The Wildlife No One Photographs: People
A previously calm coyote is disrupted by snow coaches full of photographers and tour groups in Yellowstone National Park. Article and photo by: Annalise Kaylor
Earlier this week, I connected with a new (to me) photo editor about some of my recent work from the past six weeks while Jared and I were in Yellowstone National Park. While our conversation was initially about photo needs and stock licensing, after perusing my website he also asked me to let him know whenever I’m in town and may be available for assignment work.
So how exactly does one go from an introductory email to the offer of being placed on the assignment roster for a wildlife magazine in just a couple of emails? It’s because my photography often includes people.
When I search Getty Images for “Yellowstone National Park,” I get a total of 22,435 photos to look at. Of the 100 photos on the first page, only TWO of those images have people in them. Against the breadth of that collection, that calculates to fewer than 500 photos in their collection with people in them. I don’t know about you, but when it comes to competing for sales of my images, I’d much rather be up against 500 other photos than 22,345.
Being an independent photographer is as much about being a strategist as it is about being good behind the camera, especially when you are first trying to build a name and a network for yourself. As written about before, some of the easier paths to success are to take a look across the landscape of wildlife photography and choose the roads less traveled.
Want to get some bylines without having to constantly pitch your photos? Sell stock photos. Want to rank higher on the list when editors start reaching out? Make sure they know you can shoot video, too. And, deliver a day early. Boy, do editors love photographers and writers who deliver ahead of the deadline.
When this editor looked through my website, he saw that I also have a deep body of work involving people, editorial coverage, and wildlife, among some studio work. He has a couple hundred or so photographers on his roster for licensing wildlife and nature photography, but he only has a handful that he uses for assignments. Finding photographers who recognize how to photograph wildlife while also showing the relationship between animals and nature within the context of their relationships with humans isn’t as easy as it sounds. Not because photographers aren’t capable, but because they don’t show that they are.
With a background in photojournalism, there are certain habits that are automatic to me when I’m in the field working. I photography wide, I use negative space well, and I usually approach every individual subject like they are going to appear in a standalone photo essay. I focus on the five essential shots for the photojournalist:
The Cover Shot (the hook, the piquing of interest)
The Establishing Shot (set and setting, sense of place)
Close-up/Detail Shot (these are like the visual adjectives of the story)
Filler shots (different angles, opposing points of view)
The Closing Shot (a sense of closure, a natural end to the story)
It doesn’t always work with every situation I’m in, but for the most part, my brain is hardwired to photograph this way. I even see that same pattern when I look at my Lightroom Catalog - each take that comes back with me has some combination of these elements that repeats itself.
This approach is how people end up in so much of my wildlife photography work that I license, and I wanted to share an example of how thinking this way and rearranging how and what you “see” when you’re in the field may pay off for you, as well.
A story:
On the last day of leading our second workshop in Yellowstone, we saw a beautiful coyote (my favorite mammal, btw) working the edge of the Yellowstone River on the west side of the park. When we saw that she was making her way along the shoreline at a decent pace, we drove our group down the road about half a mile. She was still in sight, but far enough away that we could all get out and be ready to photograph her when she came our way.
More than half the length of a football field away, she trots around the corner and sees us all hunkered down in the wet and heavy bank of snow. At this distance, she is keenly aware that we are there, but she has complete agency over where she wants to go without any stress or pressure from us.
We remain statuesque as she makes her way along the riverbank. About 200 yards out, she pauses and gives us a once-over. She is curious about us and sits down. She studies us for a bit, then begins to listen to the snow around her.
“Ah, she’s going to mouse!” I say to myself, a tiny fist pump of joy playing out in my head. And sure enough, she does. A quick pounce and a few snaps of the jaw later she’s enjoyed a delightful snack. She pauses and looks at us again, in that same way my own dog, Susan, does when she is curious and interpreting my moves - head cocked slightly to the left, ears perked up, and directly into my eyes.
She has decided we are not a threat and again begins trotting our way, following the track in the snow made by the animals who walked this river bank before her.
We have been embedded in this snow bank for almost 45 minutes, waiting for a chance to quietly photograph the coyote as she passes us in whatever way she chooses. And then it happens.
Two snow coaches filled with photographers pull up and slam on their brakes IMMEDIATELY beside the coyote. She is instantly back on high alert. She starts looking around, trying to asses her options. Photographers jump out of the coaches and charge down the road, their tripods looking like bayonets. The coyote is now concerned for her safety and starts running toward us for a bit.
It should go without saying, but one of the ways to all but guarantee you scare away wildlife (and create a potential safety issue, to boot) is by stopping right next to an animal, looking directly at them, and walking or charging right toward them.
She pauses halfway between us and the maniacal photographers. They are loud - if I can hear you without my hearing aids on from 100 yards away, you are VERY loud.
The stress she is feeling at this moment is palpable to anyone paying attention.
She looks all around for an escape route, heading up the bank we are sitting in, about 50 yards away. Our group stays still and silent and all of our clients are getting a first-hand lesson in what NOT to ever do.
She decides to go for the road and see if she can make it up and over the large hill. But one of the thoughtless photographers is now running down the road toward her. When she has crossed the road and is about 15 feet up the hill, the tour leader for his group finally manages to call him back within the realm of common decency.
But it is too late. The coyote has now been forced to change her entire course. She was in flight mode, and who can blame her?
And just like that, she is up and heading over the hill, a way she had not intended to go, and in a fashion that was anything but peaceful. And just like that, those photographers got back on their snow coach thinking about all the Facebook likes and loves their photos will generate for their egos.
While everyone else was watching this situation play out, I was photographing what was going on. I knew this wasn’t going to be an incident that would make the ten o’clock news. But I also know that wildlife-human interactions are topics that many of my clients (and potential clients) write about in their magazines, on their websites, and all around their social media channels.
While I have portraits of the coyote herself, I also have photos that show her looking back at all the people, photos with the snow coach in them and groups of photographers and people encroaching too close and the look of the coyote’s discomfort, and other details. I went into my “five essential shots” mode, as I do:
Cover Shot - Portrait of the coyote in landscape and vertical orientations, both with the people in them and without
Establishing Shots - Landscape orientation photos of the scene, including with the river, the snow coaches, and the scenes before the disruptions
Close-up Shots - Photos of the coyote in focus with the groups in bokeh, and the reverse, with the people visible but the coyote as a foreground element, photos of the coyote watching the people and redirecting herself, photos of the crazy photographer chasing her, both with him in focus and the reverse.
Filler Shots - The general photos - her rounding the river corner before the upset, her mousing comfortably in front of us and minding her business, her running up the hill away from the loud photographers, and her looking back on the scene and realizing she’s made herself safe
Closing shots - Her looking back over her shoulder from the hill and down at the photographers and coaches that made her change directions
Training yourself to see several stories inside of one opportunity is one of the most efficient ways to build your archive of photos while also demonstrating to an editor or client the way you think and strategize. In this instance, I was able to create stock photos for my growing collection of coyote images, but I also now have stock photos that state magazines, state parks, national parks, and other outdoors-oriented magazines can use to illustrate poor behavior or alongside an instructional piece on how to better interact with wildlife.
And right there is why I photograph people in my wildlife images. It’s not that I’m trying to call out bad behavior (though I definitely do that on my own channels, too), it’s that I know that animal-human interactions are topics my clients and potential clients all need to illustrate with photography.
Other examples of how I’ll work people into my wildlife portfolio:
People canoeing or kayaking in the background of waterfowl in the lake/river
People looking through binoculars up at a bird or other animal
Using people in the foreground to frame my subject
Fingers pointing out a car window toward an animal on the side of the road
Law enforcement vehicle in the foreground with a touch of a pulled-over vehicle showing
People photographing wildlife in a national park
People walking or hiking on a trail
Anything accessibility related, like people using a wheelchair on a paved trail in nature, or someone using sign language while guiding
Best Practices for Including People in Your Wildlife Photos
The possibilities are endless when you start thinking about how we all interact with wildlife on a regular basis. But there are some rules to keep in mind when you are including people in your photography, especially if you are selling them as stock and not as news or editorial photos.
First, understand that when we’re in public and on public property, we have no reasonable expectation of privacy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on assignment and have been cussed at because I photographed someone in public. I’ve been threatened, chased to my car, and on one particular assignment, I was even SPIT on simply because I was a member of “the media.”
Generally speaking, you can use photographs of people in a public space without a model release form, even if they are identifiable in those photos. Again, this is because this realm offers no reasonable expectation of privacy.
But that doesn’t make those images easily licensable from a practical perspective. The exception is when the photograph is capturing something newsworthy. For example, you photograph someone getting too close to a bison, the bison charging them, and the aftermath. Anyone in those photos, even when recognizable, would not need to sign a release form for you to license those images.
Pro tip: if you DO photograph something newsworthy like this, don’t put those photos in your stock file right away. Reach out to news outlets directly and see if they’d like to license directly. Upcharge them if they want exclusive use of them. I usually will Tweet out that I’m on the scene or that I have photos of the situation available to license and then tag all the local and national media I think might want them. It works suprisingly well in newsworthy situations.
Instead, I recommend photographing people in a way that they can’t be identified. This means using them in the foreground or background creatively, often with as shallow a depth-of-field as possible. We don’t need to see every face or be able to identify people to understand the context of the scene. We just need to see enough to know that people are involved. Another way is to photograph them from the back. I have an image of my niece running through tall, backlit grass with a butterfly net in her hands. You can’t see her face or identify her in any way, but the story is still the same.
Similarly, simply including a human element is often enough, too. For example, a pair of hands holding a map or guidebook with an animal in the background.
If you aren’t in public or someone is identifiable, every agency (except in the case of news) will want you to provide a model release. Those of you selling stock on sites like Getty or Alamy have probably seen places for uploading these if needed. I use an app called “Easy Release” on my phone to collect these. There are a bunch of options out there, but it’s much easier for me to manage my occasional model releases via an app than by carrying paper copies with me everywhere. Most stock agencies have their own version for you to download and use when the photos will be submitted there. It’s a good idea to have a copy on you, even if you rarely photograph people. You never know when you’ll need one.