Conversely, this also means that if I really want to realise something in a very confident/focused way, I'm happy to go off on my own. Especially as I regularly need this mentally and really enjoy it.
When I go out alone to take photos, I'm also very erratic when looking for perspectives and very quickly cancel selected locations and walk 100 metres further again - I wouldn't want to do that to anyone...
3. To be polite to car hire companies
Unfortunately, we need several hire cars a year, both privately and commercially, most recently every year in Spain, Portugal, Norway and Iceland. I've already written a little about this in my blog article on photo trips. After everything we experienced there, especially in Iceland, I don't trust any car hire company from noon to noon.
I think I can say that I'm a polite person - but as soon as I enter one of these places to pick up or return the car, I turn into a suspicious and unruly horror customer that no salesperson wants to meet 😅 I mean, in addition to fending off rip-off strategies, in the end it's also about having a car that gets us safely from A to B....
In the course of time...
Apart from that, it's nice to see how many wonderful experiences come together after a few years of nature photography. Above all, how many great new natural worlds open up when travelling - I recently noticed this when revising the website, where we have been alone for the last 15 years...
For the last 3 years we have been travelling a little differently than we did for a long time. You may have noticed that we've been travelling to the same places more often for some time now. Relaxation is now very important to us. And we have found a few favourite places where relaxation, hiking and nature photography can be combined well - for example, because the distances are very short and you don't always have to travel to the next stop with packed suitcases.
The spot in the following picture, for example, is an 8-minute walk from the nearest hotel room door, but no less spectacular and wonderfully situated on the Atlantic.
A self-critical final remark: since I have also been doing photography commercially in parts, there have been many interesting opportunities; however, I have also realised for about 2 years that my available time has become extremely scarce. Even if it may sometimes seem different to the outside world because of the regular digital content. Much of this has become an important part of my business.
In particular, I'm thinking about the response times for friends and acquaintances - they're subterranean and I'm not happy with that at the moment. But I'm sure I'll be able to solve this in the medium term, as it's important to me.
Now I hope that you've had some interesting thoughts. I thank you for your interest and send best regards,
Thomas