Framing the Wild, a series of behind-the-scenes blog posts exploring how we see, compose, and decide which moments in the wild become photographs worth taking and keeping – the elephant scratching tree.

This photograph dates back to March 2020, when I was in the Maasai Mara Lemek Conservancy with FUJIFILM UK. It was an overcast afternoon, the light was flat and, photographically, there wasn’t an awful lot going on. We were on the savanna surrounded by balanite trees, watching a herd of elephants heading in our direction.

One tree caught my attention. On closer inspection, its bark was remarkably smooth, extending to around eight feet up the trunk. The elephant scratching tree! I started thinking less about photographing the elephants themselves and including the behaviour and the shape and structure of the tree.

As the herd approached, we moved away from the tree and waited. Eventually, one elephant obliged and placed itself nicely into a composition that I felt would work.

I really enjoy photographing animals in their habitat, rather than treating the animal as an isolated subject. Behaviour and relationships between animals are fascinating, but so too is the relationship between an animal and its surroundings. The habitat can be just as important to the photograph as the subject itself. In this case the tree was very much part of the story.

I was using a pre production Fujifilm X-T4 with the XF100-400mm lens. The compositional decision was fairly simple, I wanted the entire tree in the frame. Cutting part of it off would have lost much of what had initially attracted me to the concept.

That sounds straightforward but even at 100mm, I was having to push myself almost out through the other side of the vehicle to get enough distance to include the whole tree. Ideally, we could have been a few yards further back!

That’s often how these photographs come together. The photograph really started with the tree and the final image might look relatively simple. But getting there involves noticing something, working out why it interests you, anticipating how the subject might interact with it, and then finding a way to make the composition work with the conditions and position you’ve got.

1 – Thirds

I used the “rule” of thirds as a very rough guideline, looking for an anchor point that, given the vertical orientation of the composition, I felt would sit naturally at the elephant and the tree.

2 – Habitat

The tree is a key part of the story here and is as important as the elephant. Balanite trees come in all shapes and sizes, influenced by browsers such as elephants and giraffes. I felt it was essential to include the whole tree as part of the natural history story.

3 – Negative Space

The space around the elephant and tree is just as important as the subjects themselves. I wanted to avoid filling the frame and instead leave enough space for the composition to breathe, particularly in the direction the elephant is looking into, and around the upper part of the tree. The relatively uncluttered background also helps separate the elephant and tree from the surrounding savanna.

4 – Behaviour

The final element was waiting for the right behaviour and position from the elephant. I wasn’t simply looking for an elephant to stand next to the tree. I wanted the relationship between the animal and the tree to feel deliberate within the frame, which meant waiting for an individual to move into the right position. That patience is an important part of the photograph, because the composition and natural histroy story only really comes together when the elephant completes it.