Animalscape Photography: It’s Not Just About the Wildlife

One surprising aspect of wildlife photography has always interested me, just as much as capturing the animal itself: telling the story of the natural environment in which the animal lives. I would call it the “Animalscape,” and I see it as a powerful tool in the visual toolbox.

Introduction

Often, especially for novice nature photographers, the goal of wildlife photography is seen as making the subject “nice and big” in the frame. This strategy isn’t inherently bad. It encourages photographers to develop their field skills and broaden their understanding of animal behavior. And when executed well, a wildlife photo where the animal fills the frame can produce detailed and striking images.

However, it also can result in repetitive compositions that showcase the subject’s beauty without adding depth to the story. For instance, while a chamois (shown below) may be magnificent, having numerous images of just one chamois can make it challenging to curate a diverse portfolio. Even if those portrait photos capture dynamic behaviors, they can still feel redundant after repeated viewings.

So, what’s the solution?

Instead of focusing solely on the animal itself, it’s helpful to think more broadly and include the natural environment alongside your subject. In other words, you are combining a wildlife photo with a landscape photo – hence my term “Animalscape.”

Of course, this requires that you’re taking pictures in visually appealing locations that evoke a sense of wilderness. While this can make it more challenging to find locations, it’s also more rewarding when you do. After all, isn’t one goal of nature photography to immerse ourselves in amazing environments? And it’s only natural to convey that experience through our images.

What Is an Animalscape?

It is not so easy to be precise with the concept of “Animalscape,” but I could briefly summarize it as a photo where the animal – which remains the subject of the photo, serving as the image’s focal point – occupies a very small part of the scene. How small can the subject be within the frame? While it’s difficult to provide an exact number, many of my own animalscape shots feature the subject occupying only about 5% of the frame, with some much less.

But exact percentages are not important ingredients in this recipe. Instead, the animal must simply be the subject of the photo while taking up very little of it, leaving the landscape to shine. And it’s true, the principles of landscape photography are crucial in crafting successful Animalscapes. You can ask yourself whether the photo would still be interesting even without the animal. If yes, it is likely to be a successful Animalscape too.

In my view, creating good Animalscapes is quite challenging, but very rewarding. They tend to make beautiful prints – large prints especially, so that the small animal in the frame remains very impactful. Animalscapes may not work well when merely viewing the photo on a smartphone screen while swiping through Instagram. But I’ve been very happy with larger Animalscape prints and even find that they sell better than a lot of traditional wildlife portraits.

Tips for Better Animalscapes

If you’re heading to a beautiful location to photograph approachable animals, keep your longest lens in your backpack (or even consider leaving it at home). Instead, focus on the environment and put yourself in the mindset of a landscape photographer. Then, think about where an animal could create an outstanding focal point for your photos.

This exercise can be done any time, even when there is no wildlife around. It will help you become quicker and more prepared when a great opportunity arises – and they don’t always last long, so being prepared is crucial. It is also important to be patient and prevent the urge to approach the animals too closely.

I have captured many successful Animalscape photos by observing animal paths and waiting for them to enter the frame I envisioned. While this approach may require a lot of patience, the results can be quite rewarding!

That is one of two approaches to Animalscape photography – finding the landscape, then waiting for the animal. It’s the slower approach that doesn’t lead to as many photos, but it lets you choose your composition more carefully and often results in the best images.

The other approach is more reactive, and a little more like traditional wildlife photography. When you see an animal, you can quickly assess the surroundings to determine whether a strong Animalscape can be captured where you are. Realistically, it’s rare for all the elements of a great landscape shot to coincide with a subject that you stumble upon. So you may capture more Animalscapes this way, but with less interesting compositions on average.

Either way, the opportunity won’t present itself unless you’re actively looking for, and thinking about, this type of photo! There have been times where I took a traditional wildlife photo only to later realize that the environment would have made an amazing Animalscape. If you don’t think about it at the time, you’ll miss some great possibilities.

I’ve used various lenses practicing Animalscape photography, but I often prefer moderate telephoto zoom lenses, particularly those in the 70-300mm or 100-400mm range. Even a 70-200mm f/2.8, which would be too short for most wildlife photography, works in a beautiful way with this genre. But often, I’m stopping down to f/5.6 to f/16 anyway for these photos, so a fast zoom is not really necessary. A slower zoom with a better range is perfect, and as a bonus, they usually don’t cost as much!

I would like to add that great Animalscape photography often takes place in harsh weather conditions, such as during snowfalls, fog, or rain. In these situations, using long telephoto lenses can be challenging due to poor air quality – but it’s still possible to capture stunning photos with shorter lenses, and the unusual weather can make the photo even more interesting where the landscape is concerned.

Finally, capturing a good Animalscape may require returning to the same location multiple times until all the elements come together. The guidelines I gave regarding the 5% size of the subject, the moderate telephoto focal length, and so on – those are just guidelines. What is truly essential for Animalscape photography is that you convey some information about the subject’s habitat, telling a story about the place where it lives.

Even if you’re exclusively a wildlife photography, try to adopt the “landscape mindset” for your Animalscape photos! Think about the best conditions to make the wider scene look as interesting as possible, including the weather, light, and composition. And mark promising locations to revisit them and capture a more interesting photo.

I hope you found this article on Animalscape photography to be enjoyable. If you have any questions or feedback, please leave them in the comments section below!