We've all seen them, the perfectly composed frame filling portrait, a beautiful bird or animal in the ideal pose, wowing us with its simple beauty. We even talked in the last article about the mechanics of making these portraits work and how to transfer our vision to a piece of film or pixels. However, the opportunity for close-up portraits is often fleeting or non-existent. Like our children behaving in the grocery store, the opportunity for close-ups comes along - but not always as often as we'd like.

What then do we do when we are not able to get closer to our subject or have a long enough lens to fill the frame? This is a prime opportunity to make an environmental portrait. While all of the rules of portraiture still apply, such as making contact with your subject, ensuring that your subject is in an attractive pose so on so forth, you must approach the environmental portrait with a different mind set.

Let's first define the environmental portrait. I define it as an image where the animal is not a dominant feature in the frame but is large enough so that we know that it is there intentionally. The key is to show the habitat and how the subject interacts with it. By showing the interaction between the animal and the surrounding habitat, we get a sense of where and how he lives as well as why that area is important to his well being. In contrast, you can also show how the surrounding habitat could be detrimental to the animal such as an encroaching housing development or a polluted watering area.

Producing a successful environmental can be significantly more difficult than a close-up portrait. While the challenges of using a long lens or moving in close are eliminated, there is the greater challenge of ensuring that all the pieces of the image fit together. The image must flow well and have a good foreground, middle ground and background similar to a landscape. The major difference between an environmental portrait and a pure landscape is that an animal, and its involvement with its habitat , is usually a main focal point of an environmental. Also in environmental portraiture, a larger aperture is often used than would be for a landscape in order to bring more emphasis to the animal while still retaining detail and importance in the surrounding area. Because of the longer distance from the lens to your subject, the same apertures that you would normally use for a close-up portrait can work well for an environmental. Most of my environmental work is done in the f/5.6 to f/11 range.

Composition becomes extremely important the further you are from your subject. The rule of thirds is one compositional guideline that I use often but you must remain flexible and open to what the situation provides to you. S-curves, Dynamic Symmetry (opposing points of power) and natural frames all play a role in this type of photography. Be sure to keep an open mind and ready to try a multitude of options. Environmentals are often strongest when they break some of the common rules of composition (remembering that having an animal dead center in the frame rarely works well). I find myself often using graphic shapes such as silhouettes to show the juxtaposition of an animal against its environment. This is not always fair weather photography either. Animals live outside in all types of weather and by showing the harsh living conditions that they endure, you can make an image something special.

One of the advantages to environmental portraits is that they are available to a greater number of photographers. You needn't have or carry a monster super-telephoto, nor do you need to get within touching distance of your subject. Medium to short telephotos or even wide-angles are all that is needed for this type of imagery. Also, carrying a short lens with you in the field in addition to a long telephoto is an excellent way to capture environmentals. Shorter lenses enable you to make these images in close proximity to an animal even though they may fill the frame using your longer lens. I even like to stop as I approach and use my long lens to make the wider image as it gives a uniquely different view than a short telephoto or wide-angle.

Environmental portraits are easily marketable as they lend themselves well to double page spreads or in descriptive articles about an animal and its habitat. The competition is lower in this category as well in that fewer people make environmental images, preferring a tighter more frame-filling image. I will always love a well-made full frame portrait but in my search for the perfect close-up, I continually remind myself about the importance and necessity of making environmental images and take them more often.

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Les Voorhis is a nationally published nature and wildlife photographer based in Morrison, Colorado. His photographic career began in 1988 in his home state of South Dakota as a photojournalist. After working for several small town newspapers, he soon returned to school to study commercial photography. After graduation he began working for a stock photo agency as the photo editor. Always an avid outdoorsman, concentrating on producing images of nature and wildlife was a natural fit.

Les' images have appeared in many national and regional publications including Bugle Magazine, American Hunter, Game and Fish Publications, Colorado Outdoors as well as used in several calendars, postcards and for advertising. He is currently also marketing his images through a series of prints and a successful website which you can view here: Les Voorhis Photographics.