
It shouldn't. Yet so many photographers, especially those starting out in the world of wildlife photography shy away from difficult light. The reality is that the more dramatic the lighting the more effective the portrait. This is even more important since animal behavior in wildlife photography has become more of a photographic topic than portraits. Still, time and again, when approaching wildlife I see how the photographer or the guide that the photographer has hired will set the vehicle so that the sun is as much behind them as possible. The less of an angle on the sun seemingly the better. Not true!
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Here are a couple of examples that show how shooting into the sun or using sidelight, or even having a bright background while the subject is in shade works. In these examples one can easily see how the impala and hyena shots are far more dramatic in terms of lighting than the leopard shot. The best part of the lighting on the leopard though is where the light is coming from. It was still early in the morning and the sun was diffused through a layer of cloud. This meant warm soft light that was coming from a low angle - hence the soft-ish catchlight in the leopards eyes. It was like pushing a gelled (say 1/4 or 1/2 CTO) light through a softbox into the leopard's face.


As to the workshop itself: we had an absolutely exhausting but incredibly stimulating week on the reserve. I haven't had sightings like we had in a long time. A highlight was the leopard, usually a rare sighting on this particular reserve, which we found first in the grass but which then climbed into a tree and stayed there surveying our vehicle full of photographers for about 20 minutes. The photographers certainly had the sightings go on their side with sightings of wild dog, hyena, cheetah, leopard and lion all in three days! And a great bunch to boot. I thoroughly enjoyed working with them.
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