To film or not to film. That is the question.
Bear Gills
If you’re a wildlife photographer who also shoots video, when should you take pictures and when should you film? Tricky one…
I’m in the same boat, and I’m never sure of the answer. I see myself as a photographer first and foremost, so that’s my priority, but there are times when video is the right way to go.
Here’s a personal view on when to take stills and when to take video. There are always exceptions, but I hope it helps…!
Set Your Goals
The first thing to do is to set your goals. What do you want to be known for? What counts as success? What do you enjoy the most? What will earn you more money?
If the answer to those questions is stills photography, then video will only ever be a fun hobby. You can happily stick to taking pictures and maybe only shoot video if you’re bored or if you already have more than enough photos.
In my own case, I take more pride in a good photograph than a good video, and I want to be known as a wildlife photographer—not a videographer. The picture of a bear catching a salmon at the top of this article is probably the best I’ve ever taken, and it hangs in my lounge at home. I also enter the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition every year because winning that would be an almost universally recognised measure of my success as a photographer.
However, the world is changing. Video is becoming more and more popular on commercial websites and social media, and modern technology allows you to take 8K video with cameras like the Sony ⍺1 and 4K even with your smartphone!
If, like me, you want to join the crowd and exploit the commercial demand for video (or just take a few clips to impress and entertain your friends and family), you need to establish your priorities and come up with a plan.
Buy the Right Gear
One of my Sony ⍺1 cameras fitted with a 600mm f/4 G Master lens
To shoot commercial videos of wildlife, you need the right cameras and lenses. I have a couple of Sony ⍺1 camera bodies and the very best G Master lenses—from 12-24mm all the way up to 600mm (see article).
It cost me around £50,000! That’s not something everyone can afford to do, obviously, but it helps if you can take your time, trade in your old equipment and maybe take out a bank loan—all of which I had to do.
I also have an Apple M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64GB of RAM and an 8TB hard drive plus an Apple Studio monitor All that storage space, power and screen real estate come in handy when you’re saving and editing large video files. I currently just use iMovie, but there are plenty of more sophisticated software tools out there if I decide to get a bit more serious about video.
Go Mirrorless
Buying a decent, full-frame mirrorless camera with a couple of good lenses gives you the option of taking high-quality stills or video at any given moment. DSLRs do offer video, but the basic design of the camera generally means the autofocus is never going to be as good for video. Eye detection and tracking are impossible with a DSLR, so you’re better off with a mirrorless camera.
Required Features
When it comes to video specs, I’ve only just started as a filmmaker, so I’m certainly not an expert. If you want to get in-depth camera reviews, you’re better off watching one of the clips on PetaPixel’s YouTube channel by Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake. However, there are a few obvious things you need:
full-frame sensor (unless you need the extra portability of a crop-frame camera)
4K video (at least)
separate settings for stills and video
eye detection and tracking
microphone jack
range of lenses.
Now, you might say you can get most of that with your smartphone—and you’d be right! I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max myself, and I use it quite a lot. However, it’s not ideal in many ways.
Handling. It’s not a stable platform—even if you use a gimbal.
Viewfinder. There’s no WYSIWYG electronic viewfinder on a smartphone, and you lose all the information and usability that provides.
Screen. Not all mirrorless cameras have a multi-directional screen, but it’s a great improvement on a smartphone—especially when you’re trying to shoot from an odd or uncomfortable position!
Lenses. Smartphones may have three fixed lenses these days, and you can now buy telephoto and wide-angle attachments. However, the lack of interchangeable lenses is a big limitation on your focal length, and getting close-ups of animals and birds is a big part of wildlife photography.
Low light performance. Smartphones have tiny sensors compared to full-frame or even APS-C cameras, and you don’t have any choice. That means inevitable limitations on low-light performance—even with the help of fancy algorithms!
Image quality. Another problem with sensor size is image quality. Yes, most smartphones will give you 4K, but the resolution, colour rendition and dynamic range inevitably suffer.
Depth of field. This is normally related to the focal length and aperture setting, but you have limited control over those variables with a smartphone, and even ‘portrait mode’ creates haloes and other artefacts you wouldn’t get from a camera shooting wide open with a telephoto lens.
Sound quality. Wind noise is a real problem with wildlife videos as you’re generally working outdoors with unpredictable weather patterns. Yes, you can attach an external microphone to a smartphone, but I’ve tried it, and it’s much less convenient than mounting one on the hot shoe of a proper camera!
Make a Shot List
Part of being a professional wildlife photographer is being proactive rather than reactive. If you’re shooting for a client or just stock agencies, you need to plan ahead by visualising what you want and creating a shot list.
The same applies to video. You need to have a clear idea of which videos you want—and that might mean a very detailed description involving the species, the behaviour, the time of day and even the time of year.
Once you have that shot list, you can check to see which videos you still need and take steps to make sure you cover everything. That might mean going back to a particular spot or deliberately devoting a whole game drive to getting the ‘missing’ video clip.
Times for Video
Let’s assume you’re in a similar position to me: you’re primarily a wildlife photographer, but you want to take more videos. There are always plenty of opportunities to take stills and videos (as long as the subject, the light and the background are decent enough), but you have to commit to doing one or the other. You don’t want to be caught between two stools and miss out on both!
So what are the best times to switch to video?
Commercial Reasons
The first and most obvious reason is that somebody’s paying you! If you’re working for a client who needs video, then you clearly need to fulfil the terms of your contract. That might mean devoting an entire morning, afternoon or full day to video.
The same applies to stock footage or videos you might want for marketing purposes. If you want a professional-looking introductory video for your website, for instance, you’ll need to create a storyboard and plan the whole thing from scratch.
In my experience so far, it’s harder to make money from video than stills on stock websites, but that might change. I already submit all my footage to a site called Latest Sightings, and I might do the same with my other stock agencies.
Non-wildlife Subjects
There are always times when the local wildlife doesn’t cooperate, and you don’t really have an opportunity to take wildlife shots. That’s when you should be thinking about taking video. Can you shoot footage of a sunset over the African savannah or a snowstorm in the Chilean Andes? Or perhaps you just want to take a few videos of a safari lodge when you first arrive to show people what the rooms, the food and the staff look like.
As with stills, you never quite know in advance how popular videos might be or how and when you might be able to use or sell them. But that doesn’t matter. All the more reason to experiment and test the market later. The only video you’ll never be able to use is the one you don’t take!
Bad Light
During the middle of the day in most parts of the world, you often get very harsh light that doesn’t really lend itself to photography. Obviously, the same applies to videography, but at least you won’t feel any Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)!
If it’s overcast or the sun is too bright, that might be a good time to take a few videos. The conditions won’t be optimal, but at least you’ll get something in the can…
Experiment
When you’re just starting out taking videos, there’s an inevitable process of experimentation and adjustment. You might need to spend a bit of time setting up your camera and then finding out which settings and formats work best.
That was certainly the case with me. I went to the northern Serengeti in Tanzania last year to take stills and videos of the wildebeest and zebra crossing the Mara river. It was a learning experience, to say the least!
I was lucky that we had 10 crossings in only a week, which was extraordinary. However, I quickly realised how much I didn’t know about the Sony video settings. Fortunately, my guide, Carel, helped me out, and I learned just about enough to cope.
The main problem was the autofocus. I couldn’t work out how to track my subject properly. I couldn’t use Back Button Focus (BBF) as I do with stills photography, and I was constantly losing focus. That’s fine when you’re taking pictures, but it can ruin a video!
The other problem was the audio. There are always noises on safari. Most of those are natural like birds singing or the rush of the water. However, you quickly realise how many times there’s a call over the radio or a conversation between the guide and the other guests.
There’s no easy solution, but it’s worth telling people that you’re about to take a video (and when you’ve finished) so that at least they know they shouldn’t be talking or moving about in the vehicle. If people have DSLRs without silent shooting, you might just have to make a polite request that they don’t shoot for 30 seconds or so.
Good luck with that…!
Time to Kill
There are often moments on a game drive or safari walk when there’s nothing much to do. Either there aren’t any animals around or it’s a toilet or meal break or perhaps animals are just feeding. Again, those might be good times to take a few videos. If you don’t have anything better to do, you might as well, right…?!
Action
Action is a tricky one. Obviously, there’s a big premium to action shots in photography, but those moments are also the ones that video captures best. This is where you have to be very clear-headed.
What are you there for? Are you trying to get a one-off shot of a bear catching salmon that might win Wildlife Photographer of the Year, or are you looking for video that could get millions of hits on YouTube?
There’s no right answer. It depends on your own personal priorities and what stage you're at in your career. All you can do is make a conscious decision to follow the path you prefer.
Verdict
Choosing between stills and videos can be tricky. If you’re not sure what to prioritise or how to get involved in videography, I hope this at least gives you a framework for making the right decision.
I’m in the same boat myself, and I’m still learning how best to manage the trade-offs involved. I still want to be a wildlife photographer, and I’ll primarily measure my success by the sales and recognition I get from that. However, I always get the sneaking suspicion that what my friends and family really want to see is video!
I’ve started to do more filming, and I’ve bought a Rode microphone and switched from using my iPhone to my Sony ⍺1 cameras. On my recent trip to the Masai Mara, Paul Goldstein encouraged me to take more action videos, and in future, I’d like to put a few clips together to make a promotional reel and sell my footage through stock agencies.
Maybe it’s possible to be a hybrid photographer with hybrid cameras. We shall see…!
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