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1X FEATUR ED INTERVI EW | PEKKA JÄRVENTAUS
How do you plan and prepare your trips to get the most out of them? First and foremost I try to limit the number of concepts that I want to realize in one trip. Africa is an awesome place for photography and there is so much stuff to see there. Unfortunately, I cannot photograph everything it has to offer and especially not in a few weeks so I try to limit it based on location. I want for example photograph lions on rocks, I will do most of my sessions in the south area of Masai Mara that happen to offer both rocky mountain areas and lion prides. I will also find a camp that is located in the south area to avoid wasting time and opportunities by driving too much. If I'm interested in photographing portraits of female lions I would travel to a large pride with a large female population. That would give me the opportunity to find the lionesses that I think fit and have the qualities that I look for. It is almost like a casting session. It has worked great so far. But before I travel to Africa. I try to visualize the trip and the potential photographic scenarios that might occur. Where do I want to position myself if I see a lion standing on a rock in front of me? What distance do I want to shoot from? What lens would I use? Do I want the lion back lit or lit from the side? I try to have a concept, as clear as possible, on how I want the image to look like and what I might actually encounter. Then I try to meet somewhere in the middle. And in most cases it works. When I photographed ”Lioness on the rocks” in the Serengeti in Tanzania,my concept was to photograph a lion on the rocky hillsides and I especially wanted a photograph including the unusual round rocks that are common in the Serengeti to be dominant in the image. I was driving around in circles around the rocky areas looking for opportunities. When I found the lioness on the rock I recognized the opportunity and took the shot. She got up, looked at me, I photographed 2-3 more shots and she walked away. The entire session lasted maybe 5-10 seconds.