📸 Wilderness in the City: How I Remove Urban Clutter from My Wildlife Photography

One of my biggest struggles living in Phoenix—besides the fact that it’ll hit 115°F next week—is keeping man-made structures out of my wildlife photos.

I’m a wilderness guy at heart. A country boy, if you will. City living isn’t my natural habitat, and my wife and I are seriously considering a move to somewhere more rural. But for now, I’m based in the 10th largest city in the U.S. (and 22nd in the world), which means power lines, street lamps, casinos, and golf nets are part of the daily backdrop. As a wildlife photographer, that’s a constant challenge.

Yet even in the urban sprawl, nature finds a way—and so do I.

Strategy #1: Get Low, Shoot Up

One of my go-to techniques is deceptively simple: I get low and shoot upward.

In the photo above, my camera is positioned below the subject—a burrowing owl—with a zoom lens compressing the scene and pulling distant mountains into the frame. What you don’t see? A casino just three miles behind the owl. And a five-story golf safety net. All of it blocked by a slight rise in the terrain, just inches higher than my lens.

From the viewer’s perspective, it looks like I’m deep in the wilderness. That’s the magic of perspective and compression.

Strategy #2: Get Intimate with Your Subject

When photographing smaller animals, I double down: I get low and zoom in tight.

Shrubs, grasses, and desert flora become natural camouflage, obscuring the urban chaos behind them. A long lens creates a narrow tunnel of vision, isolating the subject and eliminating distractions. It’s a trick that makes a city park feel like a national preserve.

This approach doesn’t just clean up the frame—it builds intimacy. You’re not just observing wildlife; you’re entering its world.

Final Thought: The City Has Wildlife—You Don’t Have to Show the City

Urban wildlife photography is about selective storytelling. Phoenix may be a concrete jungle, but it’s also home to burrowing owls, jackrabbits, and desert flora that thrive in the margins.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. You don’t have to move to the backcountry to capture wild beauty—you just have to know how to hide the city behind it.