Landscape Portraits - 13 December 2011
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Layson Albatross Field - Midway Island, North Pacific
I am a super huge fan of close intimate images of wildlife. This gives you a perspective you might not see. Frame filling face shots are particularly interesting to me. Then again, I'm a large fan of inflight bird photography. There's is nothing more satisfying than getting a perfectly framed, exposed, fleeting shot of a bird quickly flying by. Finally, I love landscape photography. With scenics you see this impression of place that you can only get if you're in a contemplative mood. Well... how about combining the three modes into one image? Well, that's a thought.
Rarely when shooting wildlife do I shoot to establish "place" in the image. I normally get that inflight bird shot or the close portrait which neither really establish the environment the subject is in. Most of the time I think implementing a image with "place" as a major feature tends to get too cluttered, there are too many elements distracting the viewer. That normally causes me to just abandon the attempt and get back to shooting the portrait or flight shot.
Sometimes, however, it's just works. In this case, I was shooting these birds at close range and low to the ground to get an interesting perspective of their dealings with each other. Then I saw the birds flying by. Then I saw a bird in the distance heading this way. The image simply just came together.
While it's not the most pretty image by any means, it does so very clearly what the environment is like for these birds without being too cluttered and confusing.
Cheers
Tom
