10 Lessons Every Photographer Can Learn from Nick Brandt

​(Above) Credit/Copyright: Nick Brandt, Inherit the Dust, ​amzn.to/3Xmz0Oy
 
‘First of all, I take photographs purely for myself. It’s never for other people. I think that’s a road to artistic mediocrity.’ 
 
‘You should just take what obsesses you and then, along the way, if other people respond, that’s great. I’ve been very lucky in my career so far that people have responded and I’ve been able to make a living from taking photographs that are just completely for me.’
 
What would be the results if you collected wisdom from one of the best wildlife photographers in the world right now? I decided to find out.  
 
Nick Brandt is one of the few wildlife photographers who’s successfully blended impactful conservation with profitable fine art. He’s a world-renowned artist and photographs the world’s most majestic creatures for a living. But what does Nick Brandt do to create such powerful images? What can we learn to create more impactful images ourselves?
 
Today we’ll find out both. If you want to travel the world and create gallery-grade images, this episode is for you. Since reading this book and researching Nick Brandt, I’ve already seen improvements in my photography. It’s even given me huge inspiration for a new project of my own. More on that later. 
 
 
BRANDT’S LIFE: FROM MICHAEL JACKSON MOVIES TO THE AMBOSELI
 
Originally, he was a video director and visited Tanzania in the mid-1990s to direct Michael Jackson’s Earth Song video. In the early 2000s, he ventured back to East Africa, this time with a still camera. During this decade he created three books: On This Earth, A Shadow Falls, and Across The Ravaged Land. 
 
Brandts mission has been to capture the plight of East Africa’s megafauna (like Elephants and Lions). This resulted in his project Inherit the Dust, a series of panoramic fine art photos that contain life-sized photographic panels of animals where they used to roam before humans destroyed and developed the land. 
 
His cinematic prints have been exhibited worldwide in the most prestigious fine art photography museums, including London’s Atlas Gallery and Paris Photo. Making him a premium name in the photography world. 
 
 
NICK BRANDT’S KEY PHOTOGRAPHY LESSONS
 
PATIENCE: WAIT FOR THE DECISIVE MOMENT
 
After reading the behind-the-scenes of the project, one thing is evident. Patience. Brandt spent countless months waiting for a few key things that would make the images great:
 
Waiting for the right light:
 
‘There was a lot of waiting for the right cloud.’
 
Waiting for the locals to get accustomed to the huge panels:
 
‘I set up my camera on location in front of the panel, waiting for the unexpected, as over time, the local people grew accustomed to us and the panels being there’.
 
Waiting for these two to line up was ‘a four-month process just for 30 images.’ It was worth it. 

(Above) Credit/Copyright: Nick Brandt, Inherit the Dust, ​amzn.to/3Xmz0Oy
 
Nick Brandt had the endurance and persistence to wait for the right conditions he visualised in his mind, and he didn’t stop until they crystallised into images. This patience allowed him to make photos that stood out. He could’ve easily made photos with clear skies and people posing at the camera, but he knew he could do better. He waited for the cloudy skies to arrive and for the people to get used to the panels. This resulted in more impactful and emotional images. 
 
The best photographer visualises an ideal image in their mind and then waits until the conditions align with it. The bad photographer takes a picture without much thought and then moves on. 
 
BREAKING: Jacob J. Watson-Howland Triumphs in British Wildlife Photography Awards, Beating 13,000 Entries (Featured on BBC)
​

​Learn More: https://www.jacobwatsonhowland.com/winning-image.html 
 
 
CREATE NEW STRENGTHS FROM OLD WEAKNESSES
 
How did Brandt choose which images to turn into panels? He was resourceful:
 
‘Each of those [images] featured in the panels was originally unused’
 
The chosen images were ‘A number of the photos that originally I had felt were flawed… now placed within the context of each very different setting, the portraits original weakness are transformed into a strength.’ 
 
An example of this is his image of a chimp looking down at a sewage-filled stream. Brandt says, ‘I had rejected the original portrait because I had hoped for more of a connection with the chimp. But here in the alleyway location, with his head bowed, he appears, in my mind, to be lamenting with the loss of the world he once knew, and the denuded world that is now there in its place.’

(Above) Credit/Copyright: Nick Brandt, Inherit the Dust, ​amzn.to/3Xmz0Oy
 
This is an example of the resourcefulness that is found among history’s greatest people. It’s like alchemy. Turning almost unusable things into something great. Nick could’ve easily discarded these old images. He had no idea he’d use them 10 years later. Turning old ‘weak’ images into a whole new body of fine art is what helps Brandt stand out as one of the world’s best.
 
Outlier photographers don’t just work on their strengths. They also focus on their weaknesses. They always try and make their new project better than the previous one. This mindset makes you self-critical of your work. In the short term, it may seem pessimistic, but in the long-term high standards will result in constant improvement of your craft. That’s if you have consistency– a necessity for anyone who wants to become a great themselves. 
 
 
PREP WELL. 
 
To erect huge life-sized panels across East Africa unsurprisingly required a lot of preparation. For the images to work, the locations had to be specific. This resulted in 9 months of scouting out different places across Africa before Nick travelled to shoot there. During this time, he went through old images to choose the best ones. He also tested images on panels (as large as 10x7 metres) in his garden before leaving for Africa 
 
Nick even travelled around the locations with miniature prints of all the ‘panelled’ animal images, so he could hold them up and work out where they would fit in the landscapes.  
 
 
In short, the important thing Nick did was he did a sh*t load of prep! Without all this planning, the images wouldn’t be half as good. They succeeded because he had a clear plan from the beginning:

 
‘My plan had always been that throughout the series the animals in the panels would effectively be ghosts in the landscape… the people now living within these landscapes would be oblivious to the presence of the animals that used to live there.’
 
Like David Yarrow, one of the best-selling photographers in the world right now, said in last week’s episode: ‘Research is the platform for everything I do’. 
 
The best photographers are the ones who research the most before shooting.
 
 
NICK BRANDT’S TECHNIQUE
 
I don’t tend to write about what specific gear the best photographers use. I believe in the ethos that the camera is the tool that expresses the vision in our mind’s eye (read episode 1 on Ansel Adams for more on that). However, Nick Brandt’s method of creation is unique. 
 
Brandt still uses analogue/film. He only uses digital in post-production to stitch multiple images together to create one panorama in Photoshop. He’s the first to admit it can be a headache: ‘I was stuck in East Africa on a 3-month shoot, with no way of processing the film and printing contact sheet of the negatives within 3,000 miles. There was no way of knowing whether it would come together until months later, when back home 9000 miles away.’
 
I’ve noticed a consistent pattern in every image he created for this project. An obvious one mentioned by the photographer himself is the presence of ‘skies imported from Northern Europe’. Cloudy skies are seldom present in East Africa, but Brandt patiently waits for the dramatic storm clouds to roll in. This adds an element of apocalypse to the images, a layer of drama. 
 
It also creates a specific kind of flat light that Brandt loves: ‘There are many, many types of flat light, and there is one that for me, has just the right indefinable emotional quality’. 
 
You know you’re a master of photography when you can distinguish between different types of flat light!
 
Another technique he uses is to shoot at waist height. Like David Yarrow in the last episode, he uses a low perspective to make his subjects look more powerful. This is the technique I used when creating my image of a Highland Cow in front of a Scottish Castle, AWE (2025)

​AWE, Loch Awe, Scotland, 2025
 
I got low by lying on my back and shot against cloudy skies. It creates a more dramatic feel. These are techniques I’ll be using for the rest of my career. 

For 1/1 Super Limited Edition Print Enquiries, visit:
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A MASTER OF COMPOSITION
 
Upon ‘reading’ his images, a key pattern I noticed was his masterful composition. He made massive panoramas, which resulted in a lot of context in the image, like humans walking by and buildings. This amount of context could’ve easily created a messy, busy and unconnected frame. Brandt did a few simple (but genius) things to avoid this. 
 
Every single main ‘plate’ image in the book is two separate compositions in one. One part of the image is the life-sized photographic panel of an animal. It tends to be close-up and near the foreground. The other part of the image is the surrounding context of the landscape where the animals used to roam, replaced now by humans and industry. Brandt used a simple technique to connect these two and create a balanced plate…
 
Leading lines. 
 
Every image contains a leading line that starts in the foreground and leads your eye through the image to the animal and surrounding context. Whether it’s a factory pipeline or a sewage-infested stream, Brandt composes the image in a way that draws the eye through the entire frame. The image never feels too loose. 
 
If there are no leading lines, like in my image AWE (above), it can be very effective to make the foreground (space between the subject and the bottom of the frame) tight. This ensures interest right away. A tight foreground catches viewers attention. 

(Above) Credit/Copyright: Nick Brandt, Inherit the Dust, ​amzn.to/3Xmz0Oy
 
DO IT FOR YOU, PHOTOGRAPH THINGS YOU ENJOY
 
‘First of all, I take photographs purely for myself. It’s never for other people. I think that’s a road to artistic mediocrity.’ 
 
He elaborates, ‘You should just take what obsesses you and then, along the way, if other people respond, that’s great. I’ve been very lucky in my career so far that people have responded and I’ve been able to make a living from taking photographs that are just completely for me.’
 
‘However, as, clichéd and corny as it sounds, I want to make the world a better place. I want people to see the photographs, see the original work, and see the animals as sentient creatures that are equally worthy of life’
 
You can tell Brandt is an artist just from these words. Whether it be their interests (for Brandt it’s East African wildlife), their emotions, the way they view the world, or all three, the best photographers express a part of themselves in their photos.
 
Do it for you. If we don’t make art we enjoy, how could we expect others to enjoy it?
 
 
PHOTOGRAPH THE WAY YOU WANT TO 
 
On being asked why he still shoots film:
 
‘Because film just turns me on’. 
 
And that is where I’ll leave it. I highly recommend Inherit the Dust if you want to make a career as a successful photographer and creator of any art. If you buy the book using the link below, you’ll be supporting the show at no extra cost to you. Thank you for reading and I’ll see you again next week. 
 
Jacob J. Watson-Howland

​Read the book yourself below. If you buy the book using the link below, you’ll be supporting me at no extra cost to you. 
 
 
Nick Brandt, Inherit the Dust, ​amzn.to/3Xmz0Oy
 
 
BREAKING: Jacob J. Watson-Howland Triumphs in British Wildlife Photography Awards, Beating 13,000 Entries (Featured on BBC)
 
Learn More: https://www.jacobwatsonhowland.com/winning-image.html 
 
 
Listen to win at photography (podcast):
 
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watson-howland/id1801532830
 
Other books to read before you die
 
https://www.jacobwatsonhowland.com/best-photography-business-books.html
 
 
View my best limited-edition prints
 
https://www.jacobwatsonhowland.com/featured-fine-art-photography-prints.html
 
Check out last week’s episode if you want to improve your photography and art. 
 
https://www.jacobwatsonhowland.com/fine-art-photography-blog/previous/2
 
 
What’s in my camera bag?
 
https://www.jacobwatsonhowland.com/pro-photography-camera-gear.html
 
 
Instagram– keep updated for future episodes. 
 
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All quotes extracted from Nick Brandt's Inherit the Dust and Amateur Photographers Interview with Nick Brandt. 

https://amateurphotographer.com/technique/interviews/nick-brandt-interview-lost-world/