What are the odds
Natural history photographers strive for
that cutting-edge image that is unique and shows a phenomenon from the natural
world most of us never see. Such an image sets that brief moment in time ... forever. To get such a unique image many elements have to come together at the same time. I want to
illustrate how difficult this image consolidation is.
I will use two images, interestingly taken about 50
metres but several years apart. One of the things I look for when walking and
observing is potential nesting holes and clear perches. If these become active the chances of
getting a good action shot increases but it must be remembered the welfare of
the bird is always paramount and they should never be put at risk.
In the first
image it is the time of the year when cavity-nesters looks for a suitable tree
hole to raise a family, their principle mission in life.
The players in Image 1
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| Laced Woodpecker |
 |
| Lineated Barbet |
I had noted several
cavities at Air Hitam Dalam, a conserved nature park on mainland Penang and usually check them when I am
there. On this occasion two different species, both cavity nesters, a Lineated
Barbet and a Laced Woodpecker arrived at the same hole to check it as a
potential nursery. What were the odds of capturing this moment?
IMAGE 1
 |
| The precise moment when two searches for accommodation coincide. |
For the second
image I had noted a cavity that faced the morning sun and could be easily seen
from the track on the nearby bund. I had walked past it 20 times at least and
checked it with binoculars and had seen no action.
In mid to late February 2019 my persistence paid off.
What is seen in the next image is a nest cavity claimed by a pair of Spotted Wood Owls. A Monitor
lizard has invaded and is possibly raiding the owls eggs when the distraught parents
(both took turns) are trying to dislodge the reptile. The owl has not landed
but the instant is shown where the outstretched talons hit the lizard.
The Second Image
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| An adult Spotted Wood Owl attacks the monitor lizard that is robbing its nest |
The next two images are taken 1/10 and 2/10s of a second, respectively after the image above. This illustrates the short time window to is needed to capture a moment.
Spotted Wood Owls
Spotted Wood-owls
(Strix seloputo) belong to the genus
Strix that includes relatively large owls which frequent forested habitats. There
are three sub-species.
This species is 45-47cm in height with the male weighing just over 1 kilo.
The adult has
brown upper parts with reddish-brown lower back. Head and upper neck are darker,
almost black. Numerous lack-edged white spots cover the dorsal area, extending
to the fore-crown. The upper wing-coverts are brown barred white, whereas
scapulars are white with dark brown stripes.
On the
under-parts, the chin is buff. The throat is white with brown-edged feathers.
Neck sides are barred white. The remaining underparts are white with
reddish-brown tinge on the breast, all heavily barred dark. On the head, the
ear-tufts are absent. The facial disk is plain rusty. The bill is
greenish-black. The eyes are dark brown. The tarsi are feathered white with
dark barring. The toes are grey. Both sexes are similar.
The Spotted
Wood-owl frequents the edges of evergreen forests and logged forests,
plantations, wooded parks, orchards and open forest. It can be seen in
rice-fields, cultivated areas and sometimes mangroves and open deforested
areas. The species occur below 800 metres, but sometimes up to 1000 metres of
elevation.
The species
feeds mainly on small rodents, small birds and large insects. It may
occasionally catch snakes and bats. It usually hunts from a perch, 2-3 metres
above the ground. It uses the most basic hunting style ‘sit-and-wait’. Once the
prey is detected, it drops or glides from the perch and attacks the prey on the
ground. The prey is killed with talons and a bite to the back of the skull.
The breeding season
takes place between January and June in the Malay Peninsular. Young fledglings
are visible from March to August. The Spotted Wood-owl nests in tree-hollows
between 2 and 18 metres above the ground. The female lays two white eggs,
directly on the floor of the nest without any lining.
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| The distribution of Spotted Wood Owls |
Monitor Lizards
(Varinidae) are large,
muscular predators with strong jaws, sharp teeth and a long, forked tongue,
which they use to taste the air when searching for prey. Many swim well, and
nearly all can climb trees. Worldwide there are currently 79 species, which
includes the Komodo Dragon, the largest lizard in the world. There are many
monitors in the adjacent Sungai Jarak River which is adjacent to Air Hitam Dalam..
Both of the featured images possibly had odds of thousands to 1 to align all the elements together
I have divided the required factors into four
sub-sections illustrating what I believe is required to get a good action or behavioural image. It is summarised
by I.L.E.T... which are; Image, Light, Equipment, and Timing.
A. IMAGE
A good nature
image should have the following characteristics;
1. Sharp.....the
essential elements should be in focus (correct speed, aperture and focusing)
2. Good
light....the image must be lit well
3. Good
composition...no cut-off appendages and a good flow to the image.
4. No
distractions (no clutter around the main subject, holes in the background or
too many objects not in focus)
5. The main
subject needs to be doing something (showing behaviour)
6. The picture
should tell a story
B. LIGHT
A good image
must be lit in the best possible way with strong lighting allowing for high speeds that are necessary to freeze action.
1. Sun from in front and at a low angle
2. Clear view of
subject without branches etc in the way
3. Background
should be non-distracting. Blue sky is very good, white clouds are awful.
Vegetation in the background should be well out of focus.
C, EQUIPMENT
1. A 600-800mm
lens is essential....to shoot through holes in the foliage (the owls nest cavity is in the middle of the picture below taken with a 50mm lens). There are restricted positions that give a good view of the cavity.
2. With a heavy
lens a sturdy tripod is also needed
3. The camera should
allow speeds set at least to ISO 2000.
4. Action shots
require speeds of at least 1/3200
5. Aperture
should be set around f8 to give sufficient depth of field without compromising
speed.
6. Rapid
shooting should reliably give 10-15 frames a second because some action is over in less than a second
TIMING
This is the
magic component where you, being prepared, and your subject, about to do
something interesting, intersect in time and space. This can be quite serendipitous.
You can minimize serendipity if you know something is going to happen at a
certain place and wait there......like Wildebeest crossing the Mara River,
where you may wait weeks but they only cross at certain points. The BBC staked
out all the known crossings to get good video recordings.
In neither of
the featured images did I know anything would happen at the particular time and
I wasn’t prepared to wait for weeks so each relied on 'prepared serendipity'.
In the Barbet/Woodpecker image the two birds were only in the same alignment for 1/10th
second....the surrounding foliage and branches could not be eliminated entirely as there was only a narrow exposure window.
The chances of these two exploring the same crevice at the precise same time when
everything else was in place ( ie. the prepared photographer and the sun position) are likely to be thousands to one.
In the
Owl/lizard image. I had never seen any action around this hole but I was ready
to shoot within a split second of getting a clear sight. I first saw what I
thought was a Crested Serpent Eagle near the hole......it was in fact a Spotted Wood
Owl, which I had not seen so far in 2019. Initially the owl obscured the hole
and the monitor lizard.
I fired two rapid shots (lasting 2/10th second in total) and
the owl was gone.
I then saw movement in the crevice and identified it as a
monitor lizard.
Both owls were quietly upset with the situation and as soon as
the lizard protruded from the hole one of them would come in on a strafing
attack. They did not land but hit the lizard with their talons. In most of the
attacks the owl flew wide of the enemy...but in all of the 4 attacks my window
of action lasted only 3/10ths of second. The contact with the lizard that is
shown would have lasted perhaps 1/50th to 1/100th of a second .....and only
happened once until the sun was overhead and cast an unworkable shadow of the
tree trunk.
Another pass with no contact
Another fly-past with no contact
The owls were
not present in 2018 and I had seen them for three seasons before that but
nobody I knew had seen where they nested......so everything was unexpected.
They pair usually roosted in an adjacent tree and they are only there for
around 3-4 months.
The odds of
capturing an image of a Spotted Wood Owl attacking a large monitor lizard with armed talons
would be at odds of thousands to one. The photographer has to
have the equipment, fieldcraft and the luck for these elements to coincide in an image.
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| Close-up of the moment of impact |
The point that I
am making is that a good natural history image has a number of components to
consider and a major consideration should be assessing the rarity value..... what are the odds that enabled this image to be acquired? Books are filled with images of
perching birds or resting animals...the key to add impact is to catch them doing something
interesting that the eye cannot perceive.
WHEN ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF WILDLIFE IMAGES TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THE CHANCES OF GETTING SUCH AN IMAGE
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