When you say “wildlife photographer,” most people probably picture someone in camouflage clothing standing in the distance with a heavy telephoto lens on a tripod. There’s some truth to that stereotype, but it’s not the only type of wildlife photography. For years, I’ve enjoyed the wide-angle and even ultra-wide perspectives to make some more unusual wildlife images.
Most wildlife photographers start out glorifying the longest possible telephoto lenses. And while those have their uses, it’s not long before photographers realize that super-telephotos are too tight for larger subjects, like elephants or giraffes. Not to mention the loss of sharpness from atmospheric distortion at 600mm or 800mm, and the “feeling of distance” that ends up in your photos.
That’s when 300mm or 400mm lenses start to look more attractive. And those lenses are very useful too, but gradually, you start to realize that they’re still on the long side if you want to have some context in your photo. After all, you want to show that the photo wasn’t taken in a zoo, right? Assuming that your subject allows you to get a bit closer, it’s time to go a bit wider.
Now we’re at the classic 70-200mm zoom. But this, too, may not be wide enough! I already hear your objections, but think about it – if your subject is close to you, don’t you want it to feel close to the viewer, too? A 70-200mm still compresses perspective much more than our eyes, and there are times when you’ll want something wider instead.
Whoops, now we’re at 24mm.
Maybe that gives you an idea of why wide-angle lenses can be good choices for wildlife photography of large animals like the one above. But let’s leave the big animals aside for now and focus instead on the small ones, such as amphibians, reptiles and, of course, birds.
By using telephoto lenses with these subjects, we wildlife photographers make our lives and work easier. We don’t have to worry so much about the background, because telephoto lenses inherently have less depth of field. And we don’t need to worry about scaring away our subject or learning the right methods to approach them carefully.
But with this approach, there’s usually something missing: the context of the animal’s habitat. If you take the effort to get closer rather than zoom in further, you’ll be rewarded with photos that show both the animal and a piece of its habitat.
I think that’s not twice as good, but a hundred times better. It’s a combination of landscape and wildlife photography. I’d even say that the goal is to get a photo that looks good without the animal in it, at which point the animal will elevate the photo to another level.
Of course, few animals can tolerate such intimate proximity to humans. Most of the planet has had too bad an experience with us humans for that. Amphibians, reptiles, and many arthropods, however, are patient to the point where, with a bit of luck, they will let you get very close indeed.
Sometimes, that’s too close. It’s like that warning on a car’s side mirror: “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” The same thing is true of your viewfinder if you’re shooting at 15mm!
I once got carried away when photographing the Nile crocodile in Chobe National Park in Namibia, Africa. In my hands was a Nikon D300 with a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens mounted and set to its widest end. The plan was to get as close as possible in the boat so that the crocodile would fill the entire frame with the surrounding savannah in the background. However, the nearly four-meter crocodile didn’t accept its role as a photo model and darted into the water towards the camera. At a distance of about one meter, I felt it fly past me and dive under the water. It hit me too late how close that was!
Other animals that sometimes allow photographers to approach closely are some of the crocodile’s closest living relatives: birds!
Even though most birds are scared of people, there are exceptions that don’t admit that man is the greatest predator on the planet. Some of them even consider us their greatest food source, like pigeons and seagulls – so you definitely have opportunities for urban wildlife photography with a wide-angle.
Beyond that, there are some places where birds aren’t afraid of people. This includes some islands in the North Atlantic or the Galapagos archipelago. In these places, you’ll still find birds that ignore your presence and allow you to take interesting images.
Just a reminder, don’t get so carried away that the animals you are photographing suffer. Be aware of whether you are disturbing them or not. If in doubt, you’d better mount a longer lens again and take five or ten steps back.
What equipment do you need if you’d like to try photographing animals with a wide-angle lens? Here’s some good news. It’s probably already in your camera bag. Any lens from about 15mm to 35mm will serve you well, depending on the subject at hand.
The biggest consideration is the short focusing distance of the lens, if you plan to photograph particularly small subjects like lizards. Different wide angle lenses have better and worse close-focusing performance. So, look up the specs of your lenses beforehand, and you should get a good sense of which one to use.
I wish you a wonderful experience in your wildlife photography, with good light and cooperating animals. If you want to share your wide-angle results, I would be very happy if you send me a link to your gallery in the comments below the article, and tell us the story behind the shot!
Hi Libor. Thank you for this interesting article, which I found very useful! Indeed, I completely agree with you that wild angle photography can give more context to a photo. I myself tried that many times before I bought my large telephote lens. I would like to send you a link to one photo I have taken some time ago in Luxembourg. The foxes family used to live very close to a horse farm. I was so happy that one day I managed to capture one of these foxes sitting so close to a horse. I was very much surprised that the fox was neither afraid of me nor of horses. With this photo I wanted to show that even such different species can live peacefully together without disturbing each other:) www.flickr.com/photo…ed-public/
Very nice moment, Agne! The horse in the foreground gives it space and dynamics. I had a similar experience with the fox. One night I went to sleep in the woods and saw a fox’s eyes in the meadow in the glow of a headlamp. It was hunting rodents and took no notice of me. I finally got within about 5 yards of it. I stopped, pulled out my cell phone, and it came to within about 2 meters. It looked at me, I took a picture of it, and it hopped away. Later that night I was watching badgers from my hammock. It didn’t seem to be disturbed at all either. The night woods are a great place to sleep.
You can also take photos of small critters like bees or bugs with a wide angle lens. This may need also cooperation and patience of the insects but it works.
Interesting. I see so may wildlife photos taken with a long tele with ust an animal wit a blurry backround without any story. Most of them very boring… The only story is often: look I saw this animal and I even succeeded to take a sharp photo (thanks to my expensive equipment). Your photos are much more interesting but I presume very difficult to take…
Yes Cees, it’s a bit of a telephoto pitfall. After a while the photos start to look very similar to each other. One way to solve this is to change species, settings, backgrounds, try to capture some of the behaviour etc. When shooting birds, it’s very hard to figure out how to use a wide angle lens. You only get a photo like that once in a while. It requires a lot more planning and knowledge of the species and often even the particular bird you want to photograph.
This is the 2nd article I under 24 hours I’ve seen that focuses on using ultra wide angle to photograph animals. Where I live and photograph, Montana and other places in the west, the only way people really can and really ought to accomplish this with most species is with camera traps. I cannot advocate for trying to get that close to a moose, for a whole host of reasons, mainly your safety. In Yellowstone park, it’s a regular occurrence of people trying to get close up to bison to photograph them. It’s not only dangerous, it’s stressful for the animals, it’s illegal. I would agree that some small animals and birds will tolerate humans being very close and I think those of us who spend a lot of time observing outdoors will come to know what species those are. But also caution that some of those species will get close to you because people have fed them in the past. Feeding and baiting animals to photograph them is highly unethical and I guess I’m saying and asking, is this really something we need to be encouraging people to do????? Anyways, I’m not accusing you of anything at all just sharing my thoughts.
To clarify, I’m not suggesting you are saying people ought to feed animals. I am just wondering if encouraging people to even try to photograph animals with wide angle is something that ought to be gaining traction or no.
I think this is a very good point. I also read a recent post about someone talking about the ethics of owl workshops where the owls are baited. I think photography can sometimes drive people to obsession to modify their environment to get even better shots.
I also believe this is wrong, but I also think photography can be done ethically and it’s important to do so. I think it’s better also to photograph animals as much as possible without modifying their environment. In that regard your sentiment also applies to many forms of wildlife photography, not just wide angle — but there are definitely precautions that should be taken specifically for wide-angle.
Feeding animals for the purpose of photographing them is a highly debated topic and it is true that it is often beyond ethics. In the North, for example, small songbirds are often fed. This activity is generally considered beneficial, but evidence is mounting that this is not the case. For example, the drastic decline of the European Greenfinch is largely due to winter feeding. The parasitic and bird-killing Trichomonas spreads rapidly at feeders. Feeding also favours only certain species of birds (animals). This can alter their population densities. For large mammals, I see a major risk in the loss of shyness. This can be a major problem. It’s a very broad issue and would make for an article. Personally, though, I don’t see much of a problem with using a wide angle lens on an animal that has voluntarily approached the photographer. An animal that would find it stressful will probably avoid me. It’s a completely different situation to chase an animal. In the Galapagos Islands, for example, all animals can be photographed from a minimum distance of two meters.
That’s a balanced perspective, Libor. The question of feeding birds is indeed complex. I know many countries’ governments encourage it and Australia is one of the few countries that urge people not to do it.
Great that you mention Australia, Jason. It has a lot of experience with the human impact on the fragile ecosystems here. Most of it not so positive. Agriculture, and the associated irrigation and therefore change in the food supply of formerly arid areas has in some places affected the species composition of local plants and animals quite dramatically. The possible feeding of wild animals by humans would be a mere drop in the ocean in the whole problem.
It’s actually illegal to feed native animals under the biodiversity Act.
We balance that up with deforestation.
Of course, in an ideal world, it would be right not to interfere in the lives of animals. But unfortunately we don’t live in that world. We live in the Anthropocene, where the all-pervading human presence is reflected also in food chains. The very existence of agriculture is changing the food supply of wild animals significantly. Some of them accept it and then get labeled pests. Others don’t and then their numbers start to decline. A full 73% of the world’s bird decline can be explained by the intensification of agriculture.
The same concept can be applied to taking pictures of flowers where no animal is disturbed. The flower doesn’t care. (humor) One of my favorite lenses is the Laowa Venus 15mm F4 wide-angle. It focuses to 1:1 by itself.
Maybe we just don’t have senses sensitive enough to perceive the panic of a frightened orchid when a photographer with a 15mm lens approaches it :-)
Do you still get goosebumps remembering that croc shot…….? That’s borderline excruciatingly amazing…..😜
You bet! I still wonder how I could have been so stupid. I was asking for a Darwin Award nomination.
Nice article, Libor! I love wide-angle wildlife but it is definitely not easy to do….
You’re right, Jason. It’s one of my long-term projects. Not many birds want to work with me on it. I don’t know why…
Nice photos Libor, as usual :)
Thank you very much, Marcin.
First, thank you for publishing an article that is not about gear. Second, your photos are exquisitely beautiful as always. But I do not think that a novice could get these photos with a wide angle or any other lens. There is experience and technique evident in them. That leads me to think that a big chunk of the story is missing from your article. I’d like to see you share HOW you do it! In your first photo, you are obviously lying on the ground to get that perspective. But how did you get the bird to come that close to you? Was it that the bird’s curiosity overcame its caution, and you were willing to wait an hour or two for that to happen? Or was there a tried and true technique that you use successfully most of the time? I do not want to push you beyond your remit here, but a little talking about your process would be appreciated. The quality of your work is something many of us would be glad to emulate.
Thank you so much Elaine for your kind comment. You’re right that I originally wanted to write a slightly longer article. I will take it as a suggestion, thank you for it. But not to keep you waiting too long. As far as photographing birds with a wide angle lens is concerned, the situation is a bit complicated here. Birds have damn sharp senses. This means that they will only go close to the camera if they have a really strong motivation to do so or if there is no photographer behind it. They will only want to if they are rewarded for the potential risk, which usually means food – obviously not good. However, shy birds can be photographed quite successfully using a silent camera (mirrorless) and a remote shutter release (phone). The third option is to use a photo trap. This topic was discussed recently with Vladimir Cech in one of my interviews.