David Element

Wildlife Photography

and Digital Video Images

The following text is taken from David’s Wildlife Photography article,  an abridged version of which originally appeared in Butterfly Conservation News 78. More recent updates have been italicised.

              PHOTOGRAPHY  IN  2001

                                                 FLOWER BEE  Anthophora plumipes

David Element …

• Is a naturalist,  part-time wildlife photographer and long-standing member of Butterfly Conservation.  His photographs cover a broad range of animal species and have appeared in books and magazines,  including Butterfly Conservation News, and on the Society’s web site.

• He is currently providing illustrations for the Surrey Wildlife Trust’s highly regarded series of Wildlife Atlases.

• David has reached the final stages of the British Gas Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition on several occasions.

• More recently he has devoted much of his time to establishing and maintaining his wildlife website, accessible by using the links at the bottom of this page.

The Author photographing a Roesel's Bush-cricket nymph, 1996 -  photo: Sarah Jane Element. Quite astonishingly his (then) 4 year old daughter managed to take this photograph with a disposable camera at precisely the time that the flash unit fired. The resulting photograph may be seen in 'Grasshoppers and Crickets of Surrey'.

• This has been a difficult year for photographing butterflies.  The exceptionally wet weather has almost certainly seriously affected the numbers of many species of butterflies and moths.  Foot  and Mouth Disease restrictions meant that many favourite haunts of butterfly watchers were out of bounds although some have been reopened at the time of writing.

• In this article,  David Element describes his own equipment and techniques.  The photographs which originally illustrated this article were taken in April and May of 2001,  and were chosen with a view to convincing committed  (and by now very frustrated) butterfly photographers that there are many other potential subjects which may be photographed when butterflies are scarce or inaccessible.

• During the process of replacing these pictures with scanned images (12/2005) it has been necessary to substitute several of the original photographs with newer material (from Fuji Provia 100F transparencies, indicated with an asterisk by each caption), although the same selection of species has been retained.

                                        COMMA  BUTTERFLY   Polygonia c-album *

  EQUIPMENT – CAMERA  BODIES

• I usually carry quite a lot of kit when I go out into the field.  My equipment list includes two 35mm Nikon FE2 cameras,  a design dating back to 1983-7 and much sought after on the second hand market. The significant step forward with this  model was the introduction of automatic through the lens (TTL) flash metering,  coupled with a shutter speed of 1/250 second exposure which would freeze all bar the most rapid of movements by the subject.  There has not been any great improvement to this design from the nature photographer’s perspective - if one  chooses to ignore advances like automatic focussing or the introduction of digital cameras! 

• Having said this, things have moved on rapidly since this article was originally written. Many modern higher resolution digital cameras are now very close to achieving comparable quality to some of the finer grained films and the photographer has recently added a new Nikon D200 camera to his equipment (December 2005). This beautifully designed camera offers metering compatibility with his older manual lenses for the first time and initial impressions are very impressive indeed, particularly in low natural light. The quality probably matches (or even surpasses) that of low ISO transparency films. Digital SLRs enable the photographer to adjust the ISO settings for each individual photograph, a huge advantage in the capricious British weather! Several digital images are now on display on David's main web site - see Site Announcements for further information. With the recent spate of easy to use high specification sub-SLR-type cameras on the market wildlife photography has never been easier!

                                                    GORSE  SHIELD  BUG Piezodorus lituratus*

    FILM

• My camera bag includes a good supply of film, *mainly Kodachrome 64,  a very high quality product with ideal characteristics for invertebrate photography.  I also carry the multi-speed  Fuji slide film (sadly now discontinued) which I generally rate at  400ISO and use mainly for photographing birds in natural light. This is a film with  amazingly fine grain and it gives excellent results in comparatively dull conditions – indeed it may actually produce its best results in hazy sunshine rather than in  bright sunlight with high contrast.

• Update, 2004 - I now use Fuji Provia 100F film as this gives excellent results at 100ISO and also tolerates uprating to 400ISO, although this requires push-processing at additional cost. Of course, this does require careful marking of each film canister with the speed used!).

    FLASH  EQUIPMENT

• I carry two flash units for insect photography.  The master unit is a powerful Metz 60CT4 which I have to carry on a strap with its power pack as it is too big for the bag. This has a telephoto head attached in order to concentrate the flash beam  and to increase the light intensity hitting the subject. 

• The slave unit is a Nikon SB16B which has a Metz Mecalux 11 cable-free slave flash control attached.

• When in use the master flash is attached to a bracket and the slave unit is held in  the left hand,  in a position in which the Mecalux 11 can detect  the concentrated  flash beam.  This means that I can only hold the camera body with one hand and  therefore need to balance the lens on my left arm when I take a photograph.  Critical  focussing is therefore achieved by moving my body until the image is sharp.

• Some degree of manual control may be needed for (particularly) dark subjects against light backgrounds.  Exposure compensation is often needed for blue or white butterflies as there may be some halation (over-exposure due to excessive reflection from the scales) which can ruin a photograph  -  one trick of the trade is to uprate  the film speed setting so that the camera is fooled into reducing the flash exposure  time.

• Update, 2005 - I am now using my third 60CT4 unit as these have been subjected to significant wear and tear. Cables often become stretched, and back-up cables are recommended, particularly if the equipment is being used abroad.

                                           FIRE  BUGS  Pyrrhocoris apterus

    LENSES

• I normally take two prime telephoto lenses, one attached to each camera body.  I use a Nikkor 180mm f2.8 lens for my insect photography with between one and six  extension rings attached.  This allows me to work some distance from the subject whilst still obtaining an almost life size image on the transparency at minimum range,  and it also enables the subject to be evenly lit.

                                        MINT LEAF BEETLES Chrysolina menthastri

• The other prime lens is a Nikkor 400mm f3.5 which I use for birds and occasionally mammals or reptiles. The image size may again be enlarged by using one or more extension rings although the lens cannot be used at infinity with this set-up.  This lens is superbly well balanced, has marvellous optics and I don’t need  to use a tripod, providing the shutter speed is kept at above 1/500 second,  something which is  easily achieved using the uprated Fuji multi-speed film. However, it weighs just  under 3kg, so I normally leave it behind if I don’t expect to find any suitable  subjects during my walk.  In winter it is the insect photography kit which stays at  home.

             FOUR-SPOTTED CHASER DRAGONFLY  Libellula quadrimaculata

    MINI-DV

• Another recent addition to the kit has been a Canon MV20 mini-DV , a truly extraordinary video camera which enables virtually TV quality digital films to be taken on a piece of equipment which will fit inside a coat pocket. It is possible to take images ranging from more than twice life size at minimum range to 12 times optical magnification at a telephoto setting using a single lens in very poor light (greater magnification is possible using a digital setting, but image quality is reduced to a degree which makes using this mode pointless). The resultant films may be played back directly through a television or downloaded and edited on a PC.

• This equipment is ideal for recording animal behaviour.  It is even small enough to  hang on the back of my right hand whilst using an FE2 camera to take stills - see below!

The Author using close-up equipment with telephoto flash adaptor and mini-DV camera -  photo: Nicola Element

• The remaining items in the camera bag include a spare tape for the mini-DV, drinks, food and the obligatory sun hat.

                   CREAM-STREAKED LADYBIRD Harmonia quadripunctata

    TECHNIQUE

• I virtually always adopt a stalking technique, whatever the subject. In essence the photographer needs to either sneak up on a subject without being detected or to behave in a manner which does not disturb the creature.  This may mean staying very still for lengthy periods so that the confidence of the subject is gained or behaving in a manner which suggests that the photographer has no interest in the quarry.  The principal requirement is patience and this may be needed in bucketloads for difficult subjects.

                            BLACK-HEADED CARDINAL BEETLE Pyrochroa coccinea

• The above comments apply mainly to higher animals, but different types of insect require very different approaches. An elusive species like the Purple Emperor may behave beautifully in  front of the camera on the one occasion every few years that the photographer might find one at ground level, but may cause frustration on every other photographic attempt in between by simply not showing up on an apparently suitable day. A dragonfly like the Brown Hawker may have such acute vision that an approach is almost impossible when it is roosting, or alternatively remain airborne for hours on end. Some other dragonflies like the Ruddy Darter are really quite approachable and ideal subjects for beginners.  

• The only way that these ground rules can be learned is by detailed observation of the behaviour of the subject, and I would suggest that the approach “naturalist first, photographer second” will give far better results than “photographer first, naturalist second”.  There is also a great deal more satisfaction to be gained by the former approach as the true naturalist never stops learning. The best available equipment will be useless unless a photographer is able to get into the right position to take a picture.  It also helps if the photographer is sufficiently familiar and comfortable with his or her photographic equipment to be able to use it very quickly when a photo-opportunity does arise.

                                         GREY  HERON  Ardea  cinerea

    USING  HIDES

• I don’t own a hide, although I may choose to use one at a bird reserve if it is situated near to a good source of material.  Many reserve hides are either poorly situated for photography because they are too far away from water, facing directly into the sun or they may have windows which are too small for a camera lens to poke through. Others may have been vandalised to a state beyond repair or torched. Using hides is very much a personal choice, but for insect photography I cannot imagine any situation where one might be of any use. However, for some shy bird or mammal subjects using a hide may be the only way to guarantee getting a picture.

 BANDED DEMOISELLE Calopteryx splendens*       SPECKLED WOOD BUTTERFLY Pararge aegeria tircis

• I hope that the above gives some insight into the mechanics of wildlife photography, of which butterfly photography is a significant part but certainly not the whole story. Doubtless  here are many other photographers with differing and successful alternative methods or equipment who will have their own, equally valid approaches and I would not dispute that some of these will be more successful than my own. Wildlife photography is an immensely satisfying pursuit and a source of many hours of enjoyment.

© David Element.

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