Like many Wildlife Photographers I dream of flying to remote locations to see and photography iconic and/or rare species; explore new locations for the first time and experience those magical moments we think about daily. But sadly that is not my reality…and it is not the reality of many. For myself I have a full time gov’t job, a family which includes a 7 year old daughter and lots of bills/responsibilities to take care. Many of these things are the reason I can’t travel the world but not being able to travel has opened my eyes to one very very important element to creating great images is…building a relationship with my subjects.

Since all my photography for the past decade as been done here on the island of Newfoundland it means I photograph the same species over and over again. Which for many people can become boring and very demotivating but what I have learned is to use this to my advantage. To use my time to focus on getting to know my subjects and their environment on a intimate level. With repeated visits to the same or very similar locations I understand the light and how it effects the area at different times of year and at different times of the day. I also gain the knowledge of my subjects behavior and were they tend to spend most of their time.

By spending more and more time with your subjects and your locations you can begin to experiment with different shooting scenarios in different lighting. Thus, providing you with the opportunity to capture more unique and stunning images of the subjects around you.

Lets take for example the Tufted Duck which is one of the diving ducks that spends about 6 to 7 months here on the island of Newfoundland primarily through the winter months. It’s Tuft of feathers on the top of its head creates such a interesting look and a great subject to photography.

The image above is your standard “field guide” shoot and though its nice I can’t imagine capturing the same very “standard” shot for 10 years..now that for me would get boring.

So that raises the question of how can I make things more interesting. Well, I started to look at my subject and what its main features were..of course the Tuft of feathers stood out right away..So how could I capture an image that focused on and represented the Tuft in a unique way? I decided to take a visit to my local lake during 70 km wind gust in freezing cold temps in hopes that the Tuft would be blowing around in the wind and was able to capture this portrait

Now we are getting a little interest in our shot.

But for me the blue water wasn’t cutting it..I wanted color and a beautiful background to go with my subject. So I began looking for locations that would provided that and once I found the perfect location I was able to come away with this

Never being full satisfied by my images I wanted to push the colors further and capture the very first rays of light..so I found another location that would provide that

and lets not forget about a nice portrait in this beautiful light

After experimenting with new locations, improved on better lighting and capturing nice fall colors in my background I starting to think what else I could do. How else could I challenge myself to capture my subject in a more unique way..well lighting angle of course..and going back to my point above about looking at the unique features of your subject I decided to go full silhouette and captured this image recently

and finally a little magic light reflected on the lake :)

I guess my point is this…don’t be discouraged that you cant travel to exotic locations. Use the time and the interest you have in Wildlife Photography to focus in on the subjects you have around you. Study the locations they like to hang out, get to know your subjects behaviors and experiment with different shooting scenarios to hopefully create something extraordinary from something ordinary.