Pixiq

It is a natural instinct to take something as you first see it; indeed, this is essential for capturing fleeting action. If I have the luxury of time, I like to work the composition because I invariably find ways to improve upon it.

Here is an example I spotted beside the Zambezi River in Zambia. The remnants of a dead skeleton tree were decorated with colorful white-fronted bee eaters.  With the birds constantly coming and going, their position on the branches was completely fluid. My initial instinct was to use a zoom tele lens at 280mm  to include all the birds against the river backdrop in a landscape format – the more the merrier instinct.

I rapidly realized this had two snags: namely the water backdrop was not a uniform blue wash and because the birds were perching at different angles, some had shadows from other birds and branches cast across them.

So I decided to switch to a 500mm lens and take just three birds on the extreme right of the frame – also as a horizontal format. This certainly produced a uniform river backdrop, but with the left-hand bird looking towards the other two it appeared as a ménage à trois and the composition did not gel.

When the right-hand bird flew off, the remaining pair ended up looking at one another perched above a twig that forked into two. Sticking with the 500mm lens, I changed to a vertical format to gain a crop with the birds near the top of the frame, so that the branches became an important component of the composition.  It is reminiscent of a Japanese or Chinese ink brush painting of birds on a branch – although admittedly without any cherry or peach blossom in this instance!

Hawk-eyed viewers will spot I have removed the out of focus branches to simplify the composition. Finally, here is an example of how less can be more.