The Wild Photographer

Talking with Shem Compion: Making Memorable Wildlife Photographs on Safari and Beyond

• Court Whelan • Episode 86

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When it comes to African wildlife photography, Shem Compion has done just about everything. He is an award-winning photographer, naturalist, author, and pioneering hide builder who has spent more than 25 years exploring and photographing the wild landscapes of Africa. He is also a professional photo guide where he helps photographers experience Africa with the timing, access and creative guidance needed to come home with something truly special.

In this episode, Shem and I dig into what separates a technically good wildlife photograph from one that stops people in their tracks. For Shem, much of it comes down to combining emotion with narrative. A photograph should make the viewer feel something, but it should also tell us where the animal lives, what it is doing and why that particular moment matters.

We also explore the enormous value of photographic guides, the temptation to photograph every animal you encounter on safari and why harsh midday light is rarely your friend. Shem shares the fascinating story behind the underground photography hides at Mashatu Game Reserve, including the new overnight hide that functions almost like a wildlife photography studio, complete with controlled lighting, beds and, crucially, a coffee machine.

From there, our conversation expands into visual storytelling, conservation photography, building a lasting body of work and organizing your image library so you can actually find those photographs 15 years from now. Shem also walks us through his current Nikon kit, his relatively light-handed approach to editing and the advice he wishes he could give his younger self: take more photographs, especially of the people, experiences and behind-the-scenes moments that make a journey memorable.

Links and Resources Mentioned

Learn More About Shem...

Photography Hides and Safari Experiences

Conservation Photography

  • Wildscreen ARK — Wildscreen’s nature education and visual storytelling platform
  • The ARKive Legacy — The original conservation image library referenced during the conversation. ARKive went offline in 2019, but its collection of more than 100,000 wildlife images and videos remains preserved by Wildscreen.

Photo Books, Organization and Editing

Shem’s Primary Camera Kit

Court's Websites

Sponsors and Promo Codes:


Court (00:00)
Shem, welcome to the podcast. Great to have you here.

Shem Compion (00:03)
Court, all the way from Africa, it's great to connect with you. Thank you.

Court (00:08)
so I'm gonna jump right into the questions. And the first one is is a big one, but it's an important one, is you know, what what takes you from good to great in terms of Africa's safari photography? Like what separates a good photo from a truly memorable one? Is it something that is more rooted into like classic photography and elements like light and moment, emotion, maybe just the rarity of the sighting? is it a combination and a little bit of all those things?

is it something else? What what's your take on that?

Shem Compion (00:38)
Yeah, it's a great question because I get asked it all the time, especially when we're on safari in Africa, you know, what makes a great wildlife photograph? And to me it's the one that speaks with emotion. And you you actually find and you put an adjective to that image. And the adjective will be different for every person who looks at that image. It might be power or powerful, it could be a happy photograph, it could be a sad, it could be full of intensity. So

Emotion is very important as an adjective for a photograph because that's drawing the person in and creating a connection. The second element there is the narrative. And you can come on safari into Africa and you can photograph a portrait of a leopard, portrait of a lion, giraffe, elephant, and go home, and no one will know where those photographs were taken from. They could have been taken in your local zoo. And

If you don't have a narrative, and it's sometimes it is, the narrative is about a tight portrait, the intensity of the eyes, and really going in as tight as you can. That's if the animal is very fierce or it's focused on its prey. The other side of narrative is showing context, telling the story of where that animal is at the same time as creating that emotion, that adjective. So if you can combine those two, then I think you really make a strong, compelling photograph. And that's when people stand up and

take notice of images. So it's a big discussion we have on Safari is like how do you find the balance between those two elements, the emotive side and the one that the narrative, you know, the storytelling. Because you can have a you can have a storytelling photograph, but it could also fall flat in terms of its impact. So you've got to combine impact and narr narration, n narrative together. And once you do that, then your images start transcending the norm. You know, there's there's

6,400 photographs taken every single second. You know, there's a trillion photographs taken a year. And you've got to take a photograph where yours stands out and gives pause to the viewer. So viewers, imagine a viewer is flipping through photographs, he's seeing 6,000 or she's seeing 6,400 photographs a second. How do you make someone pause? And those are the two elements that I try to focus on and engage with people and say, hey, if we can.

get these two correct, your portfolio is gonna just really improve and and you know, make people stop and take notice.

Court (03:09)
Couldn't agree more. I think you you've really hit on and circled around a topic that I talk about a lot, and I really hammer it with my guests and when I'm teaching is the idea of wildlife in landscape photos. It's a landscape photo, it's a wildlife photo, it's not the big zoomed in all the time. Those shots are of course great. Like I love a full face shot of a lion or a cheetah. It's beautiful. You connect with the animal, you the eyes are big in the frame, so you're really you're peering into its soul, and that's awesome. But I think that we are, you know, we're

We're kind of susceptible to this in today's day and age where the telephoto zooms are getting so much bigger. You know, like 500, 600 millimeters is kind of like commonplace nowadays, Like to get to those millimeters, we're we're finding it easier and and more accessible than ever. And so therefore it's more tempting to just zoom in all the time.

Shem Compion (03:56)
Mm-hmm.

Court (03:56)
And then you mix that with the fact that we're often looking in the back of our camera and like a one or two inch L C D screen.

And we're judging our photo and the ensuing photos just based on that small little thumbnail, really. And so yeah, I totally agree. I mean, I think the idea of showing context, showing the landscape, forcing yourself at least for some photos to zoom out and get the whole thing. Because yeah, when you fill the frame with the face or the body, it might look great, especially in the back of your camera, but you lose that context and it could be taken anywhere. What are the things

Shem Compion (04:26)
Yeah.

Court (04:26)
in South Africa? What are the things in Tanzania? What are the things in Botswana?

that make it uniquely there. So yeah, I love that. And then assigning like an adjective or a word, sometimes I've even heard from other folks, like a verb associated. So some sort of descriptor in your mind as you're composing, as you're thinking about the composition, thinking about the angles, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, great, great stuff there.

Shem Compion (04:48)
no, I really agree about about even if you're taking the photograph, thinking about that adjective, that verb, while you're taking the photograph. And 'cause so often people are just focusing on the technical details and now you get them to think, hell, there's I'm looking at this bird, what is it what am I trying to convey? What is that emotion that I'm trying to convey? And once they start thinking like that, then they assessing their photographs in a very different way.

Yeah, and then and you know, often we are, as photographers, we the style of photography is often dictated by technology changing. And so you leaned on the fact that now 500-600 millimeter lenses with these variable zooms that every manufacturer makes, Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fuji, these lightweight variable zooms that are easy to pack, much easier than a 500 prime and a 600 prime back in the day. And so everybody's got access to a long lens.

And geez, they wanna zoom in, so they wanna maximise that equipment and it trends to a much tighter photograph.

Court (05:51)
So you've spent so much of your life in wild places, especially across Africa. When you arrive into a new landscape, it might be new for that trip, it might be new for the year, maybe just new to you in your entire career. What is

What's going through Shem's head as you make that great photo? again, is it the classic elements? is it something else? Like give us a peek inside your brain of you're walking up on a new landscape or a wildlife sighting. What's going through your head as to how to really, you know, nail that one? And you've already elucidated a little bit, but Is it a stepwise thing? Is it a checklist? Is it spontaneous? Is it opportunistic? Is it more proactive? Where are you at on that?

Shem Compion (06:31)
No, I love the question. Out of all the questions, this one really stood out for me I love the fact that we're trying to find something different. And I go to a new location, my immediate th thought process is what's making this place stand out as different to every other place in Africa, every other location. And I'm separating those by landscapes and I'm separating them by wildlife, and the wildlife might be certain.

Behavior that happens in that area that's unique to that location. Landscapes, of course, change across Africa. And then I add to that the light. Now, what is the light doing to these locations? So then we and then I plan around that because the light can transform a location, as we know, you know, early morning or late afternoon light. But some places they need to be shot in after dark, you know, when they're in the blue hour. And so I'm definitely looking to.

See what makes this place different to everywhere else. I was in a reserve just recently called Gonarazo in Zimbabwe. It's not a frequented photographic location, but it's got these beautiful cliffs and at sunset they shine sort of orangey pink glow. It's really, really stunning with a river flowing below them. And that's what makes the location. But it's 30 the 30 minutes at sunset and post sunset.

That the place really transforms itself. so for you know 23 hours in the day, it's like pretty bland. But for the last hour, and especially that last half an hour of the day, this place is really magical. It's like a really special place. So you've got to be there at that moment, and that's when you're gonna get a great shot. And so it's then I mean we were timing it with the full moon rising and getting full moon and elephants lined up, and that's when it

You can really transcend the location in terms of a photograph. So it's trying to find out what can make it really special and how can we combine natural elements, moonrise, reflecting in the water with these cliffs behind and the light still pink in the evening in the evening glow. So for me, I'm always looking to what can make a place really special. And then because we're photographers, we have to draw with light. And that means finding the right moment in the day to take the photograph at that location.

Yeah, when it comes to wildlife, you know, like right now you're gonna go to Maketi in the Vango Delta, the lions are hunting buffalo like every two days. So that's gonna be your focus, you know. Like get the dust, get the drama, get the intensity of that, and you're gonna come away with some really great shots. But don't go there to, you know, photograph giraffe, you know, or try and think you're gonna photograph giraffe. So it's it's about fo

Focusing hit not for the camera, but your mindset on what is making that location that you're at really, really special.

Court (09:23)
So you've you've opened the door to something that I I feel very strongly about, and that's the use and the benefit of having local knowledge, institutional knowledge, having not just great guides, but photographic guides. And for two photographic guides sitting here talking, this sounds like a very self-serving comment, but this is coming from nothing but a very helpful place. I'm wondering if you can touch on, you know, you are very rooted in natural history, not just photography.

How does understanding the landscape, the light, where the sun rises, where it sunsets? I've been to this place, for example, and I know that it's you'd think it's the golden hour that's best, but it's actually the blue hour. How do you think having a photographic guide as part of your team, if you are a traveling photographer, someone that's going on a trip, booking like a photographic safari versus like just a normal safari, which of course is also photographic, you're gonna get great photos.

But yeah, like how does that institutional knowledge that you might bring to the table make a difference? You know, how does understanding animal behavior change the quality of the sightings and the photos? And you kind of touched on landscape already, but yeah, what do you think is that that additional benefit, or maybe I should say, do you think there's an additional benefit to having that photographic knowledge? I have a feeling the answer is yes, but what could you comment on that? Like the benefit of having a photographic guide alongside you on proper safaris?

Shem Compion (10:46)
Yeah, for for sure. And yeah, you make such a valid point because when we're on Safari, you and I, and we were guiding and hosting, you ultimately want your your the people you're traveling with, your guests, to have the best experience they can. Not just a photographic experience, but for me it's about sharing the love of this continent, Africa. And that's obviously there's a lot more around that in terms of

Photography, there's all sorts that we can speak about right regarding the context of Africa and the benefits and the celebration of Africa as a wildlife location and a conservation success story. But going back to like photographic guiding is that I often find when I'm on safari and we're at a lodge and I'm with a couple of people and we're going out and our agenda is almost completely different to the standard agenda of what the lodges are doing.

And they they run a very good show that they've got their own protocols of how they run a safari. But we are being more particular about what we want to do. And so we are planning and moving about in different ways. And you know, obviously we are trying to get great photographs, that's the one part. And share sharing the beauty of Africa, that's the other part. But like that little blue hour and golden hour scenario, if there's a sighting of a leopard.

And you know, people want to all see the leopard and go, I was like, guys, I'll be on the radio with the local guides and the local guides will be telling me, no, leopard's relaxed. It ate earlier that it's got a kill in a tree. So I was like, I'll say to our guys, you know what, let's continue, let's enjoy our drive and we're gonna rock up at that leopard just before sunset when everybody's going back to camp and let's go spend our time there. And then we out of everybody's hair, but we we get there at that moment and that's when the leopard starts waking up, it starts coming down to drink.

It's obviously doing its grooming ritual and doing all those behavioral traits that your typical house cat does in the evening at the same time. And but you now there's action, there's mo motion, there's drinking, and so you're getting your your great experiences for your guests, but also you're getting your great photographs. And that's like trying to make the magic happen. Because from a natural history point of view and from being in in the field so many years.

Forecasting and and anticipating behaviour is pretty much like what we do when it comes to wildlife photography. It's like you want to be way ahead of the animal and understand its behavior so that you can be in position to get a photograph of it walking straight towards you or it going to go drink at the water and you're getting it looking and reflecting straight back up at you. So those are I would almost say elements that are a given. And I work very closely with local guides, driver guides. I find them

Across Africa, I'm very grateful to all the local guides because they know each animal almost by name and so they know their habits really well. So that's a very strong understanding is to make good friends with your local guide. But separate to that is forecasting the behavior and then being particular to your photography. So

if you understand the animals' behaviors, you can say, Let's be there at the last light, or in the morning say, guys, let's wake up half an hour earlier.

You know, those lions were hunting last night, they missed. So let's get up really early. They should be really active in the early morning and get them before they fall down and sleep. Because lions like to sleep in the daytime. So let's get them when they're out playing and and maybe hunting. So it's it's about that. It's refining the experience and being very particular about saying, Okay, guys, this is our our chance here. Let's take an opportunity to really maximize that.

Court (14:19)
Yeah, I want to underline that point and add a little bit of additional context. And that was a great example with a leopard, because that's exactly what it is. And the the reality is, you know, if you're out there as a listener and you're thinking about going to Africa, you're thinking about planning a trip, and you compare two itineraries, like a quote-unquote non-photo one versus a photographic safari, you know, the itineraries, they're not gonna look much different. But as you've just explained, like there is such a long list of benefits to having that photographic emphasis.

It's the timing, it's the light, it's the knowledge, it's the awareness of animal behavior. And I'll be honest, like they they tend to be a bit more rigorous safaris. Like we're often up earlier, we stay out a little bit later, we're in the field for longer. But if you are a photographer, which I know, of course, all of you are in the audience, like that, it's it's just having that little word in the title of the trip makes such a big difference that may not be fully detailed in the itinerary. So just some practical advice.

Here, that it is such a wildly long list, as you as you explained, and that there's, you know, we could probably spend the next hour talking about all those differences, but yep, it makes a huge difference. You're gonna take away better photos, you're gonna make better photos. just wanted to underline that that point. so for photographers going on their first serious Safari, keeping along those lines, what are perhaps some of the biggest mistakes or misses that you see folks make in the field? It might be day one.

It might be something later in the trip. Can you think of anything that you've noticed throughout the years that are kind of like learning curve things? Either it's a technical consideration or a creative consideration, anything along those lines. And I hesitate to say the word mistakes, but that's kind of where I'm coming from is what are the things that people might miss or or do wrong that you will perhaps quickly correct? But if they don't have Shem on their safari, what bit of advice can you offer to them?

Shem Compion (16:02)
So I would like to think that we give enough information pre planning on the safari that people don't make mistakes. But of course that's n never true. People get very excited and they come on safari and of course multiple mistakes

can take place. But I find that the the biggest error is the excitement in the first few days of safari, of being on safari, seeing all these animals and we've got a lot of biomass in Africa. You as you can drive around and see, you know, a few hundred animals in the morning. And people wanting to stop and photograph every single animal. And that especially when the light is getting harsh in Africa, we're pretty much in the tropics.

For most part on the equator or in the tropics. And so the light gets harsh very quickly. And so wasting time on photographing, even if it's a beautiful animal, I I know and I've seen it happen so many times. You'd photograph those in the first few days of safari. And then as we get more selective and guests relax a bit more and focus on the golden hour, good opportunities.

Then you just know that those photographs in the first few days are going to be culled They're just going to be trashed. and so what happens is tends to happen is that the photographs towards the end, middle and end of the safari, that's the real keepers in the portfolio ones because the guests have have now realized, you know what, sitting nights in the hot day, sun doesn't translate into a great photograph. It's very difficult to translate into a great photograph.

And so you can use that time better because you can do you can be doing editing in camp, you can be doing feedback and working in Lightroom on your images. So there's multiple other things that you can be doing in that time. But photographing in the midday sun in Africa is a struggle. Yeah. And that's that's probably the the main one that I have to get over the hurdle. You tell they're no, but wait, this is so good, this is so good. And

You know that it's not, unfortunately. Yeah. So it takes a couple of days. And that's normally I mean, this is the excitement of safari. People wanna get out and utilize the equipment and they're so excited by seeing all these great animals.

Court (18:10)
Yeah, it's a testament to why, even though it's gonna cost you a little bit more money, but doing a slightly longer safari, not just going for three or four days, but you know, something, yeah, I don't know, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve days in that range, not only gives you just straight up more photos in a linear fashion, but it's like exponential because you you really get to hone your photography, you get multiple chances at that extraordinary light, you get to go up or down that learning curve, however you want to say it.

So yeah, excellent point. It's just kind of the the harsh reality of things in that you're so excited that you want to photograph every critter you come across, every ungulate, every antelope, every zebra. And it's just another testament to, you know, trust your guide. If your guide says or even hints at the idea of, hey, like, are you you guys done? Like we should move on. because it's so tempting, you know, you don't know if you're gonna see another impala over the course of the trip.

you will. You will see more Springbok or Zebra or Impala. So yeah, moving on.

Shem Compion (19:07)
Yeah.

Court (19:08)
it's it's hard to do. It's so hard for me to sit at my desk here and tell you to do that, but just kind of keep that in the back of your mind as listeners that yeah, your your guides kind of know the story that they're trying to tell and give you throughout the course of the trip. And yeah, excellent, excellent point, Shem. so moving on, you have built specialized photographic hides

From my understanding, and this is a really cool thing. so a hide or a blind for those of you that don't know is usually a structure that is, you know, built, it's got some natural look to it, it might be built into a cliffside or using natural vegetation. but they are they're really very, very helpful for photographing animals at low level safely with very indifferent reactions from the animals. They don't really see you, they don't notice you. so it's a really cool thing. I'm wondering if you could talk to me about that.

What has it been like working from hides and and it sounds like maybe even designing them? What has it taught you about, you know, patience and perspective and perhaps seeing wildlife differently? Because again, this is this is not from a vehicle. This is from some sort of structure that is lower to the ground. You sit in place for longer, you're kind of waiting for the opportunities. Wonder if you can touch on that.

Shem Compion (20:15)
I'd love to, I'd love to, because it's very

close to my heart. I've been involved with hides now for 15 years. And it all started when I was very young. My grandfather, I grew up on a farm, which in this context means small working orchards and a lot of open bush country. And my grandfather was a very keen bird watcher and a bird photographer, and he would build these blinds, mobile blinds mostly, to film.

Birds. Some of them were in the birdbath in the garden, but most of them were out in the field, like out in this bush country. And we had owls that he would set up these blinds for and then move the blinds in over the course of time to be very close to the nest and then film the little owl coming out and sitting on the perch. And I was a part of that, you know, I was a young boy, very impressionable upon me. And that phase of my life passed, and when I started photographing wildlife.

I got to a point where I thought, you know, African photographers are actually quite lazy because we all just sit on vehicles and we drive around, you get driven to your sighting, and all the photographs are from the same angle, the same perspective, just on the top of side of a vehicle, that classic sort of five, six feet above the ground. And first I thought I'd love to get some photographs of elephants low down from an angle. Let's try and change the perspective. And I had some remote cameras and I tried that, but

You know, elephants are dangerous animals when they can be. And so I lost a few cameras using the remotes. So I realized now I need to change my angle here. The different a more cheaper alternative to losing cameras. And I and I harked back to the days of working on with hides with my grandfather. And so I approached the owner of of the reserve called Mashatu, Game Reserve, which is in Botswana, and

Explain to him what I wanted to do. And within a week, I I had put the put a pitch together. Within a week, we had a sign agreement. It was very open to testing it. And the first one, which is still the one that's going today, is it was a shipping container, a 20-foot shipping container, which we sunk into the ground with a water hole in front of it. And that water hole had been on the property on the reserve for 30 or 40 years. So it was an established little water hole. We put that container in.

And immediately became a great success. And that's hide even today, that water hole, I mean, amazing activity that happens there and multiple award-winning photographs. The the wildlife photographer of the year 2013 winning photographs, the overall image was taken from the hide So we've had all sorts of successes with it in terms of

other people taking great photographs. But the really what makes it so special is that you when you're inside it, you're standing

in the hide, but your head is at ground level. And changes your perspective completely, especially when an elephant's footprint is one meter away. Yeah, you've got this you see every toenail sticking out and you're like, whoa, or the elephant's trunk comes into the h hide and sniffs you. You realise, wow, I'm completely safe now. I can't lose my camera equipment. but you're at eye level. And it changes that that perspective changes people's ways they approach wildlife. But I think the

Really, the thing that struck me the most is that an animal won't come to you unless it feels it's safe. And so often on drive and when you're out in the field, animals are slightly moving away from you because you make a noise or the vehicle makes a noise. And so they you're getting the third quarter, the hind quarter view of an animal. Well, now they're coming towards you. And it's something as small as little banded mongoose or

guinea fowl coming to drink or baboons.

And you're like, wow, these guys like they're they feel safe in my space and they come towards you. Then the elephants come and they just take over. You got thirty or forty elephants all around you, drinking water, spraying. The sound is actually the most impressive. There's a so it's very tactile, the experience, because you think you go in there for the the visual effect, but my gosh, the the sounds and the smells it becomes this very sensory overload experience. And we've had people in tears.

many times with especially when the elephants are coming in and they just take over. Ele baby elephants are in the water and this is all happening between sort of five to ten yards away from you. The peop we've had multiple people come out splashes of mud all over them from the elephants. And that is very touching because it's sharing a sp experience that you'd never get on a game drive and you'd never get in other locations. But the fact that people are willing to come and sit, be quiet and wait for these animals to come into their space.

And that's a very different way of of approaching wildlife, is that you the animal recognizes that you're there, but it says, you know what, I trust that person, I'm coming into their space. So in that sense, it's quite humbling. Animals allow us, to be in their space. and so that's the that hide has been going now since 2012.

at the end of 2024.

We built a separate one which is a a night hide. So same concept of a water hole. And this time we've built it with beds inside, very comfortable. You can have a little kitchenette at the back. to have a meal in the evening. But you get there late afternoon, there's all the normal activity of birds and animals coming down in the aft in the daylight. And we've got these LED lights that we put out at night, side lights and backlighting. And

Then at nighttime, when the animals come down, we use these lights, we can control them from inside the hide to to photograph. And it's it's really cool because it's like a studio, really. It's a wildlife studio. And we get elephants are coming down, giraffe are coming down quite often, zebra, wildebeest, and hyenas. Hyenas love it. So they come and swim in the water and all the rest of it. And there's also it's very close to you, and but you've got these lights that you can use side lighting to shape.

Almost like shape shifting because our hyenas are creatures of the night and got a lot of sort of mystical stories about them that you're able to now transform them with light and you are in full control. technically very difficult, but we've got a guide in there that helps you set your camera up because you're photographing then in full manual, everything white balances manual, shutter speed, ISO, aperture, everything you lock it all in, and then the lights.

Do the rest of the work for you, essentially provide you with your your illumination. And we get gr great results and in a way, it's almost like camping that experience. Because you're there at night, you spend the whole night. So you you hear all the sounds, the hyenas calling, the jackals, the lions roaring, and in the morning as the bird chorus starts, wakes everybody up,

you hear all of that, but you're completely in a nice warm bunker. you've got a bathroom facility, you've got a nice coffee machine at the back that you can go have a nice cappuccino in the morning and then and then you wait for the dawn to to break. And then all the animals come in, that the daytime guys come in. Yeah. So the original perception still remains for me is that I wanted to bring the idea and the concept of blinds and hides at a

very strong photographic level to Africa for the reason that A it had never been done. Blinds have been built in Africa, but never for photographers. And if you build something for photographers, it means it would also appeal to non-photographers, people who just want to visit, because the lighting is good, the angles are good, all of those elements have been taken into consideration. And when I grew up, we would go to sit in a hide in some of the the national parks here. And they were would be like 300 feet.

From the waterhole. You know, like, well, what's the point? You know? And they would be up on the side of a hill where now it's all about perspective and proximity. And something we're very strong on is the experience, you know, that when people sit there, they have this great, wonderful experience of being in a hide, sitting and the animals that are coming so close to you. I mean like five yards, you got Impala drinking, a shy, skittish animal that's like just right there. You see the

big eyes glowing and how nervous they are and how vulnerable they are. And you get to witness that. And that's really special.

Court (28:26)
That is so cool. So we we have you to thank for the proliferation of extraordinary photographic hides across Africa, or at least Southern Africa. That's that's so cool. And

Shem Compion (28:34)
Yeah.

Court (28:35)
Mashatu, yeah, I I know that one well. That's that is wow, what a special connection there. Well, you made a few points that I wanna emphasize is is one, I love your your terminology, your framing that it's kind of like a photo studio. That is that is that I've never heard of that or

Shem Compion (28:49)
Mm.

Court (28:50)
thought of that, but that's exactly what it is. It's like taking a natural setting and

Doing as much as you can to kind of studioize it. And that's that's how it feels. I've been in a number of hides, and that's exactly how it feels. Like you feel.

As if you you get it may be a bit of a quality over quantity thing. Like, yes, when you have complete mobility in a safari vehicle, you can move, you can angle, you can, you can get different shots, but there's something just so special about being at eye level at ground level and having that that distant horizon or that distant tree line such that you can shoot parallel to the ground and really create that background separation. It's gonna give you more pro-level shots, even if you are with a very introductory telephoto lens.

Lens

because of shooting parallel. The background of the animal isn't the ground below it. It's the distant trees or the rocky cliffs or the plains, what what have you. They're great for reflections. So, yeah, so many great things going on in hides. And yeah, thank thank you for doing all that. That's really exciting to hear about. And then I'll also mention that, you know, just to underline your point, that you don't have to be a pro photographer to enjoy them and to make use of them. You don't even have to be a photographer at all.

It is a next level sensory experience. And a lot of times that I'm in hides, I might even put my camera down for a few minutes because I wanna I wanna hear, I want to smell the environment because you are so close. You're often near these watering holes that act like magnets to the animals. And like I mentioned, you get these incredible reflections and that that background separation. So yeah, really, really great stuff there. So you've you've published books and and built long-form bodies of work, including

Places like the Great Rift Valley, how do you move from taking individual strong images to wrapping your brain around creating

Shem Compion (30:34)
Mm.

Court (30:34)
a a mass of work and creating kind of a larger visual story?

Shem Compion (30:40)
Yeah, that's a an interesting question because it's one I had I had to really wrestle with quite a lot when I was working on the rift project. the you know the rift is a very large piece of geology. In fact it's the largest geological formation on the planet. it extends six thousand four hundred kilometers, which is about five thousand miles across Africa.

And so there's a lot to cover. I've been very fortunate that through my travels on Safari, most of them have been

in and around the Rift Valley and to very prominent points of the Rift Valley. And sort of that was the reason why I did the book. I realized at a point in time, I realized wow, you know, I've actually covered all the important points of the Rift Valley. So that was that's a very fortunate part. But then I also realized there's some other parts that I need to still cover.

And I went on a couple of specific photo shoots for that. And on those ones, my thought process was exactly as you just described there is that the story of the rift is more important than the individual photograph. Hence the photograph you take here are trying to to create the storyline and a narrative as a body of work that speaks to the rift valley rather than your own individual signature.

Your own hero shots. So that was a very strong learning point. And the second part of that learning curve was working with the layout artist who put the book together. And because you're a photographer, you always think every single photograph that you have is a hero shot. And I submitted, I think it was 1200 photographs.

Only 280 make it into the book.

So there's a high attrition rate. And we had long discussions as we were doing the layout versions because she laid out the images according to the text of the book. And we had to cull, leave out a lot of the hero, what I would consider my hero shots.

but I had to get over that the fact that it's not about those hero shots, it's about the story of the rift.

and that was the second lesson, the second time I took the lesson, and she was very adamant about it. And I I give credence to her now because you have to step your ego aside

and put your hero images, they can be used for another day and another project. But in this sentence the the rift takes precedence and you've got to sort of focus on telling the story of that. and for photographers I think that's quite a difficult thing.

To do because you always want a portfolio of your best photographs. Boom. Straight up. You know, that's what we love doing. We want everybody to see our our greatest work. and when I did those other shoots, my focus was, okay, I'm going to a place that is not very photogenic, but the story behind it is incredible. How do I get images from this day in this location that are gonna work in the book? And so I focused on that. And in that instance I I

Did a collage of images because it was finding fossil finds that we had found. Not very pretty, didn't have a lot of ambiance to them. So making a collage was the best way to get around the fact that we didn't have great hero images. and that's something that I learned. I suppose I was mature enough as a photographer too to recognize that because

I was often asked and is asked by the same publisher, he would ask me, When are you going to do a book, a big large format coffee table book? He says, All photographers do have big, large formats. And I said I said to him, You know, I d I don't want to do a large format, I'd rather tell a story. And ultimately, then one day the story of the rift came about. And once I had the story of the rift come about, that was a great way to focus on that as the concept rather than your images. And so

I use my images to tell the story rather than showcase my images around myself. and that that helped a lot. Just to once you recognize that, you realize, okay, it's not about you as the photographer, it's more about the story you're trying to tell. Yeah. But difficult as a photographer, I'm sure you know that too.

Court (34:52)
yeah, we all want, the biggest, best, boldest, baddest collection of our photos to to be

Shem Compion (34:57)
Mm-hmm.

Court (34:57)
useful, right? To have new life. And this makes me think of something that our previous podcast guest had said as as actually one of his biggest pieces of advice to either younger up-and-coming photographers or really just photographers of all ages, especially those that are gonna continue with more photo trips, try to expand their work, obviously the constant quest to improve.

is his his advice was make a photo book no matter where you're at in your photographic journey. Like work on a photo book. And of course is you know it's not everyone that has the access to get this published and put it in a bookstores, et cetera, et cetera. But he said the the exercise of shooting for a book or even just curating and cataloging your images for a book is one of the best exercises to hone your your photographic eye, like your vision.

Because you start to see the holes in the story that gets you to become a better storyteller as you curate your images, as you edit your images, as you go on your next photo trip. So I'm wondering what you think about that advice. You know, even if it's just a one-off print from some online photo, you know, bookmaker,

Shem Compion (35:57)
Mm-hmm.

Court (35:57)
you know, like a shutterfly. there's a number of, I think Amazon even does custom book orders. But yeah, is that something you would agree with for kind of quote unquote any photographer out there? Like work on a photo book.

Shem Compion (36:05)
Well, yeah.

No, one of the questions I ask almost every photographer is what do you do with your photographs? And if very often people are saying, well, you know, that might put on social media or some people just say no that don't do too much. They just edit and make a small portfolio and then they might show some photographs to people. but my what I'm trying to get at is what is the purpose behind their photography? So a photo book

Even if it's for personal use and use it on your put on a coffee table at home or print ten copies, that that is a great purpose to have because all of a sudden you you you've you've got pages to fill and you've got the ability to tell the story by filling those pages of this little holiday that you're on. It could be you know going to Malta, it could be going to a ski holiday, it could be going to the Arctic, or it could be in a safari in Africa. But

All of a sudden you've got a purpose. And I've seen some incredibly great little photo books because it tells the backstory and the behind the scenes and you know iPhone shots of how they had fun on safari, but also the hero photographs in the double page spread of elephants feeding in a beautiful valley in the late afternoon sunlight. So that's one instance. And and for people who don't even have

a dedicated purpose, and it's not that not having a purpose is a sin.

But I often say to them, you know what? If anything from this holiday, you're going to edit 10, 12 photographs, your great ones. We're going to and you just airdrop them onto your phone. Have them on your phone. So you can show people. So you can say, hey, I was here. And

because then they're getting engaged with other people. And people are going to go, whoa. You know, because most people, if you show them a photo on your phone, they they're expecting to see some very average photograph. They're expecting to see an iPhone photograph. But if

Court (37:56)
Mm-hmm.

Shem Compion (37:56)
if you

Show them a photograph that was taken well, then edited in Lightroom, and now it's been exported and it's sitting on your phone. They're gonna go, Whoa, geez, I wasn't expecting that. That's great. Are you a professional? You know, then that starts a conversation. And so it gives people pride, but then they've got reason. Again, it's just a small purpose driven thing. It's like, okay, I want to get a portfolio of 20 photographs that I just want to keep on my phone of my Africa trip, my top quality ones. So it's whatever you're doing as a photographer.

It could be a

photo book or a having a small portfolio on your phone.

You should have some type of purpose. It could be calendars. People, geez, we get calendars and I have them all hanging out around my house. I love it. Because it's pe people's calendars of their travels through the year and so simple to do these days. but it gives it gives people po pause to thought. Yeah. And it's just like composing a photograph.

when you composing a photograph, you're like, is this the image I want to take right now? And especially in the film days before digital, it used to be like spending money. Every time you push that shutter, it was

you sp spending money. So it was almost like pulling a jackpot lever. You don't know what the outcome was going to be. And so therein if you if you are composing as such and you say, is it considered enough? Is it the right one for this moment?

Yes, okay, great. I'm taking it now. I'm gonna put this one into my calendar. There's only twelve photographs I can put in the calendar per year. And I think that's great for people to have that type of thought process and purpose. And purpose might be a too big a word because people often you know think purpose is a five year plan down the line. But in this instance, it's just using your photographs. Do something with your photographs from every single trip.

And that's really the the strength of it because it makes you think differently, just like you mentioned, about what you're gonna do with each the way you tell the story of those photographs.

Court (39:54)
Yeah, and it has wide-ranging applications. It's it's not just being a better curator and having better photos in the moment, but it's also improving your ability to see and curate photos in the future. So it really pays a lot of dividends. I want to stay on that topic of being useful in photography, and I want to talk about conservation photography next.

before I do that, I want to just give a quick bit of practical advice of something that I've formed a habit on over the years. And it's it's exactly to your point, is when I come back from a trip, and you know, I might go on six, 10 trips a year roughly for photography, is I will of course curate and I might start with 20,000 shots and I'll try to get down to a couple or a few hundred, but then I will make it a point before I'm done editing all that, I will choose my top

Roughly 25. I think your idea of honestly top 10 or 12 is even better, frankly. I think the more you curate, the more you whittle down, the better. It's painful, it's hard, but it's a really, really

Shem Compion (40:48)
Yeah.

Court (40:48)
important exercise. And you take that top, let's say one or two dozen, just to give you a round figure, and you export them and you put them on your phone and you make a dedicated album. Because I can't tell you how many times someone's gotten back from a trip and they say, you know, yeah, it was this great trip and it's great photos. can you show me a couple?

And then the next five minutes are them swiping through their sort of clunky iPhone

Shem Compion (41:09)
Yeah.

Court (41:10)
collection. Whereas if you know in the last probably five years, I've started doing this and now I have, you know, 10, 20, 30, 40 albums that I can quickly just say, hey, you want to see 15 photos? It's not intrusive, it's not invasive. We could be at a dinner party, it's not gonna interrupt anything and be like, hey, within five seconds, you can now you know swipe left and see my top, what I view as a top 10 or 15 photos. And it's a really, really great habit and workflow to get into.

With again coinciding with your main editing. So you do not stop looking at those photos. You are not done with a project until you put that album on your smartphone. And so yeah, excellent,

Shem Compion (41:44)
Mm.

Court (41:45)
excellent point there. okay, so conservation photography. I would view probably both of us as conservation photographers. I don't think there's a Webster's dictionary definition of a conservation photographer, but I would say we're probably both in that realm. I'm wondering.

How how do you use photography as a conservation tool and equally importantly, how might you advise others if they're keen to do the same, all around conservation photography? How do you become useful with your photography in the realm of conservation?

Shem Compion (42:17)
I wanna st the answer by going back, and this might be general knowledge or common knowledge to your audience on that side, but I find it when I first understood this, I thought I thought it was the most powerful metaphor for conservation photography, and that was in the nineteen thirties and a little bit earlier than that, American photographers that moved into the hinterland of the United States.

Discovering places like Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons and and many others, they brought to the American consciousness these beautiful areas. These places had never been explored. And so there's power in imagery. Because with the support of John Muir, by 1940s, all these places had been proclaimed as national parks. And today they are very firmly entrenched in the American conscious. It's part of your

social construct really is these magnificent national parks. And that was due to photographers showcasing these beautiful areas because roads had not been made and vehicles couldn't get into them. So it wasn't a a weekend destination as it which it is now, which these places are now. And I I just found that incredibly powerful that the the photographs that were taken by Ansel Adams and various others were the catalyst

To proclaiming these areas that are so close to the hearts of pretty pretty much every American, I would say. And so if we use that as the analogy, I still think that conservation photography is a powerful, powerful tool. And we've seen it happen every so often where a a single photograph in these days makes a big noise about certain elements. The

The reality is, and I touched upon it early on in the talk, was that there are more and more photographs out there. So that dilutes the message and dilutes the impact. A trillion photographs are taken every single year currently. So the the story is or the the lesson here is how do we still make it as impactful as possible? How do we get a conservation storytelling to be as impactful as

as it was, or at least to change views amongst people. And I found that it happens in two ways. One is that you can travel to areas that require conservation

And by traveling to those areas, you're funding them by staying in the lodges by paying the conservation fees. And very often we are also involved in donations to these areas. So that's one very practical way is to simply travel to conservation

Areas and it's the same almost anywhere in the world. If you travel to a conservation area, the the fees that you are paying help find those areas. The other is

being involved in this is for the everyday photographer that might want to be involved in conservation, and that is to be involved with organizations like Archive, ARK, like an Ark where their images are used.

For science, for conservation. And so you it's a library body of work that is crowdfunded and crowdsourced. And that really is a a way that any individual can be involved in. But you know, on the professional level, conservation photography, it's I think again there there you have the real opportunity to be to do powerful stuff. And together with that and video these days, becomes a strong, compelling storyline.

this is

This is strong stuff, and we've seen the results of those type of photographs. you know, the individual ones that stand out, there was a seahorse photograph holding a an earbud. I think you call you might call it something different there, a couple of years ago, and that made a massive splash, especially because ocean pollution and plastics that told a big story there. But images like that are standalone examples, but

When it comes to conservation photography and storytelling, I think it's more about the portfolios there that really work.

Court (46:29)
So I want to zoom out a little bit and talk about kind of like success in photography and you're

Of course, very successful in photography, but success is is very subjective. It looks like a lot of different things. It can look like a lot of different things. It's not always selling a photo, it's not always getting a photo in a a popular magazine. It can be any number of things. I'm wondering

not so much how you would define success, although you're welcome to touch on that, but more like what do you think it takes to be successful with photography in today's day and age? You know, you've said this

stat a couple of times that I'm really intrigued with this million photo or sorry trillion photos a year. And

Shem Compion (47:04)
No thought.

Court (47:05)
it that sounds like a legit number that maybe you've you've read or researched or something and that sounds like a fact. and so

Shem Compion (47:09)
Yeah.

Court (47:11)
we're we are saturated. I think there are more opportunities than ever, but because we are more saturated than ever with it, I think it is changing and evolving at a rapid pace.

So I'll cut to the chase. What do you think it takes to be quote unquote successful with nature photography in today's day and age?

Shem Compion (47:27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I never really measured it as a a measure of success. So I never to try to figure out what is the measure of success when it came to wildlife photography. But what I I think I have learned, and that's come from being around for 25 years in the industry and taking photographs, is that it's very difficult if you're a young starting photographer, it's very different to that of being a young professional.

Or accountant, doctor, lawyer, in any other trade, because you've done your time in terms of you've gone to school, and the day you start, people respect that you've done that. And they will go, okay, you might be inexperienced, but you've you've passed a bar. You you be you're a lawyer. You're a bona fide person, we respect that, and you can start working and you're gonna get a paycheck. Whereas as a photographer, it's

Almost exactly the opposite. When you start, people look at you and go, geez, you know, is this really a career choice you want to make? And what I what I found is that the the success curve is is hyperbolic and it goes very parallel to or very small gain in the beginning. It just goes very, very flat, and then it starts curving upwards and then you trend upwards. And

I've given that some thought. It's like, well, you know, I because I went through the same process. So yeah, for a number of years, you grind it out, you're trying to make a name for yourself, you're trying to put make images of relevance and and let the world see them. And you're trying to get work and you're trying to pay your bills. So you marry that for a long period of time, but at the same time, you're building a body of work. Yeah, you're learning as a photographer to take better photographs. And and that's why I say it's hyperbolic, because it starts

You start getting more and more work. But then because you've got a chronology of work, a library of time that you've captured as a photographer, as that curve starts trending now rapidly upwards, you've got that as your reference. And you can always lean back. So case in point is the rift book. by the time I decided and figured out, okay, I'm gonna do a book on the rift, I only had to do two field trips.

To get certain material. I had the whole body of work was already there. And I've done a number of other books, but prior to the rift, the the three prior to the rift, I didn't have to leave my office in order to get the photographs. I had the library of images was there. And so we could make selections from my library, send it off to the publisher, and I'm paraphrasing how and simplifying how the process, how simple the process was, but it didn't require a lot of man hours. It didn't require

field work and tough that's already been done early on in the career. And so now you can utilize those images. And so they become assets to you. And yeah, so that's the one point. And then the other point is as a wildlife photographer, because you're capturing natural history, you're also capturing a timeline of history. So events change. So certain animals or certain events might not happen again. And then you've caught that piece of history. And and that becomes valuable over time.

So like the camel caravans of Ethiopia, I photographed there in twenty thirteen. I went there on private trip, got amazing photographs, three days of just immersing myself with these camel caravans. five, six years later they built a tar road to where those caravans were going. This is a a nine hundred year old trade route that was eight days of walking with camels

to collect salt in the desert.

that it was a place called the Danekil Depression. And then they built a a bitumen sealed road all the way down to this area. Of course, if you can drive a truck down, you don't need the camel caravan anymore. So those images all of a sudden become very valuable because that doesn't exist anymore, but people still want to utilize them for publications and all the rest of it. So never discount the fact that you've got a you are recording history as a photographer. Yeah.

And so going back to the the question of you know success, but as a photographer starting out, it takes a l a lot of thick skin for your first few years to and if you can get through that, show the perseverance, get through it, have the body of work to

stand on its own, then you will see that that curved as you you know, flat lines, goes flat line for a couple of years and then it starts going up and and the hyperbolic is a a great way because then hopefully you just shoot through the ceiling and shoot the lights out as a photographer. Yeah.

Court (52:17)
So speaking of the evolution of photography and especially recent advancements, I wanna I wanna touch on photo editing, processing. This is this is your light rooming, your photoshopping. at least to me, it seems to be a really paramount aspect of photography in today's day and age. I'm wondering what is what is your approach to editing? and obviously huge topic. We could go on for hours about this, but just in general.

Maybe you can say a little bit about your organization style to curating or sorting. Maybe any you know real overarching kind of techniques. Are you spending minutes per photo? Are you doing more than that, less than that? Just a little bit of glimpse into your mind as to how you go through the processing part of digital photography.

Shem Compion (53:02)
Sure, yeah. Well, I and this is also for anybody who's like thinking about taking on photography seriously, your management, your digital asset management is probably the most important thing when you sit down. Forget about editing your photographs for the moment. The most important thing is how are you gonna find your images in 15 years time? And so I I delved into that.

Pretty impressively in my early on when Lightroom Aperture, there were a couple of other photo mechanics all these other programs were out, and I I settled on like using Lightroom and I went hard on the digital asset management side. So I make sure my images are downloaded, backed up, but they're also keyworded, they star rated, on import, they are generically keyworded, and then I individually keyword too

Elephant, lion, which is very painful. And I can't wait for the AI software interface to start recognizing that and doing it for me. That'll be the greatest gain. Yeah. Yeah.

Court (54:03)
It's coming. I'm very excited about that as well.

Shem Compion (54:07)
I c I really can't wait for that. so very importantly is being able to find your photographs, and because you have a publisher, an editor, or a book that project that you want to work on, and you're trying to find that specific photograph that you took.

You know, you know you took it, but you can't find it. my gosh, it's the worst feeling in the whole world. So finding your images is the most joy you'll ever have ten years down the line. Yeah. then editing itself, I would consider myself a a lightweight editor. I understand all the various principles and in the past when I was working on like doing a lot of landscape photography, I was in Photoshop and using luminosity masks and so on. So I've delved heavily into the technical side.

These days I use Lightroom as my primary tool. I pretty much don't open Photoshop at all. So I try and maximize my skill set within Lightroom, but my typical style is that I don't edit my images too hard, too hard. And I I don't push them too much at all. And to answer your question the way you asked it earlier, you know, if I'm sitting down and I'm running through a whole group of images.

And I'm I'm busy star rating them as I'm flying through them. And I'll find one that I want to quickly look at. I'll probably I'll spend a minute on it. Crop, tweak, do the basic edits, and that'll be a good foundation. If it's an image that I really think is really strong, I'll definitely spend a couple more minutes on it. But I'm you know, I'm looking to create more punch out of it, and and my philosophy has always been to get the image right in the field. So that

By nature takes away a lot of the editing out of the image. and then this only other part of it is that if I'm doing an image for like a fine art print, I have a couple of elephant photographs that are very popular for printing. Then I sit down and clean them up really nicely. You know, and if it's I'll go into I'll do a black and white and I'll put it into silver effects and I'll go into the special into the all the locations and tweak and work on those a certain areas.

Essentially silver effects there to to maximize light contrast. They've got a very lovely tool which I've just forgotten right now, but it's one of the sliders. It creates a lot of definition in the in the scenes. Yeah. So

those are for the fine art prints. And then I obviously save that file so then it's ready to go for the next print and the next print onwards from that. but

I'm very comfortable using Lightroom as my primary tool. And that pretty much answers I think the the question of how much editing we do because Lightroom is limited compared to something like Photoshop where you can go completely to town. but I I'll reiterate again, Lightroom is a fantastic tool and the most of the power is actually in the management of your photographs and being able to find them.

Court (57:03)
Yeah, talking about the keys to success when you are just starting out at any age, at any point in your career, your second career, third career, starting out and creating a master plan for that digital asset management is is huge. Your future self will thank you so much.

Shem Compion (57:19)
Yeah.

Court (57:20)
So switching gears here, let's let's talk about gear. What do you what do you shoot on, Shem?

Shem Compion (57:24)
Yeah, I've stuck with Nikon through the l my whole career. I I dabbled with Sony for a short while and but then ended up sticking with Nikon and currently I'm using the Z eight system.

I

use three primary lenses right now and I mentioned it earlier in the talk was that these

Variable super zooms have become so popular. And Nikon make one called a 180 to 600. It's a F6.3 on the long end.

And that is such a light 600mm lens, it's unbelievable. And that combo with a Z8 works wonderful as a

go-to lens when I'm going on Safari. The Z8 is a fantastic, fantastic camera. It's got one or two small little quirks that you have to work around.

But

as a traveling wildlife photographer, I think it's about a pound, slightly more than a pound lighter than the Z9, which I did have.

but it's you know loses pretty much nothing to the Z9. And that's really been a blessing. It's just traveling a little bit lighter with it. Properly sealed, fast enough for me, 20 frames a second, no problem there at all. And

Combined with that lens, that's a real go-to lens. The other two lenses I use as a my main ones are a 24-120 F4, and that's like a go-to lens for me. Just if I put the two cameras together and I'm walking out the door, that'll be the one I have. I also use it a lot with wildlife photography because I can these days you can flip the L C D screen out at the back, you can lean low off the side of a vehicle and get a low angle shot if animals are walking by.

You can see what they're doing because the LCD is pointed up in the in the 24-120. just enough if it's an elephant or so, you've got enough width there to get them in. and then there's another lens I use, which I really enjoy, and it's a sort of outlier. Not many people know about it or use it. It's a Nikon 180, sorry, 70 to 180, and it's a f two point eight lens, but it's got no VR.

No vibration reduction, image stabilization. So it's incredibly light. It's a I think it's lighter than the twenty-four one twenty. And you know, these days the cameras have got that image stabilization, the vibration reduction in it. So I'd use that. It's not it's not a 70-200 it's in it's lightweight, it actually sits I pack it in standing up into my camera bag. That's how small it is. And I've always loved a 70-200 so essentially it's my 70-200 So when I'm

In the Omo Valley working with cultures, that's the lens I use because it allows me a bit more space, separate myself a bit, but obviously you can zoom in quite a lot on it. Yeah. So those are the the the three primary lenses. I've got a 17-35 I've got a macro, if I like for Madagascar, that I use, and the goal, that's pretty much it. That's those are all the lenses that I use right now. I had a a 200-400 F4.

For 22 years. I bought it in 2003 and kept me going for all those years until I got this 180 to 600. So I've come from sort of the prime world of having a 200 F4. it was a zoom, but it was a nice constant aperture, which treated it like a prime. So that was my primary lens for a long time. But I'm very settled. I'm hanging out. I'd love to see what this Nikon, what's it, 120 to

300 with a 1.4 converter is coming out

Court (1:01:01)
Mm.

Shem Compion (1:01:02)
sometime this year. It's got a f2.8, it's f2.8. So I think it might be a bit of a heavier lens. But you know, as a photographer, we always dream of prime lenses. These days, with these new variable zooms, of course, they become so popular because the ISO performance has gone up so much. And that's mitigated the fact that you don't need such a wide aperture. But

a

Purist wildlife photographer, that soft bokeh of a F two point eight on a prime is is like what we all dream of, you know. So so we'll see what happens with this one hundred twenty, three hundred, you know, how heavy it is, and how perhaps I'll bring that into my arsenal. Yeah. Yeah.

Court (1:01:44)
Yeah,

the new lenses coming out are just incredible. Canon, so I'm a Canon guy. and they have a one hundred, three hundred, like a big prime, at two point eight, but they didn't put the telextender

Shem Compion (1:01:52)
Yes.

Court (1:01:53)
in it, which I'm a little bit surprised about,

okay, so one last gear question. This is always just kind of a fun, funky one. What is what is a piece of gear for your nature photography that is surprisingly helpful that people may not think about? And I'm kind of thinking outside the realm of like a lens.

Shem Compion (1:02:10)
Yeah. hell man, a beanie.

Court (1:02:15)
Ha ha beanie, yes.

Shem Compion (1:02:16)
Yeah, a woolly hat. Africa's can be cold in the mornings. that so I always travel with a gloves, like a good pair of gloves that I have in my camera bag, a beanie and a and a scarf, like a wrap up scarfy thing. Because my gosh, I've been caught out so many times on top of mountains, volcanoes, where it's way colder than you expect.

And boom, you're stuck. The other the other thing is more photographic is the blower brush. my gosh, that thing it pulls you out of so many situations. Dust in corners of lenses and corners of of sensors, but also just your camera just on the outside. And a good solid blower brush has come in useful more than it hasn't. You know, you're always pulling it out in odd moments, time of thing, to solve a s solve a situation. Yeah. So I actually travel

Well, trouble with a blow brush all the time, but a solid one and it just never leaves my camera bag. And I've always found it you know, it's people get dust on their senses in the weirdest places. And so you can do a quick in emergency situation and blow it out even whilst you're in the in a compromise situation, but it gets you through that moment in time.

Court (1:03:26)
Yeah, I'll fully agree with both those. And especially the the wool hat, the the cold weather gear. people are often surprised to hear that about Africa. They they think of the movies, they think of this like a jungle. It's it's really not. It can be cold in the mornings, you know, it can be close to zero Celsius in a lot of places, ten Celsius. It can be,

Shem Compion (1:03:42)
yeah. Push it.

Court (1:03:44)
you equivalent of like, you know, thirty-five, forty, forty-five, you know, fifty ish, at various times of year in various parts of Africa. So yeah, great.

Great point there. it's lightweight, easy to pack, and you probably won't regret it if you were headed to Africa. Surprisingly cold in those early and late times of day. Okay, so my my final question here for you, Shem, is looking back on your photographic career, and of course you have a lot ahead of you, but just thinking with all that you have gone through and the opportunities and the challenges and where you started, where you're at.

What is one piece of advice the Shem of today would give the Shem just starting out?

Shem Compion (1:04:23)
I love your questions, Court. It's been wonderful chatting with you. Hey, thanks, man. That really has. It's

Court (1:04:28)
Thank you.

Shem Compion (1:04:28)
been it's I think it's kindred souls chatting about photography just from different parts of the planet right now.

Court (1:04:37)
Agreed.

Shem Compion (1:04:37)
But the yeah the the older Shem, you know, would probably tell the younger Shem to take more photographs. yeah, and wh when I did that

Seven month trip up Africa is in two thousand and two, really the beginning of my career. I was on film then and one of the biggest mistakes I made there was because it was on film, you thought, well, I'd save all the photographs for photographing the wildlife. And I didn't photograph the behind the scenes and the fun and the the yeah, the daily life that was happening.

And my biggest regret is that I've got about ten

Photographs of myself and the the fun behind the scenes stuff from those days. That was a example of because I was trying to save money essentially by not burning through the film. These days there's no excuse. And we've got any photographer right now has got more opportunity to become and accelerate their photographic skill set than ever before on this time on our planet because of all the various

mediums that we have available to us. You got YouTube, you've got digital cameras that give you instant feedback. So take more photographs and learn from those photographs because that'll accelerate your learning curve so that your your growth isn't hyperbolic. It's more linear. It's just a straight line, 45 degrees go. and that'll that I think is probably what I would look at if I even if I look at my library. My library on Lightroom starts in 2004 and it's only got like a few hundred photographs.

I'm typically taking and keeping about now twenty thousand photographs a year. And so, you know, there's a massive discrepancy there. I should have taken more photographs. Yeah.

Court (1:06:23)
Excellent piece of advice to end on. Well, Shem, final, final question here. People are obviously gonna want to see more and learn more from you. Where can they find you?

Shem Compion (1:06:31)
Thanks. Yeah. I've got multiple platforms. My personal one is pretty much Shem Images. And that's my website. So shemimages.com. Also my Instagram is also Shem Images. And then my business is C4 Photo Safari. So that's the Safari side that we run. we've been around for over 20 years now, and it's easily found on there. And you'll find on there all the safaris to places like Mashatu with these underground hides.

Court (1:06:59)
Wonderful. Well, Shem, thank you so much for joining. I I had a great time, learned a lot as I always do. And yeah, just great to be with you and appreciate all your wisdom and everything you do for photography and all the hides you built, of course, that I've probably sat and and reveled in. So thank you

Shem Compion (1:07:13)
Yeah.

Court (1:07:13)
for everything.

Shem Compion (1:07:15)
Cool. Court, yeah. It's been wonderful chatting to you and reliving some of those great moments of hides and hopefully we'll see you out here in Africa one day in a hide. Yeah.

Court (1:07:24)
I hope so. Well thanks again. Okay,


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Court Whelan

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