Photographing Brown Hares
As touched upon in my previous blogpost, brown hares were one of the first subjects I photographed and they very quickly became a firm favourite of mine too. I can’t pin down exactly why that is, however a combination of their almost comically oversized ears, the speed at which they can run and the patience and field craft required to get half decent images of them, were all most certainly contributing factors. To this day nothing excites me more in photography than laying in a field with a hare lolloping straight towards me.
So I thought I’d share with you some of the tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years that have enabled me to go on and capture a wide array of brown hares images.
Where to find Brown Hares
Fortunately, brown hares are widespread across most of the UK and generally speaking, the arable heartland of southern and eastern England has always been considered their stronghold.
Brown hares, unlike their Lagomorpha cousins, the rabbit, live above ground in shallow excavations known as forms and spend most of the day resting. Like so many things, they’re most active around dawn and dusk, so I would suggest heading out either side of sunrise or sunset to maximise your chances of seeing them.
Their typical habitats are arable farmland and open grassland areas that are close to woodland edges, or thick hedgerows.
The best time of year to see brown hares is during their breeding season, which is early spring. Most of us will be familiar with the expression “as mad as a March hare” - well that very idiom derives from the excitable behaviour displayed by hares, witnessed at this particular time of year. This is also the time of year where you are most likely to see them boxing, which is certainly a spectacle to behold!
However in spite of the above, as I sit writing this on a cold November evening, I have just returned from a very wet but also very enjoyable afternoon out photographing brown hares. So once you know where to look, the when does become much less important.
Field Craft
Whilst curious and inquisitive, brown hares are also extremely skittish. Due to their impeccable sense of sight, smell and hearing, developing your fieldcraft is an integral part of coming away with a portfolio of varied images.
Once you have selected your location, it’s never a bad idea to take some time and observe them from a distance. This will allow you to develop a greater understanding or their behaviour and more importantly, their behaviour in that particular location.
Brown hares are creatures of habit and by taking the time to observe from a distance, you will notice that they often stick to the same tracks as they navigate the field. Thus allowing you to position yourself somewhere in the field where you know they’re mostly likely to come straight towards you.
Owing to understanding the brown hares movements at the location I was working from today and of course donning my favourite camouflage jacket, I was able to get into the field four hours before sunset and sit with my back against the hedge, all the time confident that if the hares were there, the chances were they’d come to me. The rest was simply about waiting. After a couple of hours I had eleven brown hares grazing in front of me, completely unaware of my presence. This sit and wait approach has now become my preferred method for photographing hares but it also requires much more patience than stalking them and let’s be honest, it’s a little less exciting too.
Stalking Hares
First thing to be aware of before your start stalking brown hares is that you need to be prepared to be uncomfortable. I’ve lost count of the amount of hours I’ve spent laying in nettles, brambles and sheep shit waiting for a brown hare to yawn. It can be challenging!
So let’s assume already that your clothing blends in with the natural environment, here’s my first tip for stalking hares. Don’t let them know you’re there… any of them! This may sound simple but I promise you, just because they didn’t run off, doesn’t mean they’re haven’t seen you. I’m speaking from experience when I tell you that the last thing you want to do is military crawl 200 metres, only to find that the closer you get, the lower the hares hunkers down and eventually turns and runs. It happens and it’s frustrating when it does.
Instead, when you arrive at the location, try to keep yourself hidden. Use hedgerows to break up your outline and make sure you scan the whole field before entering. I’ve crawled towards hares before only to startle another that I hadn’t initially noticed. It was hunkered down and much closer to me than the hares I was trying to approach. Needless to say we both jumped and the hare ran across the field, which alarmed all the other hares.
My next tip is to take your time. If you think you’re approaching them slowly, go slower. I appreciate that this can be a challenge for us as wildlife photographers. The adrenaline takes over, you’re worried the hare will move into another field and you’re stressing about missing the best light, but try be patient with your approach. Anytime I’ve rushed, I’ve regretted it! So pull yourself a few feet along the ground and each time stop, observe the hare’s behaviour and if you think you remain unnoticed, go again. It’s arduous but worth it.
Finally on stalking, always be prepared for the hare to come towards you. It’s easy to become so focused on your own movements, you overlook theirs. This has caught me out plenty of times.
The equipment you need
Generally speaking you are going to want to use a minimum focal length of 300mm for photographing brown hares. Of course how large the hare appears in the frame is going to depend on the distance between you and them but in my experience 300mm tends to be an optimum focal length. I have increasingly found that my 500mm prime can be too much and as a result I now much prefer using my 100-400mm zoom lens for hares.
You will want to set your auto focus to high-speed continuous as this will enable you to capture a burst of images. Brown hares will often do something to surprise you, whether it’s them getting up to have a stretch, or standing on their hind legs to have a look around. So you want to be prepared to capture as much of that behaviour as possible. For this reason, I’d recommend setting a fast shutter-speed too.
Your aperture will vary based on what you’re trying to achieve. Most of my brown hare images have been taken with my aperture set to wide open. That’s f4 on my 500mm prime and f5.6 on my 100-400mm zoom lens. Not only does this allow maximum light through, giving me faster shutter-speeds, it also helps with separating the hare from the background.
However, if you’re looking to achieve intimate, close up portrait images then you may want to consider stopping your aperture down, to bring more of the subject into focus.
Composition
I’m not going to say too much on composition because it’s my belief that it’s the most personal and subjective part of photography, although I do have two personal rules when it comes to composition and brown hare photography. First is already covered by field craft and that’s get low. Not only does this allow you to stay hidden, it also enables you to bring some foreground into the image whilst rendering the background out of focus. You don’t always need f2.8 prime lenses to achieve that soft, blurry background. You can do so much to help just by getting down low. Photographing your subject from their eye-level also helps create a much more intimate final image and helps the viewer connect with the subject. Although if you’re reading this and you’re about to depart for Africa where you hope to photograph giraffes, please leave your ladders at home…
My second personal rule on composition is the use of negative space. Negative space is the deliberate use of space around your subject and it’s important to understand that good use of negative space can instantly transform the mood of an image, therefore turning an ordinary image into an extraordinary one. In addition, by having the hare surrounded by negative space the viewers eye will instantly be drawn in and this will also help keep the image free from potential distracting elements.
My preference when it comes to this technique is to have the hare looking into the negative space. This will help connect the viewer with the image and leave them wondering what the hare was looking at.
Just like with my “How to Photograph Dippers” post, these are just some of the things I’ve learnt over the years. They’re also some of the things that I wish I’d known sooner. Photography is all about learning from your mistakes and in this game the more time you put in, the more lucky you get…
So get out there, give it a go and have fun.
Good luck.
Rich
