Urban nature

Learning goal

Without going far, you will be able to find and photograph the wildlife living in an apartment garden, in a park, on a roof or among the trees of a cemetery. You will see which species the small green spaces, old trees, waterside edges and the cavities of buildings inside the city are home to. You will tell apart that offering birds a clean water dish can bring them close without disturbing them, while throwing bait to call an animal for a photo is something else. You will use the window of your home as a hiding place, and prevent the reflections and softness of the glass. You will know that in the city you can be close to animals used to people, but that their nests must be protected in the city too. You will photograph a neighbor watching the garden in window light in a way that shows their skin in its own color.

The question

Your friend, who drives kilometers on weekends, never touches the camera on workdays. On Tuesday morning, while the tea is brewing on the balcony, they see a black-feathered, yellow-beaked bird scratching through dry leaves at the foot of the plum tree below, and a kestrel perched on the roof edge of the building opposite, watching down below. They have lived here for years but never noticed these. At lunch break, in the park beside their workplace, they also see a squirrel and a woodpecker. Is there wildlife in your garden?

Context

While working on the habitat shot, you tried framing the animal together with its reed bed, its salt pan or a village pole (Lesson Y.7). In the hiding lesson you learned ceasing to be a person in an animal's eyes and shooting from inside a hide or a car (Lesson Y.4). In the light section you also met the soft, directional light coming from the wide surface of a window (Lesson 5.6).

Nature photography is often associated with distant, wild places. Yet a surprising number of species live in cities too; some have adapted so well to living beside people that they come much closer than their relatives in the countryside. Urban nature, because it can be reached every day, may be the best school of wildlife photography: watching the same animal every day teaches knowing it, patience and technique without paying for the road.

Simple explanation

Where does nature live in the city?

An urban habitat is any place inside a city that provides animals with food, water and shelter: gardens, parks, old trees, the quiet groves of cemeteries, stream and canal banks, empty lots, roofs and the cavities of buildings. Blackbirds, sparrows, great tits, chaffinches, pigeons and gulls are everywhere in many cities; kestrels can live on the edges of tall buildings, woodpeckers in old trees, squirrels and hedgehogs in parks and gardens.

Many of the animals living in the city are used to people and stay calm at a shorter distance than those in the countryside. This makes it possible to shoot good frames even with a short telephoto or a medium zoom. But being used to people isn't permission to touch them or chase them. In the city too, a bird nests under the eaves of a roof, in a chimney cavity or in a park shrub; in the nesting season, not approaching these places is as important as in the countryside. To get to know the city's animals, it is enough at first to look at the same place at the same hour every day and write it in the notebook.

How do animals come to your garden?

A bird bath is a shallow, clean water dish where birds can drink and bathe. Especially on hot, dry days in summer, and in winter when water freezes, finding clean water in the city is hard; a shallow dish placed in the garden or on the balcony draws many birds. Cleaning the dish every day and refreshing its water prevents disease from spreading. Placing the dish away from bushes where a cat could hide and close to a branch where birds can escape at once protects them.

Some people hang regular feeders in their gardens in winter. This is a different job from throwing bait to call an animal for a moment for a photo: it needs to be done regularly, cleanly and with food suited to the species, avoiding harmful food such as bread. But a frame shot at a feeder shouldn't be presented to the viewer as the animal's natural state; how it was shot is told. Placing a natural perch, for example a mossy branch, beside the water dish and the feeder shows the bird on a branch instead of on the feeder's plastic; this too is done telling how it was shot.

How does a window become cover?

A window hide is hiding behind a home window that looks onto a garden or a park and photographing the animal from there. Birds outside often don't notice a person sitting inside, or don't count them as a threat. If the window can be opened, shooting without putting the lens out of the gap, keeping it back from it, gives the cleanest result. If the glass is closed, bringing the lens almost to touch the glass, cleaning the glass, turning off the room's lights and wearing dark clothes greatly reduce the reflections on the glass; resting the edge of the lens hood against the glass also helps.

Frames shot through glass can be a little soft, because the glass also behaves like a lens and scatters the light a little. Shooting at a right angle, as close to the glass as possible, reduces this effect. A window is also a good place to photograph a person watching the garden: the soft light coming from the window lights one side of the face. This light gently models both the smoothness of light skin and the warm tones of dark skin; when the metering is made for the face rather than the bright garden behind, the skin stays in the right tone even if the garden opens up a little.

Visual evidence

For a week, every morning at the same hour, your friend looks from the balcony and writes in the notebook: the blackbird under the plum tree, the great tits in the tree's branches at nine in the morning, the kestrel on the roof edge toward noon. They put a shallow water dish on the balcony and clean it every day.

Three days later the first sparrow comes down to the dish, then a great tit. Your friend opens the living room window a crack, turns off the lights, puts on a dark sweater and keeps the lens back from the gap. As the great tit leans toward the water on the dish's edge, the morning light lights it from the side; the yellow and black of its feathers sharp.

Their elderly neighbor downstairs, a dark-skinned woman, watches the birds from her own window. Your friend knocks on her door and asks; when the neighbor smiles, they photograph her in the soft window light, with the garden behind. The bright garden opens up a little, but because they took the metering from her face, her skin is warm and detailed; in her eyes there is a small reflection of the window.

Common mistakes

Summary

In the city too, gardens, parks, old trees, roofs and waterside edges are home to many species; because these animals used to people can be watched every day, they are the nearest school of wildlife photography, but their nests are protected in the city too. A clean bird bath brings birds close without disturbing them, a frame shot at a feeder is shared telling how it was shot, and a window becomes cover with its reflections prevented; a neighbor watching the garden in window light is photographed in their own color, metered from the face.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will watch and photograph the wildlife around your home for a week.

1. From your balcony, your window or a park near you, look every day at the same hour for a week, and write in the notebook the species you see, their hours and their places.
2. If you have one, put a shallow, clean water dish on your balcony or in your garden, place it away from cats and close to a branch, and clean it every day.
3. Shoot from the window, preventing reflections; if a neighbor or someone from your family watches the garden, get their permission and photograph them in window light, taking the metering from their face.

Check yourself

• How many species did you see in a week, and which came every day at the same hour?
• Are there reflections in the frames you shot from the window?
• Is the face in window light in its own color in front of the bright garden?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. Which one is an urban habitat?

• A) An old tree in a park
• B) Only a distant forest
• C) The middle of a motorway
• D) Only a zoo

2. How is a bird bath placed?

• A) Inside bushes where a cat could hide
• B) Without ever being cleaned
• C) Away from cats, close to a branch where birds can escape, and cleaned every day
• D) Together with bread crumbs

3. When shooting through closed glass, how are reflections reduced?

• A) By turning on the room lights
• B) By wearing white clothes
• C) By standing away from the glass
• D) By bringing the lens close to the glass, turning off the lights and dressing in dark clothes

4. How is a frame shot at a feeder shared?

• A) Telling how it was shot
• B) As an entirely natural moment
• C) With the feeder cropped out and nothing said
• D) Never shared

Answers

1. A — Old trees, with their cavities and insects, give shelter and food to many species.
2. C — Cleanliness prevents disease; distance from cats and a nearby branch protect the bird.
3. D — A dark room and dark clothes leave nothing to reflect in the glass, and a close lens keeps the remaining reflection out.
4. A — The viewer knowing how the frame came about is a requirement of honest sharing.

Summary card

• Garden, park, old tree, roof, cemetery, stream: the city's nature.
• Look every day at the same hour; animals used to people come close, their nests are still protected.
• A clean, shallow water dish; away from cats, close to a branch.
• Share a frame shot at a feeder by saying so.
• Make the window cover: close to the glass, lights off, dark clothes; meter the face in window light from the face.

Bridge to the next lesson

The great tit frame from the balcony is about to be sent to the club's monthly competition. Your friend reads the entry rules: there are separate rules for baited animals, captive animals and arranged scenes, a declaration for some, a ban for others. What does the mossy branch they placed beside the dish count as? What is banned in competitions? The next lesson takes up honesty in nature photography, baiting, captive animals and how the changes made in a frame are declared.