Wildlife

This striking minimalist exposure has made use of high-contrast lighting and a dark background by exposing for the highlights and rendering everything else near black. The result is a low-key lighting effect that required little attention in post, beyond a mono conversion and a dash of contrast. It’s made all the more impressive when you consider that it was shot from a moving boat.

A flamingo’s long, slender build can make it a challenging subject to frame, but this image is perfectly balanced thanks to the pair of birds and their reflections. It would appear that the image has been slightly overexposed to capitalise on the high-key lighting, forming a blank background that doesn’t detract from the delicate subjects. Add the birds’ dynamic poses and everything comes together to form a spectacular portrait.

This is a beautiful silhouette. Not only is the sky decorated with beautiful purple and pink hues, but the stag is perfectly positioned with clear separation between the antlers, perfectly conveying the magnificent animal’s form to the viewer. A great image!

We love the composition of this image. The negative space and tilt provides a dynamic frame, but the viewer is instantly drawn to the spider’s eyes. Not only are they tack-sharp, but the green foliage is reflected in them, producing a vibrant and attractive emerald hue.

It’s not the blurred backdrop, muted colour palette or composition – as effective as they all are – that drew us to this image. It’s the incredible character conveyed through this little gang of jungle babblers. The central bird stares intimidatingly into the lens, while the others look nonchalantly beyond the frame. Even their positioning provides interest, with two tails pointing down and one pointing up.

Wildlife subjects don’t have to fill the frame. This image places the duo of deer in their beautiful woodland environment. The animals provide a sense of scale to the surrounding trees and are pulled from the dark background via rays of golden light breaking through the canopy. We like how the deer are facing the light, prompting the viewer to ponder what’s just beyond the frame.

A slow 1/15 sec shutter speed has blurred this heron’s flapping wings, conveying movement, while remaining fast enough to retain the bird’s form. The sharp head, suggests that a panning motion was used, a technique that’s not easy, especially when you’ve only got one chance to get it right.

Capturing the immense speed of a kingfisher is no mean feat. Not only has this subject been framed beautifully and captured tack-sharp, but it’s been photographed right at the moment it pulls a fish from the water. A stunning wildlife action image!

We’ve seen lots of images of jumping squirrels, but this one stands out since the animal is jumping directly at the camera. A super-fast 1/1600 sec shutter speed has rendered the subject tack-sharp and side lighting pulls it beautifully from the background. A stunning image!

This is an equally beautiful wildlife and landscape image. The golden lighting on the mountains behind looks magnificent and compliments the stag beautifully. An aperture of f/8 has provided optimum sharpness, rendering both foreground subject and background crisply. A fantastic image!

Capturing an image underwater certainly isn’t an easy task and with 360-degrees of movement to consider, simply composing said photo is a challenging task all of its own. This clownfish and anemone are beautifully framed. What is likely flash lighting has been directed towards the subject, allowing them to pop against the busy background and the drop off has created a natural vignette that channels the viewer’s gaze.

This portrait of a godwit was captured at sunrise and is framed by the soft orange glow of morning light. But what makes this image stand out is how the wide-open aperture and long focal length has made the most of the light reflecting off the water’s surface, surrounding the bird with discs of bokeh. The result is a gorgeous ethereal aesthetic.

Shoots don’t always go to plan. When clear skies spoiled the sunset over the Stokksnes Peninsula, Iceland, Donald turned his attention to a team of Icelandic horses. Using the creatures as the main subject and foreground interest has mitigated the lacklustre light on the horizon, while the looming mountains still provide this beautiful, landscape-turned-wildlife image with a stunning backdrop.

A challenge when using a macro lens is the super-shallow DoF. Focusing on the stalk would have rendered this damselfly’s eyes soft and focusing on the eyes would have rendered the stalk soft. Tony’s solution was to focus stack the image, blending multiple images with different focus points and identical framing together. The result is a perfectly sharp subject and a beautiful, blurred backdrop.

Golden light and a long exposure combine to create a rather unique-looking wildlife image. Backlighting has created beautiful rim lighting that highlights the silhouette of each bird, as well as the flying water droplets formed by the splashing cormorants. The 1/15-sec exposure has blurred the droplets as they fly through the air and the warm lighting has created a beautiful red hue.