The wildlife photography "hedgehog"

December 05, 2014  •  1 Comment

No hedgehogs were harmed in the writing of this blog!

In the corporate world, "hedgehogs" are a way to describe three concepts that overlap and when you hit all three you overlap in the "sweet spot". The "sweet spot" should be the unification of those 3 concepts that guides your direction or your journey. It comes from a book by Jim Collins called "Good to Great". Stay with me on this one, let me explain....

It's called The Hedgehog because of an analogy (great analogy for wildlife photography): some people are foxes, others are hedgehogs.

Foxes pursue many ends at the same time and see the world in all its complexity....never integrating their thinking into one overall concept or unifying vision....Hedgehogs, on the other hand, simplify a complex world into a single organising idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything.

The whole "hedgehog" concept has been playing on my mind this week. I am currently editing, my somewhat limited video footage, from my latest South Africa trip into a story. I had a vague notion of a video before leaving for South Africa, but I was very much focused on stills photography. It is pretty much impossible (as I learnt on previous trips) to shoot quality video and stills on any sighting at the same time. Something has to give, and I am focusing on photography first and picking up B-roll video when I can. Still, through the editing process, I started really asking a lot of questions about what it is about wildlife photography I am drawn to, why I find it so challenging, what am I trying to achieve from it (I'll blog about that another day!), and what have I learnt so far from "being" a wildlife photographer? In asking myself those questions I realised I am searching for the "sweet spot" in my own "hedgehog"!

As it is the year end, the wildlife photography community is currently looking at "best shot/favorite shot of 2014". A great exercise and a great time to reflect. For those of you that follow my Facebook page, you know I enjoy the Wild Eye "BeInspired by" themes. This week was "My Favorite shot 2014". I immediately thought about "my hedgehog". This is what I submitted:

So what are you looking at? You are looking at a Male Leopard who is scent marking his territory. Its pretty simple. But this one image was about 3 things coming together for me in one moment at that sighting - those three things are my wildlife photography "hedgehog". These are my guiding principles which have to unite for me to keep developing as a photographer;

Let me explain the three elements simply and why "My Favorite Shot of 2014" adheres to all 3 of these elements coming together and giving me an image that's in that "sweet spot":

  • Creativity - this is all about how you use your camera to capture the moment. It can be as simple as deciding whether to shoot landscape or portrait, or where the subject should be in frame (composition). Or it could be more complex things such as using a filter on the lens, or blurring  the scene with a slow shutter speed, or panning with the subject and so on. 
  • Craft - this is all about knowing your camera and lens. Getting the settings in the camera right. Getting your focus spot on. Making sure when you click the button, you capture the image how you envisaged it and the camera delivers you the frame you wanted. Craft is also about how you process that image, whether you decide on a specific white balance in camera, through to how you process the image in Lightroom.
  • Environment - this is all about what you see around you at a sighting. This is about the small things, looking at what the animal is doing, how it is behaving. Searching for the tell tale signs the animal is about to do something out of the ordinary. This is about being tuned in and ready to go! This is about experience and knowledge and knowing when and how to press the shutter button on your camera. 

We tracked this male leopard and our ranger (Andrew Van Den Broeck) did a brilliant job in following him off road. When he started scent marking the first two times I didn't have the composition I was looking for. Once Andrew pointed out he was heading for a termite mound I knew I had an opportunity. I could see the bush that is in the final image, it was just beyond the termite mound and the leopard was heading for that.

Now let me take you back about 12 months. I'd seen leopards scent marking their territory before. But this was the result:

How many wildlife photographers share with you images when they got it wrong? Not many right. Well here I am sharing when I got it very wrong. Or did I? Well let's look at my hedgehog again. From a technical standpoint, the "craft" circle: things look good to my eye. The subject is in focus and I know I had my camera set up right. But that's only one of the circles. I missed out on the other two. For the "creativity" circle; I had the wrong lens for the shot, I was zoomed in too close to the subject and I had not thought about the composition to tell the story. In terms of the "environment" circle: I didn't have the experience to look for the tell tale signs this female leopard would scent mark by rising up on her hind legs. I took the shot. But I didn't apply my hedgehog to the sighting...and I didn't get the image. Why? Because 12 months ago I hadn't given this process a thought. I hadn't thought about what my hedgehog for wildlife photography should be.  I really gave myself a hard time about this female leopard image at the time. But I didn't let it put me off. I learnt from it. My hedgehog had started to develop in my mind...

So back to my Male Leopard; we are tracking him and I know that just ahead there's a 70% probability he is going to scent mark by rising up. So:

  • Creativity: shot in landscape orientation, zoomed out, built context with the bush, used the rule of thirds as a guide to frame and left lots of negative space to the right.
  • Craft: Shutter speed, aperture and iso all set. White balance was good to go. I had everything ready.
  • Environment: I knew I would get probably 3 or 4 shots as he raised up on his hind legs. But more importantly I knew from my experience of 12 months before what this leopard was going to do. I was able to anticipate the shot. 

And I had just a few seconds to work these three things out before the male leopard started doing his thing!

The result is the final image which for me really hits the sweet spot. Is it a leopard with his head buried in a bush or is it something else? I'll let you decide, but for me it's definitely something else. It tells the story. It draws you in. If you've not seen a leopard scent mark, you are probably asking the question "what is he doing?". If you are asking that question - my job is done!

The next photographs I take, I want to be hitting that sweet spot. That sweet spot is about the journey of wildlife photography; becoming a better photographer, one where if I get all those three circles in the hedgehog right, the images will be delivering themselves. For me it is more important to share the experience of that journey with the images I produce, rather than receiving the accolade for the images themselves.

RememberFoxes pursue many ends at the same time and see the world in all its complexity....never integrating their thinking into one overall concept or unifying vision...Hedgehogs, on the other hand, simplify a complex world into a single organising idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything.

So are you a fox or a hedgehog?

cheers,

Jon


Comments

Gerry(non-registered)
Nice post Jon! Hedgehog, I definitely going with hedgehog! :)
No comments posted.
Loading...

Archive
January February March April May June July August September October November (1) December (2)
January (2) February (1) March April May June July (1) August September October (1) November (1) December
January February March April May June July (1) August September (1) October November (1) December (1)
January February (2) March April May (1) June (2) July August (1) September (1) October November (1) December
January February March April May June (2) July (1) August September October (1) November (1) December
January February March April May June July August September October November December
January February March April May June July August September October November December
January (1) February March April May June July August September October November December
January February March April May June July August September October November December
January February March April May June July August September October November December