How Wildlife Photography Changed the Way I See People

It was early morning in the Serengeti. The sun was low in the sky and the savanna felt completely still. I had been sitting quietly, watching a beautiful leopard resting in a tall tree. She wasn’t doing much. Just breathing, blinking and shifting her paw once in a while.

I remember thinking, this is actually enough.

Not because this leopard gave me the perfect shot or because anything dramatic happened. Just being there felt like enough. Sometimes it’s not about getting an amazing image. It’s about the privilege of witnessing something real. That shift changed something in me, not just in wildlife photography but in life too.

Johan Siggesson in the MEDIA

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Over time I’ve come to realise something I didn’t expect when I first started photographing animals in the wild. The hours I’ve spent waiting, watching and listening on safari have slowly changed how I relate to people. The wild has taught me how to see with more patience and probably appreciate simple things in life.

Close contact with rhino on safari in Kenya

Slowing Down

Out there in the field, nothing happens just because you want it to. You sit for hours. Sometimes nothing appears. You learn quickly that forcing anything doesn’t work. So you stop rushing. You watch. You wait. You start to match the pace of the wild instead of trying to push it.

With the risk of sounding like a freak, back home I started to notice the change. I wasn’t so quick to speak. I didn’t rush to fill the silence. I listened more. Not just to the words, but also observing what people do when they don't speak. Just like on safari, being still became part of how I paid attention.

Reading What Isn’t Said

Animals don’t use words, but they’re always communicating. A small flick of the tail, the way their ears shift, the way they pause. Every detail matters when you’re photographing wild animals in the wild. Sometimes what you learn out there helps you when you're back home too.

Letting Go of the Script

In wildlife photography, you don’t get to direct the scene. You can’t ask the lion to turn or the giraffe to look your way. You just show up, stay open, and work with what’s in front of you.

That mindset eventually made its way into how I relate to people. I stopped needing conversations to follow a plan. I let go of trying to shape the outcome. I started meeting people as they were, not as I thought they should be.

Although I still chase the perfect shot when I am on location. I also find value in the simple moments, whether that’s with a subject in the wild or a conversation with someone I care about back home.

Seeing the Quiet Things

Some of my favourite wildlife images aren’t dramatic. They’re small moments. Zebras watching out for each other, A cheetah with her cub staring into the distance or an elephant calf walking beside its mother.

Being a wildlife photographer taught me how much power there is in stillness. That same sense of quiet started to shape how I see people. I notice the ones who don’t speak first. I pay attention to those who hold back. There’s strength in that. And there’s meaning in the kind of moments that are easy to miss.

When people ask about my favourite moments from photographing animals on safari, I often think about the quiet ones. They stay with me longer than the big action scenes.

A New Way of Seeing

When I first picked up a camera to photograph wildlife, I thought I was just learning how to capture animals in their natural space. But what I was really learning was how to observe. How to wait. How to pay attention without expectation.

Those lessons didn’t stay behind in the field. They came home with me. The more time I spend in nature, the more I realise it’s not just about creating animal portraits. It’s about carrying that stillness into the rest of life.

What Stays With Me

I went into the wild to find beauty. I thought it would be loud and obvious. But what I found was quieter than I expected. It was in the long waits, the soft light, the animals that did nothing at all.

Photographing wildlife in Africa and other places around the world has taught me to slow down, appreciate the smaller things and accept failure. It helped me stop chasing and start seeing. That same way of seeing now lives in how I relate to the rest of life.

The animals didn’t just teach me how to take better photographs. They taught me how to be more human.