Sharing: Wild Eye's #BeInspiredBy Friday's

It is true that I have not been photographing wildlife for that long. Whilst I have been a photographer for many years, it is only recently I took the decision to move more towards Wildlife and Landscape photography. Both of these genres are challenging for different reasons…which is what attracted me so much towards them.

After my trips to South Africa last year I discovered the Wild Eye team based out of Johannesburg. Wild Eye are a team of very passionate, and highly talented wildlife photographers. They run a fabulous website and Facebook page that generates great content for photographers like myself, but also creates a high degree of engagement. The fact that they share so much is invaluable and such an incredible resource. The other benefit is having such talented photographers share and provide inspiration. One day I am sure I will attend one of their photo safari's - it is just a matter of time!

Whilst I had been following their "Be Inspired By" Friday theme's for some time, I hadn't managed to pluck up the courage to actually submit a photo. Maybe I had a low level of self confidence in my own ability and images? Maybe I didn't feel the time was right? For whatever reason, I was more comfortable watching from a far than engaging. 

All that changed a couple of weeks ago…

Late last year I read this blog on Wild Eye from Penny Robartes about the Wild Eye Montecasino bird walks. I recommend reading the blog here, it will only take you 5 minutes and gives good insights. Reading that blog came in very useful in my next photo outing...

On a return trip to the UK I decided to go to the International Bird's of Prey Centre (IBPC) which was the subject of my last blog. Armed with the knowledge from Penny's blog I went to the IBPC with a different perspective. Whilst my primary focus was on keeping my skills sharp during the flying demonstrations, there was an excellent opportunity to get some portraits. And so, one such bird presented me with an opportunity. A caged Euroasian Vulture was taking a bath in its cage. I had a 70-200mm f2.8 lens with me, and I was still quiet close to the cage. By using a shallow depth of field and thinking about my composition I took this photo:

Because the bird was caged I had one challenge and one goal. The first challenge was to eliminate the cage that was obscuring the view of the portrait. A shallow depth of field (f2.8) solved this problem. But the goal was to take a portrait in a way that did not tell the viewer this was a caged animal. How could I do that? If you read Penny's blog and see the image "Demure" you will understand the inspiration. The answer was using the right level of shallow depth of field combined with a good composition. I decided to focus in on the eyes and the beak, and to use the plumage as background interest. The plumage gives a natural background to the subject without distracting from the overall image and more importantly covers the actual environment where this bird was. 

So a couple of weeks ago when Wild Eye opened up their Friday theme as "BeInspiredBy: Depth of field" - I knew exactly which image I could submit and more importantly had the confidence to submit.

Now the best bit? I made it into their top 10 images and my image was published on their website! What an honour!

I probably wouldn't have put the forethought into composing my image if I hadn't gained the original inspiration from Penny's article on the Wild Eye blog. The result? A new mindset and skill before I press the shutter.

This has inspired me to share further, and engage with the community via Wild Eye and in my next blog I will tell the story behind another Wild Eye "BeInspiredBy" submission...

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