{"id":818681,"date":"2026-10-30T13:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T13:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/818681\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T13:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T13:12:13","slug":"nature-needs-no-embellishment-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-commended-david-lloyd-on-capturing-animals-honestly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/818681\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Nature needs no embellishment\u2019: Wildlife Photographer of the Year-commended David Lloyd on capturing animals honestly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lloyd<\/a>\u2019s instinct is to raise his camera and capture the innate behavior of these imposing yet beautiful animals.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI have seen it before. It is natural for an elephant family to herd the young ones into the middle of themselves in order to shelter them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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The image, entitled Herd Huddle, goes on to receive a Highly Commended distinction in the \u201cBehaviour: Mammals\u201d category of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026, Lloyd\u2019s seventh distinction at the contest.<\/p>\n

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\"Herd
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(Image credit: David Lloyd)<\/p>\n

David Lloyd’s gear and settings <\/p>\n

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For Lloyd, wildlife photography should preserve the reality of any encounter, with images balancing authenticity and artistry. \u201cNature needs no embellishment,\u201d he says. \u201cI think we can compare this to photojournalism, where accuracy is paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the photographer, the encounter with the herd of Asian elephants lasted just a \u201cfew minutes,\u201d giving him a mere moment to decide on his composition.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was very much aware that, given the presence of the calves, this encounter would not last very long at all before they melted into the forest.”<\/p>\n

By making the entire herd, rather than an individual calf, the subject, Lloyd was able to capture the relationship between the adults and their young. \u201cI opted for a frame that is over the two calves, and I\u2019m pleased I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Self-portrait
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David Lloyd is a UK-based multi-award-winning wildlife photographer and photography safari tour leader (Image credit: David Lloyd)<\/p>\n

While Lloyd prefers natural-looking images, his approach doesn\u2019t mean that every image should remain completely untouched in post-production. The photographer explains that, for Herd Huddle, he did something he \u201crarely does\u2013” reducing the saturation to achieve the sepia-like aesthetic.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe elephants exhibited various tones in real life, and by doing this I was able to create a satisfying duotone look.”<\/p>\n

Not encroaching on an animal, however, is always at the heart of Lloyd\u2019s approach. According to the photographer, when an animal is disturbed for a shot, it not only puts the subject at risk, but the authenticity of the scene disappears.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo animal should be detrimentally affected by anyone trying for a particular photo, and also the behavior would then cease to be natural,\u201d explains Lloyd. For Lloyd, Herd Huddle succeeds because it documents the elephants\u2019 innate, protective response rather than forcing a moment for the camera.<\/p>\n

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Here’s our roundup of the best cameras for wildlife photography<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter It\u2019s April 2024,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-818681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}