The Silence Of The Photographers

Apr 30 Written By Angela Maloney

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY I CAN’T GET ANY WILDLIFE PHOTOS!!!”

-an anonymous photographer standing in the middle of the woods shouting at the author

We humans are interesting animals. We’re the only ones who have forgotten we’re a part of nature. Living in cities has taught us to be comfortable and barely notice a lot of very noisy things. If a train passes by, it’s just background noise. A car honks its horn and we barely take note. Construction and traffic noises surround us all the time. We are constantly accustomed to music, television and other sounds around us all the time.

But being out in nature is different. It’s quiet there. So quiet that sometimes you can hear the whooshing sound as a bird flaps it’s wings and flies amongst the treetops. So quiet that a squirrel bursting through the undergrowth is the loudest sound you may hear.

It turns out that we humans tend to bring our noisy lives with us into the woods. The photographer who once stood behind me and shouted at the top of her lungs about how she could not figure out why she could get no wildlife photos is just one example. She couldn’t get wildlife photos because she was so loud. But she didn’t recognize the fact because the loud noise was natural to her. It just wasn’t natural to the animals.

An intimate moment between a mother bear and her cubs. You cannot get photos like this if the bears are concerned about your presence.

If we’re going to photograph wildlife, we’re going to have to find a way of doing it without scaring them away. That is less a statement about responsible photography and more a simple statement of reality. If we make the animals run away, it’s going to be hard to take their photos.

We avoid scaring animals by copying nature and being silent ourselves. That means, in part, that we avoid loud noises. But it also means that we avoid sudden movements or other things that may draw attention to us. In fact, ideally an animal should be either unaware of our presence or it simply shouldn’t care. Either way the point is the same: to leave the animals undisturbed so that they go about their business. It’s the only way we can get photos of bonafide wildlife behavior. Any photo taken of an animal reacting to the presence of humans is exactly that—a photo of an animal reacting to humans. Not a photo of normal wildlife behavior.

There are several methods for achieving this silence. One is to simply arrive early and sit silently. After enough time passes by, a human being sitting silently in the woods is simply a part of the scenery. As long as the human avoids making noise or sudden movements, the likelihood of scaring an animal is dramatically lessened.

Another method is by using a blind. The idea behind a blind is simply to hide the person’s presence. The human being arrives before the wildlife does and then stays inside until the wildlife leaves. The animals never see the person. In fact, cars are often used to great effect as wildlife blinds. The human escapes notice by remaining inside the car.

A red fox curled up and napping in front of me completely undisturbed.

I took the photo above while laying on my stomach peaking over the top of a small hill looking up toward the fox. In some sense I combined both of these effects. I was there for hours watching the foxes emerge from their dens, so I became a part of the scenery. But I was also hidden by the hill. The result was that the fox felt comfortable enough to curl up and take a nap in front of me. It was not at all disturbed by my presence.

 Having a person feel comfortable enough around us to be unguardedly themselves is always an honor. The same is even more true with animals. In fact, it’s the only way to get photos of an animal’s intimate moments.

So this is a tip for taking good photos. But, because it leaves animals undisturbed, it’s also a tip for being responsible too: be a silent photographer. Let your silence provide the opportunity to see those moments that a loud person never witnesses.