February 2023 Viewfinder
There's fresh weather and a fresh start in this month's Opposite View Wildlife Photography newsletter.
So, that was February - the 'blink and you’ll miss it' month.
February is the month of the year when you are positive you will be able to fit in that pesky task before the end of the month, only to discover that the end of the month is only three days away - rather than the week you had optimistically imagined.
This February seems to have gone by particularly quickly. I don't know if that feeling comes from the recent windy days when I got blown off my feet while searching for wildlife on my lunch break. All local creatures had, quite understandably, disappeared into the depths of the hedges and trees or (in the case of the roe deer) melted into the densest parts of the woods. The shortness of the month may also have been emphasised by my feeling under the weather, which stopped me from getting out much for over a week. Either way, I now find myself at the end of it, staring at a blank screen and wondering what to tell you about when there has been a distinct lack of noteworthy photography at the time of writing.
Having spent a good deal of the month staring at a laptop screen, it’s been impossible to escape the constant chatter about ChatGPT - the Artificial Intelligence (AI) that is supposedly going to change the workplace, for better or worse. The rub is that no one seems sure whether it will be better or worse. But, boy, there have been many opinions expressed on both sides of the argument already!
One of the concerns is how efficiently AI can pull reams of information off the internet and produce a well-written and factual essay, adding to the already vast pressures on our teachers. As a digital communications professional by day and a photographer and writer when I get any spare time, I have been left questioning how it will affect my professional and creative activities. Sean from Drowned In Sound addressed this from the perspective of musicians in a recent post and asked ChatGPT to provide the answer. The response is unnervingly convincing.
While I agree that the potential of AI is huge - with both positive and negative outcomes - the one thing it cannot replicate is a personal experience, as indicated in its response to Sean. I am sure that ChatGPT could write a blog about the grey heron, but it couldn't describe its personal experiences with the species. It could no doubt explain how back button focus works on various camera systems but couldn’t refer to the experience of using it in the field. [Have you guessed what this month’s blogs are about yet?!]
Our reflections are often what makes our content - an essay, a blog, or a tweet - interesting, and relevant to others. What engages me the most is the stories and experiences of other people.
But our experiences and stories can also be a stumbling block when looking at our work objectively, which is something I’ve been thinking about when reflecting on my photography. I enter photography competitions every year - not because I feel that my images are worthy of winning but because I find it a valuable exercise for reviewing my images. And, as a professional photographer reminded me, you’ve got to be in it to win it.
It’s difficult to look at your images through someone else's eyes. Why? Because it’s hard to look at what you captured and separate what you see from what you felt when you took it. James Roddie noted this in a recent thread on Twitter:
Although the photos I captured of my first - and, so far, only - otter encounter arguably weren’t my best, I love them. But why should anyone else? When preparing an image for competitions, you must discount the story of capturing it - which the judges may never hear about - and look critically at the photo in front of you. Maybe AI would do better than me at making this dispassionate judgement.
I would like to know what you think about AI and our connection to our creative work - how can it help, and how can it be a hindrance? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments.
In the subtitle of this newsletter, I mentioned a fresh start. In last month’s issue, I promised to let you know my plans for the year ahead:
Well, after saving up for a long time, I’ve made the jump and bought the OM-1 mirrorless camera. The main reason for making the move to mirrorless is for lighter gear. I rarely use a tripod and want to make handholding for long periods as easy and injury-free as possible. So, my immediate plans for the next few months involve getting to know the new camera system. I’ll let you know how I get on and how it compares to my current Nikon set-up, which I will continue to use.
I will leave you with a photo of one of my local foxes having a snooze. It looks like the month has caught up with this character too!
Best wishes,
Rhiannon
Opposite View Wildlife Photography
Through my lens
Bucks back in (back button) focus
While spring is on the horizon, the trees are bare for now, and the landscape remains skeletal. Winter is the perfect time to master back button focus for your wildlife photography; before the foliage returns and locking focus on your subject becomes a trickier task.
In this blog, I explain what back button focus is and why this technique has been invaluable for capturing the natural behaviours of my local roe deer bucks.
Species Spotlight
Grey heron - the statuesque stalker
I clearly remember my excitement at spotting a grey heron on my first trip to the London Wetland Centre with my new DSLR camera. There it posed, completely motionless, while I faffed around with shaky hands, trying to ensure that my settings were correct. After capturing about fifty images of it in the same pose, the stillness I'd been incredibly grateful for not a few minutes previously had begun to grate.
In this blog, I share more of my history with the grey heron and explain why you need plenty of patience to photograph its more unusual behaviours.
And finally…
I love this video by Andy Howard on mountain hare fieldcraft:
His techniques for conditioning mountain hares to accept photographers hanging around on the hillside are similar to what I found works with the roe deer. In its simplest form: think about how a predator would behave and then do the opposite!
Follow Andy on social media for more top wildlife photography tips and stunning images.
Keep in touch
Thanks for reading this! If you have any comments or questions, opportunities for photography or if you would like to use any of my images, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.
You can also follow me on: