As a hobbyist wildlife photographer I really like this picture. It gives hope to those of us who can't easily access exotic locations and animals that it is possible to take award-winning shots in a local environment.
More specifically, in a world where everyone carries a camera (in a phone form factor), this show two things that you can do make your shots stand out from the crowd:
- have the patience to wait for interesting behaviours
- get a different angle from everyone else - don't stand, but kneel or lie down
The third thing, also shown here, is investment in kit that lets you totally control the shot. Kit here means a responsive camera, and decent glass (the lens)
This guy apparently spent 5 nights in a row down on the platform waiting for the right photo (I imagine taking many photos over the 5 nights until he got this). It really shows how important patience is in getting the right shot.
I really like the photo and understand it's a people's choice award, but it in no way represents wildlife.
It's more fiction than fact. It's like getting a split second photo of a famous person just at the right moment when their face doesn't truly portray them.
Anthropomorphizing animals is the bane of scientists. People like David Attenborough love to do this. It's it's why most environmentalist don't even understand what an environment is.
My sister's cat is a mouser and at some point he learned how to catch them w/o killing them. He likes to bring them inside and let them loose to run around under the furniture.
Anyway, one day he caught a little gopher, and man was that thing pissed. They were facing off and I still remember how impressive and silly it looked when the gopher stood up and roared at the cat. It was super high-pitched but unmistakably a roar. The cat blinked! (But only for a moment. The gopher was really small. She got the lil guy away from the cat and put it back outside. But at one point it was under her bed doing the "E.T. among the stuffed animals" routine with the junk under there. Oh look! That's not a wadded-up sock that's the gopher!)
More specifically, in a world where everyone carries a camera (in a phone form factor), this show two things that you can do make your shots stand out from the crowd:
- have the patience to wait for interesting behaviours
- get a different angle from everyone else - don't stand, but kneel or lie down
The third thing, also shown here, is investment in kit that lets you totally control the shot. Kit here means a responsive camera, and decent glass (the lens)