5:20How does a wildlife photographer get comedy gold? Skill, patience — and lots of luck
Wildlife photographer Jennifer Hadley’s goal is to show wild animals “living their lives and being who they are.”
Sometimes that means capturing a creature’s inherent grace, majesty, and ferocity. Other times it means showing them that they are downright clumsy.
“For me, it’s really about capturing all the wonder these animals bring to our lives and asking people to see them, protect them, and fight for them,” Hadley said. As it happens the host Nil Köksal.
“That’s really what I do. And sometimes, of course, there are fun times.”
Two of the photographer’s snaps are finalists for the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, an annual competition that “uses humor as a tool to connect audiences with the broader story of sustainability and, most importantly, wildlife conservation.”
Graceless Penguins
Getting the kind of plan that gets you nominated for a Comedy Wildlife award “can be really tricky,” Hadley said.
“You never know when something is actually going to happen, so you have to be patient or wait for the moment. You also have to know certain animal behaviors and be able to anticipate something that is happening,” she said. .
“And often it’s just luck.”
One of her suitors is called talk to the fin. It shows a gentoo penguin on a beach in the Falkland Islands holding its flipper to a Magellanic penguin, as if telling the other bird to move away.
But really, Hadley said, it’s just awkward.
“They’re penguins of two different species, but they occupy the same beach areas. And they’re actually very comical little penguins,” she said.
When they swim, they are incredibly graceful. But when they emerge – not so much.
“And those two were swimming, and they came crashing down on the beach in a very unsightly way. And as the little penguin on the right, the gentoo penguin, shook himself, he gave the fin to his little one friend there,” she said. .
“I didn’t even realize I captured him until I brought him home and looked at the pictures and then I really saw his expression and the fin in the air, and I just good laugh about it.”
Big clumsy kitten
His other contestant in the contest captures an equally awkward moment, from a creature known for its agility.
Not-so-feline reflexes shows a three-month-old lion cub planting its face into the side of a tree in Tanzania.
“He was in a tree with another of his siblings who was sleeping and he clearly wanted to get down from the tree. So he walked a lot and kept harassing his brother, almost asking for help. And, finally, he decided to do the descent,” she said.
“Never in my mind would I have imagined that, you know, cats would fall out of trees. So, yeah, he suddenly made the gesture to get out of the tree, and I snapped. And, of course enough , he fell all the way down.”
But don’t worry, Hadley said. The little lion was unharmed – except, perhaps, for a bruised ego.
“He was fine and left with other cubs,” she said.
The contest runs online until November 7 and anyone can vote. The winners will be announced on December 8.
Each year, the competition partners with a different conservation organization. This year he says he is donating 10% of his income to the UK’s Whitley Fund for Nature.
Hadley says she’s honored to be among so many amazing photos that show “the laughable side of wildlife.”
“It just shows you a completely different side of animals,” she said. “With all the bad news in the world, I think this is just what we need to lighten the mood and have a good laugh.”
#wildlife #photographer #comedy #gold #Knowhow #patience #lot #luck #Radio #Canada