I’m a nature photographer. It’s what I do. I go wild for my photography.
John of Journeys With Johnbo chose this week’s Lens-Artists Photography Challenge, “The Road Most Traveled”. He asks us to showcase whatever style of photography is our go-to, our favorite, our road most traveled.
I don’t think I can define a particular style as my go-to, but I can definitely define a genre. I do nature photography – to the almost total exclusion of any other kind of photography.
I guess that makes me a bit of a one-dimensional character. Especially since being wild is almost a prerequisite for a photo of mine. Domestic flowers don’t really interest me. I have plenty of opportunities to do pet photography, being a petsitter and all, but I seldom make pictures of my charges. I also have the opportunity to stay in some lovely homes while petsitting. But I rarely take photos of these houses. There are very few farm or country landscapes in my files, and never a cityscape. Like I said, pretty one-dimensional.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate other types of photography. Most folks have broader interests than mine. Architecture, travel, food, portraits, street photography – I admire what other people are doing in those genres. I enjoy seeing these things through their eyes. I just don’t feel inspired to go there myself.
But if it’s wild – then my interest is limitless. Desert, mountains, seashore, I love them all. Grand vistas to teeny tiny details. Animals, plants, water, rock – I can’t get enough of them. Macro to wide-angle to zooming in, black and white, color and monochrome – all tools and techniques that help me to express my greatest love, the natural world.
There is one genre of photography that I rather regret not doing my whole life, and that’s people photography, taking pictures of friends and loved ones. I’ve photographed a few friends’ weddings, and taken pictures at 4th of July parades and a few musical events, but that’s it. I have very few photos of friends and family just enjoying life.
I do understand why I don’t have many people pictures. I only take people pictures at events where my role is one of an observer more than a participant. When I’m with friends and family, I want to be totally present. Those moments are precious to me. I want to be a participant, not an observer. For me, taking pictures at that time would remove me from living in the joy of the present moment. I would be concentrating on taking a good picture instead. Weird, I know.
I’m certainly glad others don’t feel that way. I am eternally grateful to the friends and family who do document those moments. You know who you are, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. The older I get the more precious those people pictures are.
“I see you. I honor you. Thank you for being.”
As I ponder the role photography plays in my life, I realize it’s a tool to further what seems to be my mission in life, my vocation and my avocation. In my photography, my writing, and my work as a ranger, I seem to be pursuing the same goals – turning people on to what makes a place or a subject special and unique, and encouraging others to be kind to our Mother the Earth. It’s what I do.
I attempt to capture a scene or a subject in such a way that a viewer can visually and mentally walk into that place themselves, to feel like they could be there even if they’ve never seen it in person. When I know I’ve done that, I feel successful as a photographer.
Nature photography is a meditation for me. It’s how I give praise to Creation. I acknowledge the other beings I share this planet with, both animate and inanimate, by practicing the art of seeing. Focusing my total concentration on a subject or a scene is a way of saying to those beings, “I see you. I honor you. Thank you for being.” I try to capture just a little of the essence of my subject. What makes that being or that landscape essential.
If others can discover just a little of that essence through my nature photography, then hopefully they too will acknowledge that that thing or that place is unique and essential. Perhaps they will feel inspired to care for it and keep it safe.
If my images occasionally fill my viewers with awe for the wonders of the natural world, that makes me proud of a job well done. Or maybe my nature photography will just bring a smile to their faces or a warm feeling in their hearts. That’s a worthy goal, too.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my musings on the art of nature photography. But I hope you enjoy my images of Nature even more.
Beautiful photos, and that moose is absolutely grand! What an honor to have her/him in your yard!
He was super curious but still a little leery of me. He circled my house and peeked in every window from behind various trees. I was sitting on my porch when I took this shot. After circling the entire house, he looked at me with a curious expectant look on his face like a stray dog and actually started taking a few steps towards me. That didn’t seem like a good move for either him or me so I stood up and that spooked him. Which is good. One of my neighbors will probably shoot him for their winter’s meat one of these years soon if he keeps hanging around the neighborhood, and I’d rather he stays afraid of people so he’ll live longer. But what a cool experience it was! Definitely an honor!
Yes, you do nature photography and you do it well, but I don’t think your ‘road’ is as restricted as you make it sound. You take landscape shots, animals, macros of plants and insects, seascapes .. And you work equally well in colour and monochrome (I love that last image!) I’m confident that many people do look at your work and recognise the natural world as something precious. And I understand what you’re saying about not wanting to take photos at family events because you want to be properly engaged in the moment. Sometimes I observe groups where everyone is so busy taking a selfie of themselves with the others that none of them are really talking to each other!
A beautiful post as always Dianne. One of the things I love about your blog is that you often share places that most people will never get to see. Some of your images of our world’s most remote places are so captivating it’s hard not to imagine how horrific it would be to lose them. Although I agree with Sara about the many styles you use to create your images, indeed you are a first-class nature photographer through and through!