Storytelling Through Photography

Creating a set of images that tell a story

My September 2021 online photography talk was held recently, the subject this time Storytelling Through Photography. This is the art of creating a set of images that tell a story about an event, a place or a person, something that is very different from simply shooting high quality stand-alone images. When telling a story, the images must work together as a team, with no single image dominating the others and distracting attention away from the aim of the story.

The talk is now available on You Tube, and so can be watched here. Just click on the image below to launch the video.

The essentials of building a photographic story

The talk runs through a series of tips about how to go about storytelling through photography. These can be summarised as follows:

  • The aim is to create a set of photos that work together as a ‘team’, building the story and without any single photo dominating the collection;
  • Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end. Without these, it is just a collection of uncoordinated images;
  • The beginning should consist of a couple of images that set the scene – the type of environment or general location for instance;
  • The end should again consist of a couple of images that round off the story, giving a summary of what transpired or the end-result of whatever process is described in the story;
  • The middle is the main meat of the story and is the longest section, consisting of a string of images that describe the heart of the story, such as what is happening, arranged in a sequence that a viewer can follow;
  • Production of technical perfection and spectacular stand-out images is secondary: telling the story is paramount. Things often happen so quickly and unexpectedly in a story-telling situation that perfection has to take a back seat. However, if there is time to craft perfect images then so much the better;
  • Report and record what you see impartially – leave any preconceptions or prejudices behind and photograph what you actually see, not what you think you ought to see or what you would like to see. If you want to put a particular slant on a story, do this at the post-photography image editing phase, not during the actual photography.
Storytelling through photography: Philippine crocodile

Examples of storytelling through photography

To illustrate the process of storytelling through photography, the talk uses images from two of Nigel’s own stories: conservation work with the Philippine Crocodile and reindeer herding in Lapland, in the far north of Sweden. These can be summarised as follows:

1. Conservation work with the Philippine Crocodile: This is the world’s most endangererd crocodile, and the photography in this story illustrated the work of the Mabuwaya Foundation in rearing infant crocodiles in captivity and then releasing them back into the wild once they were large enough to fend off predators.

The photography started with a couple of images that set the scene, one showing the forest and lake habitat, another the team of workers involved. The main part of the story then illustrated the work in catching captively reared crocodiles, taking their vital statistics, transporting them into a nearby national park, and then releasing them into a lake. The final images rounded off the story by showing a crocodile being released and then swimming as a free, wild crocodile in the lake.

Storytelling through photography: Philippine crocodile

2. Reindeer herding in Lapland: Every autumn the Sami people in the far north of Sweden round up their reindeer from the mountains, bring them down to lower winter pastures, and temporarily corral them in order to mark out ownership of newborn deer and to kill some of the older males for winter meat.

The photography in this story illustrated the corralling process and the capturing of both young deer and mature males. The story begins with a couple of images that introduce the environment, showing the wild mountains where the reindeer spend the summer, photographed from a helicopter just as the first winter snows arrived. The images of the main story showed thousands of corralled reindeer, with the Sami people picking out and lassooing newborn animals and mature males. The story rounds off with a summary of the family nature of this process, with a picnic once the work is done, including the presence of the family’s pet albino reindeer.

Storytelling through photography: Reindeer herding

The importance of storytelling through photography

Most photographic tuition available in one form or another concentrates on teaching people how to create fantastic single standalone images, but don’t look at the storytelling process at all. This is a shame, since throughout its history telling stories has been one of the most important roles of photography. It is a skill worth cultivating. Hopefully, the tips in this talk will help give you some ideas about how to go about storytelling through photography.

Storytelling through photography: Reindeer herding

The next talk

The next online photography talk will be about macro photography, and will be held on Wednesday 20th October at 8pm (BST). It’s free to join, just click on the link below to fill in and submit the form. This will enable me to send you the link.

Back to top

Fabulous Philippines

Nigel’s Birdfair talk about Philippine birds can now be seen here and on You Tube

The talk that I recently gave to the virtual Birdfair 2020 about Philippine birds (called Fabulous Philippines) is now on You Tube, and hence can be seen here. The talk is just over 16 minutes long, and to watch it just click on the link below. I really hope you enjoy it!

About the Fabulous Philippines talk

The talk introduces some of the Philippines most important forest habitats, and then showcases a few of the country’s most significant bird species, concentrating on those that are endemic, or unique, to the Philippines. These include the Philippine Eagle, several hornbills, the Philippine Bulbul, the Coleto and the Bleeding-heart pigeons.

The photography used comes from my Wild Philippines project, which was published a few months ago as a book, called Wild Philippines. Video clips in this talk, showing me working in the Philippines, were shot while I was gathering material for the project.

Bleeding-heart pigeon, a Philippine bird.
Negros Bleeding-heart pigeon.

About the Birdfair

The Birdfair is an annual UK event, usually held on the shores of Lake Rutland, in eastern England, that celebrates everything to do with birds and bird conservation. Not surprisingly, for 2020 the event was forced online, with a virtual event running for a week in mid-August.

Hopefully, for 2021 the event will be back in its rightful spot in the English countryside!

Getting a copy of Wild Philippines

If you find this talk interesting and would like to find out more about Philippine wildlife, and in particular the Wild Philippines project, click on the link below.

The Wild Philippines book is widely available from high street and online book shops (including Amazon). In the Philippines, it is stocked by National Book Stores. You can also buy it directly from this website: just click on the link below to go to my book shop.

Wild Philippines cover

Back to top

A Wild Philippines talk at Birdfair

The UK’s annual festival of all things to do with birds, Birdfair, has started and will run 18th-23rd August. I’m so proud to be able to say that in the line-up is a talk by myself, in which I’ll be showcasing the birds of the Philippines, a talk entitled by the organisers Fabulous Philippines.

Using photography from my recent book, Wild Philippines, the talk will explore the avian wildlife of that wonderful country, highlighting mainly just a handful of the many species unique to the country. These include the mighty Philippine Eagle, all 11 species of hornbill, and a host of pigeons and doves, to mention just a few.

Philippine Eagle
A Philippine Eagle

Birdfair goes online

Normally held on the shore of lovely Rutland Water, a major sanctuary for birdlife in eastern England, this year of course Birdfair has to be wholly online. That hasn’t stopped the organisers pulling together a superb event, with a huge line-up of talks, events and exhibitions.

To go to Birdfair’s home page click on the link below:

My Philippines talk at Birdfair

My talk on birds of the Philippines, which the organisers have entitled Fabulous Philippines, goes live at 8am (UK time; 3pm in the Philippines, 3am USA east coast) on Saturday 22nd August, so you’ll be able to watch it online from then and for the next three months. The talk will also be published next week on my You Tube channel.

Consisting of a mix of videos and stills photography, with my own narration, the talk runs for 15 minutes, introducing the Philippines’ main terrestrial habitats and some of their representative life. As already mentioned, the photography comes from my recent book project Wild Philippines.

Naturally, I really hope you’ll watch the talk, and that you’ll find it enjoyable. You can find my talk at the address below. The page is already live, but it won’t be possible to launch the video until Saturday 22nd Aug.

An early morning view across farmland near Tumpis (at about 1350 metres) to the summit of Mt Apo, Mt Apo Natural Park, Davao, Mindanao, the Philippines.

Getting hold of a copy of Wild Philippines

Wild Philippines is widely available from both high street and online book stores around the world, including Amazon. In the UK, the main high street outlet is Waterstones, while in the Philippines it is National Book Stores.

It can also be bought directly from me through my website. Just click on the link below to go to the relevant page.

Wild Philippines cover

I hope you’ll enjoy my Birdfair talk!

Back to top

Wild Philippines in Geographical mag

I’m really pleased to be able to say that the July issue of Geographical magazine (the monthly publication of the Royal Geographical Society) contains a prominent feature on my book Wild Philippines.

Consisting largely of extracts from the book’s first two chapters, it also features some of the photography, focussing largely on the Philippines’ unique, or endemic, animal species.

You can see the article here, by clicking on the image gallery below:

Moving forward with Wild Philippines

This is a fantastic new development, as I have to say in all honesty that we’ve been having all kinds of trouble managing to promote Wild Philippines. Not surprisingly, much of that is down to the Covid-19 pandemic, which completely wiped out plans to promote the book in the Philippines itself. So the Geographical article is a major boost and step forward in getting news about the book out there, at least within the UK.

Wild Philippines cover

About the Royal Geographical Society

The Royal Geographical Society (RGS), founded in the 19th century, is the UK’s most well-known research and exploration body, specialising in the promotion of study into geographical issues, both in the natural and the human worlds.

Some of the UK’s most famous explorers have been and indeed still are members of th RGS.

Geographical magazine is its monthly publication, going out automatically to all RGS members. It is also available generally, normally on sale in many good newsagents.

To find out more about the RGS click on the link below:

Find out about the RGS

To find out more about Geographical magazine click on this link:

Find out about Geographical magazine

Find out more about Wild Philippines

Wild Philippines is a major publication, written and published by Nigel Hicks and published by Oxford-based John Beaufoy Publishing. Its 208 pages give a hugely valuable overview and snapshot of the status of Philippine wildlife and its conservation. In addition, Wild Philippines features over 300 photos that focus in on the country’s huge numbers of utterly unique plant and animal species, ranging from the mighty Philippine Eagle to the vast numbers of orchid and medinilla plant species.

To find out more about Wild Philippines, and to see sample pages click on the link below:

Find out about Wild Philippines

Getting a copy of Wild Philippines

Wild Philippines is available around the world through all good book shops, both high street and online.

To buy directly from me contact me by phone (+44 (0)7977 546961) or click on the link below:

Buy a copy of Wild Philippines online

Back to the top