Having been brought up on a farm, it was only natural when I began photography that my work would centre around the natural world. As a boy, I had a real interest in birds and, while I enjoy photographing all aspects of nature, birds are still my primary interest. In my early photographic career, I was pleased to simply find and photograph any subject but, as time passes and our interest and understanding deepens, other elements come into play that take us beyond mere recording.
Photography is a subject that you can never truly master and is one from which you will always be learning. It is true that with experience comes more confidence in one’s ability and that enables you to better assess the elements in the image and put them together to make a more interesting photograph. As nature photography advances at a rapid pace, it can never be a substitute for a sound understanding of design and composition. There is an old saying that a good picture of a common subject will always be better than a poor one of a rare subject. After all, as nature photographers, we are trying to produce something that captivates the viewer and conveys information, both about the subject and its place in the world. If this can be achieved with some degree of personal input and creativity it is more likely to be attractive to the viewer. Nature photography, in my view, is about producing images that are attractive to others and that draw them in to share the information and moment that you have recorded.
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