I’ve been an animal portrait photographer for around 16 years now, but I fell into it by mistake like most of my career changes.
The first time I knew I was in charge of the covers as well as the content of the Australian Veterinary Journal was when the layout people asked me what photo I wanted on my first issue.
“Oh! Where did the last guy get them from?” “He was a professional photographer, so he used his own.”
I discovered that we hadn’t got any photos in the works ready to use, and I didn’t have a budget to buy one.
I soon learned that publishing deadlines came like a speeding train, so I didn’t have any time to think about it. Luckily (or serendipitously), I had been taking photographs of animals for years, so I looked for one of my own.
The designers gave me a crash course in what they needed – the photo had to be:
- in portrait format to fit the size of the journal
- with space at the top to fit the journal title
- high enough resolution to print correctly
- in focus
- show a healthy and recognisable animal.
I knew about that last point because two of the first letters-to-the-editor I received complained about both of those in one of the previous cover shots. So, no pressure then!
What could I use? Finally, after much scrabbling about, I found this picture of a white bird with an orange beak on a grassy background that I’d seen on a farm near Brecon in Wales, and at least it looked in focus and would probably work.
The next problem: what sort of bird was it? My knowledge of birds is virtually non-existent, and while I knew it was either a duck or a goose, I wasn’t game (excuse the pun!) to ask any of my veterinary colleagues what the bird was. That was partly because it seemed so unprofessional and partly because I felt so silly that I did not know! So I called it ‘What a goose.” To this day, I have no idea whether it is a duck or a goose!
The designer took one look at the bird and said, “Let’s get rid of that other tail.” And so, with a quick flurry on his magical keyboard, he took out the offending tail on the right-hand side, and we ended up with this clear, in-focus bird for my first front cover.
As soon as I saw the printed image on the front cover, I was hooked. And so began my adventures in animal portrait photography.
Techo stuff: Canon 350D. 1/250 sec at f/7.1, ISO 100, 80-200 @ 200mm.