Frans Lanting

In my research into Natural History photographer I have come across Frans Lanting.

I have got a book from the college Library called "Eye to Eye" by Frans Lanting and there are some really good images in here that have given me some ideas for my own photographs and my portfolio for this course.

Frans Lanting was born in Rotterdam on July 13th 1951 however later emigrated to America and now lives in Santa Cruz, California. He has worked in various places all over the world taking photographs of natural history. His photographs are often printed by the national Geographic for which he is a photographer in residence.

Over the years he has won numerous awards such as the "World press photo" of the year in 1988 and 1989. He also won wildlife photographer of the year in 1991.

He has also been credited as being a photographer for over 13 books since his first book "feathers" in 1982.

According to the BBC "Frans Lanting has set the standards for a whole generation of wildlife photographers.

To learn more about Frans Lanting click here

One thing I have read in the book about Frans is one of his guiding principles in photography is getting past the feathers, fur and scales of an animal and getting up close to the animal. This is interesting as it is also a sentiment echoed by Eric Hoskins who I looked at earlier in my blog. Eric also said he wanted to understand and get to know the animals he was photographing to help him get better pictures.

I have noticed in myself from taking the bird photography I have done so far I have a greater understanding of my subjects and found myself taking a greater interest in them. Not only from just being able to recognise the birds but also knowing what birds will be the first to the food I am putting out for them and what birds like what food. I know this is not the same as Frans tracking Bonobo through the amazon for months but it is showing I am starting to think like a wildlife photographer.

From the pictures I have shown here from Frans I am really interested in trying out some of these photos for myself. I really like the close up of animals faces (some shown here) but also more in the book really focusing in on the animals faces. When I next get to Twycross next and also when I am out taking pictures I will try and get a series of these photos to hopefully go towards my portfolio.

Another Image Frans has produced is the silhouette of an animal (Elephant in this case) this is also something I am interested in producing as I have seen this used by quite a lot of natural history photographers and I think it gives a very striking image and I have tried to copy this in a couple of photographs I have done at earlier photo shoots.

Below is a silhouette taken by Frans Lanting of an Elephant.

The next two images have been taken by me earlier in the course and although nowhere near the standard of the elephant above this is something I want to look at achieving for my final portfolio.