Nature photography is one of the most accessible kinds, and chances are you’ve already tried it; it includes landscapes, wildlife, nature and the environment and inspiration is all around us. But it’s not just a case of pointing and shooting; you have to consider things like the constantly changing light, unexpected weather, and uncooperative wildlife! It’s a unique and uncontrollable environment, and very different to working in a studio; it really tests your skills, your equipment – read our guide to choosing the best action camera – and your patience!
We thought we’d highlight some iconic nature photographs, looking at the stories – and the people – behind them.
CLEARING WINTER STORM – ANSEL ADAMS
Photo: The Ansel Adams Gallery
This stunning, atmospheric photo of Yosemite National Park was taken around 1937 by US photographer, Ansel Adams, and is his most famous photograph. He’d taken photographs of the same landscape in the summer, but this shot shows the view just as a snow storm is clearing in winter. This image is a real example of how nature photography often relies on the photographer being in the right place at the right time; a hundred feet to the left and there would have been a line of trees in the way. Adams just happened to be there, camera at the ready, when a rain storm that had changed into a snow storm was starting to clear away.
Adams felt very strongly that the country’s national parks should be properly maintained and managed, to preserve their beauty, so he gave a copy of the photograph to President Ford in 1975 to remind him of his obligation. A mural-sized print of the photograph sold for $722,800 at Sotheby’s New York in 2010.
RAINBOW OVER POTALA PALACE – GALEN ROWELL
Photo: PopPhoto
This iconic photograph has an ‘otherworldly’ feel to it. Taken in 1951 in Lhasa, Tibet, it captures a rainbow arcing over the Potala Palace, falling perfectly in place. Rowell has told the story of when he saw the rainbow forming over the palace from a few miles away. He had an image in his head of the rainbow aligning with the palace, but the angle wasn’t right, so he set off running, ditching his camera bag, taking pictures as he ran – all at high altitude.
Suddenly, a hole seemed to appear in the clouds and a spot of light hit the palace, just as the rainbow was positioned perfectly and he took the shot. The resulting photograph appeared on posters, ads, calendars and magazine covers and the Dalai Lama even signed a copy.
PEPPER NO.30 – EDWARD WESTON
Photo: Weston Gallery
This is one of Edward Weston’s best-known photographs and it puts a new twist on the classic still life. Taken in 1930, it features a single green pepper taken in black and white, illuminated from above. Weston photographed a variety of objects, including shells, sand dunes, nudes and various fruit and vegetables, before focusing on peppers.
He experimented with different backdrops, taking at least 30 photographs over a 4-day period, before eventually placing a pepper on its side inside a large tin funnel. This let him light it in a way that showed the pepper in three dimensions; giving it a unique quality that includes curves, texture, light and dark, and concave and convex shapes. It almost looks human and could be two people leaning into each other, or someone’s back.
LIONESS DRINKING WATER – GREG DU TOIT
Photo: Daily Mail
This photograph is part of a series of photographs, taken over 16 months, that focus on lions at a waterhole in Kenya’s South Rift Valley. The image is a prime example of how great nature photography is a mix of luck, preparation, lighting and patience. The iconic image captures the lioness mid-drink, almost with direct eye contact, perfectly reflected in the water.
Du Toit spent the first 13 months of the shoot in a hole in the ground next to a watering hole, before spending the last 3 months submerged in the water, just to get the perfect shot. This highlights the contradiction between the beautiful end shot and the often boring, uncomfortable hard work that leads up to that shot. He contracted malaria, bilharzia and other tropical diseases from being submerged in dirty water that was contaminated with baboon urine and faeces.
KINGFISHER DIVE – ALAN MCFADYEN
Photo: Daily Mail
Capturing this image of a kingfisher making a perfect dive, with its body – from tail feathers to beak – perfectly reflected in the water, was a real challenge for McFadyen, not least because the kingfisher can dive at up to 25mph. McFadyen was originally an angler, but swapped his rod for a camera after a back injury, and has since photographed all kinds of wildlife, from adders to owls. This photograph was taken in his native Kirkcudbright, in Scotland.
The kingfisher is a popular bird with photographers, so McFadyen wanted to capture something a bit different. After trying lots of different angles and compositions (which took 4,200 hours and 720,000 exposures) he decided on a mirror shot. He positioned the camera low down near the water, then retreated to a camouflage blind to wait, holding a remote shutter release.
The shot happened in the blink of an eye and is a flawless mirror image, with no splashes, a perfectly vertical beak and an almost balletic elegance. Definitely well worth the wait.
EARTHRISE – BILL ANDERS
Photo: Wikipedia
Taken onboard Apollo 8 in 1968 by astronaut William ‘Bill’ Anders, this iconic shot shows Earth appearing out of the darkness above the bare lunar landscape and is another perfect example of being in the right place at the right time. It didn’t take months of preparation and planning, it’s not one of 50 shots, it was a pure spur of the moment shot. Bill asked his fellow astronaut, Jim Lovell, for a roll of colour film, then took the shot and unknowingly produced one of the world’s most famous photographs.
It was the first colour photograph of Earth taken from space, a view that had never been seen before, and it really puts a different perspective on the vulnerability of our planet. 18 months after it was taken the first ever Earth Day took place, and the image was used in the posters and has since become synonymous with environmental activism.
THE PILLARS OF CREATION – NASA
This image compares two new views of the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation captured by Hubble. On the left the pillars are seen in visible light, capturing the multi-coloured glow of gas clouds, wispy tendrils of dark cosmic dust, and the rust-coloured elephants’ trunks of the nebula’s famous pillars. The right image is taken in infrared light, which penetrates much of the obscuring dust and gas and unveils a more unfamiliar view of the pillars.
This amazing photograph was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 and features columns of gas and dust in a cluster of stars known as the Eagle Nebula, which is approximately 6,500 – 7,000 light years from Earth. It was named The Pillars of Creation because the hydrogen and dust pictured are “in the process of creating new stars, while also being eroded by the light from nearby stars that have recently formed.”
The image had a huge cultural impact, appearing on t-shirts, magazines and mugs. It’s quite hard to comprehend the sheer scale of this image; The Pillars of Creation stretch across approximately 4 – 5 light years but are just a small part of the Eagle Nebula which itself spans 70 by 55 light years. Subsequent images show a cloud of dust near the Pillars, which could be a shockwave from a supernova that may have destroyed them 6,000 years ago. However, given the vast distance between Earth and The Pillars of Creation, this means that we’re going to have to wait another 1,000 years until this is visible from Earth. Which kind of puts things into perspective…
Each of these images is amazing in their own unique way; whether it’s a photographer risking his health, sitting in filthy water for 3 months to make eye contact with a lioness, or an astronaut who just happened to have a camera handy when he glanced out of the window, each one shows us why nature photography really captures our imaginations. In an increasingly stressful world, these photographs can put things into perspective and be very grounding.
We hope we’ve inspired you to get out there and take some stunning nature photographs of your own, just watch out for the baboons!
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