Most influential recap and competition

Over the last 6 months, yes 6 (sometimes I really need a good kick up the backside to get writing!), I have been running a series outlining 5 nature photographers that have had the most influence on my own work, particularly in my early years. And so, before I reveal who (for me at least) is at the top of the tree, here’s a summary of the other 4. If you’d like to read the entire piece about that photographer, just a click on the name.   

Whoever correctly guesses who is at number 1, either on this blog or facebook, will receive a copy of Hannu Hautala’s acclaimed book, To Everything a Season. A year in the Finnish wilds, of which I have two copies. I’ll even stump up the P&P! Sorry, UK only.   

Below is how I bagan the piece….

Those of us that have been taking photographs for some time will have undoubtedly been influenced by those we have admired. Certainly I have! I started taking wildlife photographs 27 years ago at the age of 13 and seriously from 16 at a time when we weren’t bombarded with imagery found on the Internet. My influences came from those around me and those credited with images gracing coffee table books and magazines such as BBC Wildlife and National Geographic. 

From a very early age I would tag-along with a great friend of mine, called Ted Coleman who was 40 years my senior. He was a quite brilliant naturalist and no mean wildlife photographer, to boot! I would find myself trying desperately to emulate his style and quality (very poorly, I have to say) but as I grew older and saw other photographers’ work, I began to follow my own inclinations and would attempt to record what I saw in a more artistic manner. Ted, in his rural, gravelly voice would call this “arty-farty”! I couldn’t disagree. He was right! You see, this was the early 1980s and ”artistic” natural history photography wasn’t at all common, at least not in the UK. By and large, photographers would record what they saw as opposed to putting their own personal “stamp” on it. However, there were a number in that period that started to do just that and over the coming weeks, I’ll be going through those, in ascending order, that have influenced my own work the most.

I won’t be including Ted in this as I don’t feel as though I need to state how much he influenced my work, particularly in those early days. Indeed, as time went by and we returned from trips together, to Wales and Finland for example, many an evening would be spent projecting our images and seeing just how different our styles had become. One thing never changed though and that was an ethic he had instilled in me all those years ago. “That no matter how badly you want that picture or how hard you have worked to get close, the subject’s well-being must always come first.”

5 – Hannu Hautala

The top 5 nature photographers that have most influenced my work starts with Finnish wildlife photographer, Hannu Hautala. I toyed with placing him further up the list but those that will follow have had a more sustained influence on my work, particularly in the early days.

Hannu Hautala is undoubtedly the most famous Finnish photographer. So much so, that he is, or at least was, regularly shown on TV, advertising products, something which, unless David Bailey ever became a wildlife photographer, I very much doubt you will ever see in Britain!

He was one of the first to place the subject, be it a bird or mammal, small in the frame. To put it in context with it’s environment. This was done with thought and not by mistake. Before him, pictures of birds and animals were almost always big in the frame and if the photographer couldn’t get close enough, then just “clumsily” snapped. From the 1990s onwards this “style” became a trademark of Finnish wildlife photography.

4 – Laurie Campbell

Laurie Campbell was once described by wildlife film-maker, Simon king, “as the doyen of Scottish nature photography.” Who could argue? Laurie Campbell in so many ways epitomises how a nature photographer should behave. In other words, he conducts himself in such a way that rather than talking a good picture, he lets his pictures speak for themselves. An incredibly knowledgeable naturalist (unfortunately, an increasingly rare trait in a nature photographer these days), Laurie is a great all-rounder. Equally as good shooting birds and mammals as he is landscapes, plants and insects.

He has a style of that goes beyond the ordinary. Careful use of light and viewpoint. Indeed, I would go as far to say that Laurie was one of the first British photographers to adopt the “low-angle” approach when shooting wildlife, something that is the norm these days.

3 – Frans Lanting

Frans Lanting is regularly hailed as one of the great nature photographers of our time and, when it comes to nature photography, I cannot disagree.

I first became aware of his work back in 1987 after purchasing a copy of National Geographic which ran a story of his titled “Madagascar: A World Apart.” Very little was known of this island back then and he even photographed a species of lemur which hadn’t yet been named! Three years later he had another, this time on the Okavango Delta in Botswana. He spent a year living in the region photographing elephants, eagle and hippos. He would sleep during the day and follow a pride of lions at night, lay under camo netting close to a waterhole where lions would pass by just yards away, too intent on quenching their thirst to take any notice. It was these images that really brought him into prominence and which led to him being awarded BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

2 – John Shaw

The final 2! John Shaw made the complexities of photographing nature, possible. This may seem like a sweeping statement but in the early and mid 80s there was a kind of secrecy behind photographing wildlife by many leading nature photographers incase others produced similar “competing” work. It’s ridiculous when you think of it, especially now when “How to” photography books fill up book stands at your local Waterstones. But back then when it was all about transparency and getting it right first time, such things as exposure, filtration, camera supports and the most important element, technique were not extensively covered at all. John Shaw changed all that.

Aside from his methods and explanations, I adored his images. Simple, graphic lines. His landscape images are rarely complicated and some of his most memorable, at least for me, are as simple as a tree at sunset or a frost covered leaf. It wasn’t necessarily about the subject but the subject’s placement within the frame. Here is clearly a man equally at home shooting dew laden grasses as he is bison in Yellowstone. He explains, strong images are very much about making sense of nature’s chaos. Deciding what it is that you like about that scene and leaving out what detracts from it.

Tags: book, frans lanting, hannu hautala, influential nature photographers, john shaw, laurie campbell, to everything a season