How Low Can you Go? AnIllustration of Camera Anglefor Wildlife Photography

A Post By: Paul Burwell

Whenever I teach wildlife photography, I inevitably go on at

some length about the necessity of trying to get your camera

near the height of your subject’s eyes. This concept doesn’t

only apply to wildlife photography, it applies equally well to

photography of people, pets or hobbits. When I teach this

concept to a group of students, their eyes tend to glaze over

until I put some images in front of them that can really

illustrate the point.

Safety first

It obviously isn’t always practical or safe to get into a lower

shooting position. This is true if you’re dealing with larger

animals and especially predators, getting low may trigger their

prey response where they start to consider you a potential

snack, or in my case a meal. It isn’t just your health I’m

concerned about, as it seems the regular response to some

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sort of animal attack is for the authorities to track down the

o!ending critter and end its time on earth. So, when I’m

telling you that your pictures will improve if you can get lower

and match your subject’s eye level, you do still need to THINK

about what you’re doing and the sort of subject you’re dealing

with. No photograph is worth either your health, or the health

of your subject.

How camera angle effects yourimages

I thought I’d use the following images, of the extremely

dangerous and elusive Richardson’s ground squirrel, to

illustrate how images improve as the angle of the camera to

the subject changes in respect to the level of the subject’s

eyes. This is the perfect critter for this topic because,

depending on the squirrel’s posture, its eyes are somewhere

between one and six inches (2.5 to 15 cm) above the ground.

All of the images below were photographed with my full-

frame Canon DSLR along with the Canon 500mm lens with a

2.0x teleconverter on it for an e!ective focal length of

1000mm. All of the images were made at an aperture setting

of f/9, the standard setting I use on this lens/teleconverter

combination when I’m wanting as little depth-of-"eld as

possible while at the same time stopping down a bit to

compensate for the sharpness lost by using the teleconverter.

1000mm is roughly equivalent to about a 20x zoom, if you are

using a point-and-shoot type camera, from what our bare eyes

would normally see.

Examples

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This "rst shot was taken from my vehicle with the lens resting

just on top of the window opening. The extreme focal length

(or magni"cation factor) of images made with a super

telephoto lens does help minimize the apparent di!erence in

height (which ended up being about four feet or 1.2 metres)

but you can still tell it was shot looking down at the squirrel.

Richardson’s Ground Squirrel sitting on the grass – shot

from four feet height (1.2 meters)

On this next photo below, using my tripod with the lens about

18 inches (45cm) above the ground, you can really see how the

camera angle has changed and how nicely the background

resolves into a whole bunch of nothingness (technically called

bokeh), but there is still an element of peering down on the

ground squirrel.

Richardson’s Ground Squirrel eating a piece of grass –

shot from 18″ camera height

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The e!ect of getting your lens closer to your subject’s eye

level is that the viewer of your images is able to look at the

subject without looking down at it and the innate connection

between the viewer and the subject is a lot more intimate and

compelling. So what happens when you get even lower to the

point where your lens is as close to the eye level of the subject

as possible?

Richardson’s Ground Squirrel giving a warning signal –

6 inch camera height

Richardson’s Ground Squirrel giving a warning signal –

6 inch camera height

You can see the image becomes even more compelling with

the lens and camera are now at the same level of the squirrel.

I was laying in a prone position on the ground for these last

two images, with the lens resting on a bean bag. In the "rst of

the two images above, shot at 6 inches camera height, you can

really see the delineation line of what’s in focus and what isn’t

(the DOF). One could argue that the out of focus grass in front

of the image is distracting, but, I’d argue that the dreamy

e!ect created adds to the interest of the photo, and the

squirrel’s head and eyes are nice and sharp.

Summary and your turn

I hope that these images, along with the accompanying text,

help illustrate the point about getting to your subject’s eye-

level whenever feasible. It’s not necessary to use a 500mm

lens, you will have the same e!ect with whatever lens you

have.

Have some feedback on these images?

Have questions about di!erent situations?

This is the place to ask them or contribute your own thoughts.

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Paul Burwell is a professional photographer,

writer, educator and enthusiastic naturalist with

over twenty years experience working with and

educating adults. In addition to being the owner of

the Burwell School of Photography, he is a

contributing editor and regular columnist

with Outdoor Photography Canada Magazine.

Paul has been a "nalist in the Veolia 'Wildlife

Photographer of the Year' worldwide competition

in 2009, 2010 and 2013 and was named a 'Top

Wildlife Shooter' by Popular Photography Magazine

in 2010.

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