I love taking detailed, close-up images of wildlife. I love gorgeous, pin-sharp feather-detail on birds, and adore photographs with a single focus and soft backgrounds.

Which is why I like to zoom out, every now and then, and try something different. I think that it’s important to vary what you do in photography so as not to get stuck in a rut, producing images that all look alike.

Widening the field of view and making not just the animal, but also its habitat, the subject of the photo is something I like to experiment with. I had plenty of opportunity to do so while in South Africa, especially at Giants Castle. The rugged outlines of the foothills and escarpment give great context to the photos geographically. Compositionally, lines and textures in the background can be used to draw attention to or away from the animal subject. The latter can be useful when illustrating species that are well camouflaged and blend in with their surrounds.

Including more of the landscape gives a good indication of the sort of habitat the animal you’re photographing can be found in. Nothing exists in a vacuum – animals are a part of the landscapes they inhabit, and it’s nice to illustrate this relationship every once in a while. Every animal has an ecological niche to fill – a habitat it lives in, the food it eats – the relationships it has with the environment and other animals, as predator or prey. Capturing all these elements in a single photo is difficult, but not impossible! The last frame of the GIF below is my favourite, and what I would present as a still, but the whole sequence was too cute not to share!