It is so easy to focus on what is right in front of us, that somehow we often forget to see the bigger picture...

As a ranger, faced with so many incredible photographic opportunities, this one use to be my biggest challenge. Today, it is one of my favourites.

By photographing your subject within its full environment, you get to tell the full story instead of just a chapter of it. Looking out for the moon and trying to incorporate it within the picture, a bird flying in the foreground or background, a flower growing in front of your subject or even that little dung beetle going on with its business on the ground.

Keep an eye out for a moon in the sky, like with this Southern White-faced Owl I recently photographed with and without the moon to show the difference it can make.

Photographing a beautiful structured tree just with landscape or even sometimes nature throws in a rainbow, or two, just to add a little extra to an image.

A bird flying in the background can also add interest. I was observing this massive bull elephant and trying to think on how to compose the shot when a Lilac-breasted Roller decided he wanted to take part in the picture, so instead of just capturing a single subject why not get them both in one frame?!

With this image, I focused on the flowers (Morning Glory) just in front of a zebra making the zebra blurred and the flowers sharp.