The productivity of nature photographers has surely decreased during this global lockdown. With going outdoors only allowed for essential reasons, nature photography is something that has had to take a backseat. However, as the UK looks to slowly open up again, we can again ask if photography is allowed during the UK lockdown period.
Politics aside, as of the 10th May the UK has begun a very slow opening of the country. Many are confused as to what it means, but more time outside has photographers asking if they are allowed out with their cameras again.
Disclaimer: This article is an opinion piece and not legal advice – you should do your own research and/or consult with a local authority.
Is photography allowed in the UK outdoors?
As of Wednesday 13th May, you will be allowed “unlimited” amounts of exercise outdoors in England. You can even “sit on a bench in the sun” if you wish too. For those in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, you may be waiting a little longer to get back to it.
According to the Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, sports are now also allowed (with people from your own household or alone) including basketball, golf, and fishing. You can even drive to locations further away.
It is therefore relatively safe to assume that photography is allowed – just be sensible about it. Don’t head out with your friends, and instead shoot alone or with someone from your own household.
It’s also worth considering that you’re never going to have a minister stand up and say “yes, photography is now allowed.” If they were to list every single hobby that is now permitted, the PM’s Sunday broadcast would still be going on today.
Heading out with our cameras seems like a “big thing” to us as photographers. We plan for a long time, think about the composition of an image, and find a suitable location. It is therefore easy to think that this is a major undertaking that would need special permission to perform during lockdown.
But to everyone else, it’s just a person with a camera taking a few pictures. There is nothing in the rules and regulations to say that you can’t carry a camera during your unlimited exercise periods, and I think it would be unreasonable to suggest that you can’t.
It’s that time of year again for the SNPA’s annual competition winners, and this time Ruth Grindrod takes the top spot and claims the title of overall winner.
Ruth said: “I am more than delighted to win Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2019. It is a great honour to be selected and I thank all the judges for their time and effort particularly during this most difficult time of the Coronavirus pandemic. I have often said that this is one of my favourite competitions because it is so well run and organised which makes my selection as overall winner even more gratifying.
“My particular love in terms of photography has always been the sea and coast, regardless of the weather and the conditions. My journey to Scotland is always a long one as I live in Norfolk but I never fail to be excited by some of the best landscapes and seascapes in the world. When life returns to normal I will certainly be back shooting in Scotland.
“My winning entry Three Rocks, was taken on an extremely windy day at the Butt of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Rather than shoot the lighthouse, I chose the formation of these three rocks from a slightly elevated position to capture their shape and form as well as the churning seas. The conditions were tough but persistence paid off with this final capture.”
Judge Niall Irvine commented: “Ruth’s image has beautifully captured the drama and power of the sea. The light, composition and depth of detail in the image is remarkable, particularly the movement caught in the water.
Max Eve (Age 14) won the junior category with his striking black and white image of Glen Etive.
Max said: “I am delighted to have won Junior Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year. I really enjoy spending time in and being inspired by the natural environment of Scotland.
“Torrential rain had occurred all day, limiting photographic opportunities. A sudden break in the weather allowed me to take this image of water escaping off the mountainside to the swollen stream below.”
Judge Jamie Grant said: “Max’s Glen Etive image focuses on a less well-known but pleasing aspect of this location. The tonal quality of the black and white impressed the judges.”
Stephen Rodger from HND Professional Photography at Edinburgh College was crowned the Student winner with this set of three images titled ‘Gulls in the Clouds’.
Stephen said: “Having never won a photographic competition before we can rest assured that being named Student Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2019 is a very exciting moment for me. I’m in my second year at Edinburgh College finishing my HND and hoping to progress on to the BA Photography course. The lecturers at the college are a gloriously idiosyncratic, passionate and supportive bunch who have helped me develop as a photographer over the last two years.
“Visual shapes of all varieties have always appealed, and so the title of Patterns for this category was immediately attractive. As part of my college work, I was shooting an environmental series over a number of months and watching it develop. I was initially focused on the oil refinery at Grangemouth and while I was there I noticed over time that the gulls would use the hot air thermals above the site to gain altitude before flying out over the Forth Estuary. Canny birds. On cold mornings the water vapour from the cooling towers would condense quickly into intense swirling clouds, side lit, high in the sky. This series of three pictures was shot on one of these mornings and converted to black and white in post production.”
Judge Ron McCombe said: “The judges were impressed with this fine portfolio. Simple yet effective, a collection of cloud formations with the added interest of seagulls flying in each image. The composition works very well in black and white which makes this collection a very strong portfolio.”
Edinburgh College Broadcast Media and Photography lecturer Graham McGirk said: ”We are delighted that Stephen has been so successful in the Scottish Nature Photography Awards. Stephen came to us as a mature student and enthusiastically threw himself into all aspects of the coursework. He has always been a most receptive student and an inspirational member of our student community. Nature photography is his passion and that it clearly shown in the excellent quality of his work.”
Sophie Bestwick took the winning spot for Scottish Nature Video Award 2019.
Sophie said: ”“I’m so happy to have won the Scottish Nature Video Award! It was such a lovely phone call to receive, especially in such strange and unpredictable times.
“The Cairngorms is my favourite place to visit in the UK and I’m so glad that my video showing its iconic red squirrels has been so well received! It was a pleasure to make as part of my degree in Marine and Natural History Photography and I hope it shows people how rewilding can be used to improve and support this beautiful part of the world!”
Judge Niall Irvine said: “Sophie’s film shows fantastic close-up details of the red squirrel, and invites you into its busy world. A worthy winner.”
This is the most well-known compositional rule/guideline in photography and should be one of the first things you learn as a new photographer. It really helped me in the beginning of my photography journey to get to grips with framing an image and presenting an eye-catching image. But! rules are meant to be broken and this particular rule isn’t always the best option.
So, What is the Rule of Thirds?
It’s a basic compositional structure of a photograph, it splits the image into 9 segments by using 3 vertical and 3 horizontal lines.
The Rule of Thirds provides an area of an image for the subject to ‘look into’ and you tend to use this when photographing people or animals. For example, as shown in the photo above, I have allowed two-thirds of space for the red squirrel to look towards.
The rule states that you should place points of interest where the lines intersect in the photograph, so for example with the above photo, it is the head of the squirrel that is the main focus.
Composing Your Photographs
When starting out in photography there is so much to remember and it’s really hard to think about all things whilst putting them into practice. Wildlife photography is particularly difficult because those perfect opportune moments are very fleeting, which encourages you to be a bit snap happy, rather than miss the opportunity by worrying about composition.
With experience, you’ll soon find yourself not thinking too much about things like the rule of thirds, and instead slowing the whole process down and photographing naturally. The best way to do this is to shoot a frame that follows the rule of thirds, ensure there is enough space so that you can later fine-tune the composition with a bit of cropping. It’s even better when you can get it right first time, but more often than not you’ll find yourself tweaking the crop of the image, even by just a few pixels!
Landscape photography is a little different, it is much easier to take your time and consider the composition. Typically, you’ll want to have two-thirds of your frame of land, and the remaining third being sky – or the other way around, like in the above image.
Perfecting the Rule of Thirds
If you would like to practice this rule, there are a couple of ways to help with gauging the composition by eye. With experience you’ll find that some crops just “feel” better, but until there here are a couple of ways to help you feel more at ease when out in the field.
Gridded Overlay - There are a number of cameras that allow you to enable a gridded overlay in the viewfinder, even iPhones do this! Within your camera’s menu, try to find and enable a compositional aid overlay, as this should help you to compose whilst on the move.
Cropping - When cropping your photos in editing software, such as Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. enable the ‘rule of thirds’ overlay on the cropping options menu.
Breaking the Rules
Using the rule of thirds is a great way to immediately improve a photos composition, but always sticking to this can hold you back, some photographs just don’t suit this method so it is better considered a ‘guideline’.
The above photo is a good example of how not using the rule of thirds has paid off. If you obey the rule to the letter, you might be tempted to place the squirrel off to the side, like in the previous image above. However, considering it is looking straight down the lens and that is was in such close proximity, in my opinion, there was no option but to place it centrally. The curved blurring of the foreground also helps to centralise the image so it lends itself to a different compositional style.
So, In Conclusion…
When first starting out on your photography journey, rules like ‘The Rule of Thirds’ can prove very beneficial when composing your photos. But! Think of them as ‘guidelines’, don’t stick to the same style of composition, but don’t disregard it either. Experiment and explore different compositions and see what works best in that situation.
