“Clamming Together”
Brown Bears – Cook Inlet; Lake Clark National Park, Alaska
I’ve spent thousands of hours during my years as a pilot, crisscrossing the United States and observing Planet Earth from the cockpit of a corporate jet cruising the upper levels of the troposphere. From this viewpoint, I began understanding Homo sapiens’ relationship with this marvelous planet from an entirely different perspective.
Images depicting our wild brothers and sisters in their environment captures that same spirit, allowing us to begin understanding our relationship with them, and their relationship with Earth. This is the essence of nature — and, the environmental wildlife portrait.
Simply put, the environmental wildlife portrait is an image depicting a subject in the context of its environment. While it may be tempting to use one of the large telephoto lenses for every wildlife image, “head shots,” while nice, do not depict a subject’s relationship with its environment.
Wood Bison – Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada
All of the elements that go into making beautiful landscape images are found in the environmental portrait. However, they have an added dimension — they tell a story. For example, a bald eagle perched on a log in a snowstorm provides a glimpse into its struggle for survival during the harshness of winter. An Alaskan brown bear standing before a majestic mountain range provides not only a breathtaking image of their environment, but indicates the bear’s dependency on a wild, unspoiled world. A mountain goat standing on a precarious rocky ledge overlooking distant mountain ranges provides insight into its day-to-day life and the ability to excel in an unforgiving alpine habitat.
This is why I often ask viewers what they see as they look at one of my photographic creations. I want them to look past the composition, the colors, and the presentation. I want them to connect with the subject . . . to hear the story being shared by that subject.
“Follow the Leader”
Dalls Sheep – Primrose Ridge, Denali National Park, Alaska
As we work to preserve the remaining species on our planet, the preservation of habitat is equally important. I am convinced that environmental wildlife portraits will have positive effects to that end. They display not only where, but how an animal lives and how it interacts with other factors in nature. Since animals are the product of their habitat, it’s my belief that I have a responsibility to portray them in that environment.
Hopefully, this article will give you a better understanding as to why the environmental wildlife portrait is so important to me and why they must be shared with others.
“Snow on the Chilkat”
Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve – Haines, Alaska
Very well said, Pop!
Thank you very much, Scot.
I agree with Scot’s comment. Well said. Environment is everything to wildlife.
Indeed, if the environment is changed, therein lies difficulty and confusion for the wildlife to survive and thrive – especially if the change comes as a result of actions by homo sapiens.
I’ll fight as hard and as long as I can to save the environment and the wildlife that depends upon it. Let’s all hope that one day everyone respects and considers wildlife as our true wild brothers and sisters.
Thank you so much, Weldon!
Thank you for your heartfelt response, Kathy. I am truly touched by your remarks.
I totally agree with your words of not only wisdom but one of self belief. I have always thought of the wildlife’s environment as a most important key element in the landscape image, and that was instilled while living near you and the Rocky Mountain National Park. After returning back to the SW corner of Florida, I brought that photographic element forward including the wildlife that call Florida home.
I hope to somehow get back out west again to visit with you and Lori before seeing the brown side of the green grass.
J. Michael Wilhelm (Junior)
Natures Images
Thanks, Pappy. There’s always a place for you in our home up here in the mountains. Keep on fightin” the good fight.
Weldon —
Well said.!
I think back to one of the workshops I’ve taken. It could have been my first with you (?). We saw a group of bighorn sheep with an older ram with plenty of curl in his horns. Anyway, he had been munching and had a long blade of grass with seed head sticking out from between his teeth. My first reaction was “very hillbilly of you,” and I took a close-up, in part because he was walking along a road, which did not add to the portrait, and in part because my new long lens allowed me to isolate the head.. Anyway, back in those film days, it was a couple of weeks after taking the shot and being able to look at the processed slides that I realized I never even got a whole-animal shot. Big mistake, roadside notwithstanding.
Anyway, I’ve tried not to make that mistake again, though I know I tend to go for the portrait first and worry about the environmental shot afterwards. I’m sure that not always appropriate, but I am a detail-oriented person. I just have to reframe the subject to be a nature photograph rather than a wildlife photograph, and I’ll be fine..
MM
You are always fine, Marvin. It’s really good to hear from you. You do a great job with flowers making the world a beautiful place to live.
Great comments. I’ve been working on including more of the environment. Hope you have a great summer.
Great hearing from you, JP. Keep up the great work you are doing.
Weldon, as always, you hit the nail squarely on the head. I have in my own photography, over the past couple of years, moved from wildlife “head-and-shoulder” photos to those that portray critters in their habitat, which is absolutely critical to their survival.
Here in the Midwest/West (the 100th meridian is about 150 miles west of Lincoln) we have over the past half-century had a dramatic demonstration of the role of habitat in the viability of wildlife populations. Those large crop circles that most folks see from an airplane flying five or six miles above the earth are pivot irrigation. Before it came along back in the mid-sixties, much of our land was just too rolling for ditch irrigation, and draws, hedgerows, tree rows, and abandoned farm sites were common. And we had upland birds everywhere. Now those areas are irrigated by pivots; the hedge and tree rows are gone; the draws have been backfilled; and, the farmsteads burned and buried. And even those of us who seek to spend a fair amount of time out in nature, seldom see a pheasant, and I actually think the Bobwhite in this area will become threatened in another decade or two.
Sorry for the length of this, but, as you can see, you touched a nerve with this one. Please keep doing that.
One of the most important things we can do is to get the message out that habitat is vanishing. Considering your connections in the Nebraska political circle, you are in a great position to do just that. Keep fighting the good fight my friend.