Challenging convention: new perspectives in wildlife and nature photography

It can often be difficult to find a style that stands out from the crowd, that views the same subject from a new perspective – but it isn't impossible. With time and experimentation, there is always room for professional photographers to take a novel approach to their craft.

Dani Connor is a photographer and content creator who moved from England to Sweden to pursue her passion for photographing wildlife – with a focus on red squirrels.

Michel d'Oultremont began his photography journey in the Belgian countryside when he was just 13 years old, before embarking on a globetrotting career. Over the years, he has won a flurry of awards including the coveted Wildlife Photographer of the Year – Rising Star Award in 2018.

Dafna Tal is a multi-disciplinary artist with a theatre, sculpture and painting background who found a calling in underwater photography. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Sydney, Australia.

Clement Kiragu is a Kenyan conservationist who has produced work for publications including the Financial Times and National Geographic. He won Africa's Photographer of the Year in 2017.

Here, all four photographers discuss some of the mindsets, techniques and kit that have enabled them to forge a distinguished photographic identity and examine their genres from a new perspective.

"Some animals just have more interesting shapes for silhouettes," acknowledges Dani Connor. The wildlife photographer and content creator has developed a loyal following for video diaries documenting her experiences of photographing red squirrels, and she is exploring fresh ways to capture the daily lives of these familiar animals. One of the techniques she's been experimenting with is backlighting, which she says works particularly well during the golden hour. "I will try to photograph the squirrels backlit with their tails up for that classic shape, and focus on their charismatic, long ear tufts." In these challenging lighting conditions, she has relied on the fast and accurate subject detection of EOS R5 series cameras and the EOS R6 Mark III to bring her subjects into focus. "The autofocus is so good, it could be almost dark and it's still picking up the eye."

Dani's social media followers have helped her to crowd-fund the purchase of a local woodland area where she feeds and photographs the squirrels. As a result, she can be at the location when her subjects and the light are at their best. She has also been experimenting with flash for backlit shots. She says she'll position a Speedlite "behind a branch or old stump" before ethically enticing the animals into position with food. "I'll aim to get a silhouette of the squirrel with rim lighting around its outline. You need to be mindful of what else is going to be illuminated, though, especially when you have branches in the foreground."

Pre-visualising wildlife photos rather than simply reacting to events is how Dani approaches much of her work. "I'm constantly drawing ideas for new images," she explains – although it may take years for the concept she's sketched in a notebook to come to fruition as a photo. She says that photographing other subjects and environments gives her inspiration for squirrel images close to home. "I was in Mexico photographing Monarch butterflies, and it gave me lots of different ideas I can apply to squirrel photography. Using a slow shutter speed to capture the butterflies brought a sense of movement to the photos, for example. I've not seen many photographers do this with squirrels, and it's encouraged me to try this technique."

"Working in portrait photography, commercially and in landscapes, I gained the experience to know what light will look like on an object from almost every possible angle," explains Dafna.

Having built these photographic foundations, Dafna realised that she had the ability and the knowledge to replicate a studio-like environment to shoot wildlife in the darkness of the sea. For her, finding a style and perspective that resonates is about being really honest with yourself as a creative. "It is important to find what attracts you personally and let it lead you, because the most important thing in artistic expression is the authenticity and sincerity of the artist," she says.

For Dafna, this meant using her technical understanding of light and her skills as a trained diver to capture unusual sea life in the black of night. "It is somewhat reminiscent of outer space, with all the particles in the water and the special creatures that may not be revealed during the day," she says. "It is also a time that allows a lot of light control, with the dark background highlighting the glowing animal."

"People are always shooting from the roof of safari vehicles, but if you're photographing a lion, you want to feel that mightiness. So get lower for a more realistic perspective," says Clement, who uses his vast experience in Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve to find honest, provocative ways to capture wildlife while causing minimal disturbance. "If you are photographing big cats, you must back off, use a long lens and be a patient observer," he explains. "They might even start playing, engaging with their cubs, hunting… Then you get natural behaviour."

A long-time user of the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, Clement is on a new creative journey that has only been made possible with the capabilities of the Canon EOS R5. Using the EOS iTR AFX system's eye tracking, Clement has been able to capture images from extremely low angles, often obscured by foreground action, making the viewer feel like smaller prey observing from afar.

"I have an image [above] of grass blowing all over and yet the Canon EOS R5 still picked up the eye of the lion – yeah, that blew my mind! With previous models that would have been next to impossible," says Clement. "I think that's something I want to keep pushing further."

The success of Clement's carefully crafted candid photos is down to a combination of patience and kit choices. "That's why I love the Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM with the Canon Extender RF 1.4x," he says. "It gives me space to capture shots without disturbing the wildlife.

“Mine is a fine art style – not so much documentary. With this approach the images are more artistic and clever. My objective is to make people care about the animals and maybe contribute to the fight."

"For me, showing the environment is important – I don't really like pictures where you can see the animal clearly," says Michel. "I prefer a touch of life in the middle of a beautiful environment. I always try to place myself in an aesthetic location."

Michel has found a striking way of shifting the dominance of a setting. In some shots he shows the animal as a small but distinguishable element of the environment and in others he overexposes to isolate the animal – enabling them to be appreciated as one small piece of a larger puzzle. "The animal wanders into this drawing in front of me and it is him who finally chooses where he will be framed," says Michel.

To capture such images, Michel pairs a Canon EOS R5 Mark II, EOS R3 or EOS R6 Mark II with the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM and the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lenses via an EF-EOS R mount adapter.

"The EOS R5 Mark II helps me a lot. Its silent mode is extraordinary for this kind of photography," Michel says. "I always work at a low aperture which allows me to isolate my subject. I work with evaluative light metering and manage my exposure with EVs. In fact I am not a great technician, I put the camera on a lot of automatic settings which allows me to concentrate only on the wild encounter."

Clement's fine art approach has also led him to step away from the traditional quest for sharpness and clarity – exploring motion blur to capture movement. But for Clement this is not simply an artistic approach. "I use motion blur for animals that people are less interested in. Animals like zebras and wildebeests – I use this technique to draw attention to them," he says.

Shots like this are not easy to achieve, but Clement says it is worth it when you get it right. In terms of actually making the magic happen, Clement has now firmly established his approach. "I'll use the Canon EOS R5 mostly with the Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM lens," he explains. "I'll have my ISO always at 100, I'll lower the shutter speed to 1/25 and then I will compensate with the aperture. So it's trial and error until you get it right – but do they work? They work beautifully."

Although Dafna is committed to photographing unusual deep-water sea life, she also believes environments can be just as beautiful as the wildlife within them, making the sea itself a worthy subject. "To me, every natural detail – from the smallest to the largest – is fascinating and full of charm," she says.

Dafna is a diver as well as a nature and photography enthusiast, so it is not surprising that she feels recording the beauty of the ocean is her calling. In a series of smaller detailed shots (like the ones above), she manages to capture this vast world in a characterful way.

"I think water, and the underwater world generally, is an environment that allows for a lot of play with light, colour and textures: the transparency of water, wind, waves and changing light create countless beautiful shapes," says Dafna. "A shallower depth of field adds depth to the image and creates an interesting effect. In addition, the quality of the lens affects the bokeh and here I can only praise Canon RF lenses for the beautiful texture they create."

Dafna found that due to the more creative nature of these shoots, getting the images right was less of an exact science and more about experimentation. "It is important to note there are no 'correct' camera settings here. I suggest doing as many experiments as possible, trying different exposures including underexposure and overexposure, different speeds and so on – to see what works best and catches your eye," she concludes.


Written by Jack Fittes and Marcus Hawkins