Do you know how big an elephant is?
What about a lion cub?
Finding the answers to these questions is a whole lot eaier than conveying the size of your subject in a single photograph.
Take a look at this example of a three month old lion cub.
Cute little guy but can you tell from the image how big he actually is? Not really.
In order to convey size in you wildlife images it always help to include another subject for your viewers to use as a comparison. Apart from being a great compositional tool, this approach will generally help you to create more interesting images.
Here is our same lion cub a few minutes later. This time his size, or lack thereof, becomes a bit more apparent.
Compared to the dead elephant’s feet we can now see that this guy still has a lot of growing to do.
Here is another example of how you could convey size in an image.
Even though the focus of this image is on the wildebeest in front, it is the giraffe legs behind him that tells the story.
You don’t always have to use different species to show size differences in your images. In the following example a close up of a young elephant in the middle of the group tells the story of size.
Small hey? 🙂
When you are next out photographing wildlife, think of ways in which you can convey size. Use different species. Use the same species. Even use another game drive vehicle.
If you have any wildlife images that show the size of the subject why not upload them to the Bush Warriors Photo of the Day? Show us what you are photographing!
Have a great weekend!
Gerry van der Walt
