Wildlife photography with a twist

Words and images by Cheryl Surry.

Wildlife photography is a lot about understanding your subject allowing you to plan your shot in advance.

How do you want to record the subject? Set a fast shutter speed and freeze the action or alternatively set a much slower shutter speed and record some of the movement. Whichever you want to do, you need to be ready before the action takes place.


Slow shutter speed photography in wildlife is not new, but it is becoming more popular. Most of the accomplished exponents are Scandinavian where the style has been accepted for longer than in the rest of Europe, specifically the UK where it is often viewed as a fortunate mistake rather than a deliberate choice on the part of the photographer.

The basic technique is to pan with the movement of the animal and depending on the shutter chosen and the speed of the animal the resultant image will be more or less recognisable. The amount of blur that works is a purely personal choice, but you can be guaranteed an interesting session editing out those that you like from those that you don’t.

For some ideas check out the work of:

Stefano Unterthiner
Jari Peltomaki


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