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Wildlife Between the Deadlines
Finding space for wildlife photography when life gets busy
Some mornings, I open my laptop to start an assignment and instead find myself looking through photos from my last time in the field. My camera might be sitting nearby, but a deadline looms on the screen, along with a growing to-do list.
Being a wildlife photographer while studying zoology can feel strangely contradictory. You can spend your days learning about animals, ecosystems, behaviour and conservation, while barely having time to step outside and photograph any of them.
Sometimes, I wish I could be everywhere at once.
I want to be there when the light is perfect, when a species does something I've never seen before, when an animal appears somewhere unexpected. I want to explore every reserve, photograph every species and experience every moment.
But wildlife photography, like life, is full of moments we cannot be present for.
The photographer between the deadlines
During particularly busy periods at university, I have gone weeks without taking my camera out.
At first, I noticed the absence immediately. I would see an interesting photograph online or hear about an incredible sighting and wonder where I could have been instead.
Then the deadlines would take over again.
Eventually, I started noticing something else: even when I wasn't photographing, I was still looking.
I'd find myself noticing birds on campus, watching animal behaviour differently during ordinary walks, or thinking about light and composition when I was nowhere near my camera.
Perhaps that is one of the less obvious parts of becoming a photographer. The camera changes the way you see, even when it isn't in your hands.
Wildlife is closer than we think
When time is limited, a photography outing doesn't have to mean an entire day in the bush.
A ten-minute walk can become an opportunity to look for birds. A lunch break can reveal insects around your workplace or campus. A family outing can produce an unexpected wildlife encounter. Even a garden can become a place to practise.
Some of my most memorable photographic moments haven't necessarily happened during carefully planned trips. Sometimes they have happened simply because I was paying attention.
The more time I spend photographing familiar places, the more I notice what changes within them. Which birds arrive at certain times? Where does the afternoon light fall? Which species interact? What disappears with the changing seasons?
Photography becomes less about finding somewhere exciting and more about learning to see what is already there.
Studying wildlife has changed the way I photograph it
For me, photography and zoology constantly overlap.
Studying wildlife academically has changed the way I look through a camera. I might learn about a species or behaviour in a lecture or while working on an assignment, then notice that same behaviour differently the next time I'm outside.
Science teaches us to ask questions.
Photography teaches us to slow down and observe. Looking for answers.
Together, they have made me realise that a photograph can do more than show what an animal looks like. It can tell us something about its behaviour, its environment or the relationship between the two.
Sometimes, the photograph starts with something I learned long before I picked up the camera.
Finding your way back
After a particularly busy period, one of the first things I want to do when I finally have a free morning is to take my camera outside.
I don't have to be after a particular species. Sometimes I don't even have a specific image in mind. I just want to be outside again.
And that's when I realise what I had actually missed.
It isn't always the photograph. It's the feeling of looking.
The anticipation of seeing something. The quiet moments spent watching an animal without knowing what it might do next.
The feeling of noticing something that someone else might have walked straight past.
Returning to photography doesn't require a grand plan. Sometimes it starts with a walk, a familiar place and a camera in your hands again.
Between the deadlines
Sometimes I am a student first. Other times, I just appreciate the garden species. Sometimes I am a wildlife photographer. And somehow, they all overlap and remind me to look more closely.
Learn. Observe. Share.
For young wildlife photographers, the challenge may not be finding enough time to photograph everything. It is finding ways to remain connected to the natural world while everything else demands our attention.
I've learned that being a wildlife photographer doesn't mean always having a camera in my hands. Sometimes I'm a student first. Sometimes I'm busy. Sometimes I'm sitting behind a laptop with a deadline approaching and a camera gathering dust in the corner.
And then, eventually, I look up. And I am reminded why I started looking in the first place. Wildlife exists between the big adventures, between the perfect photographs, and sometimes between the deadlines.
We just have to remember to look.
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