It’s June already, can you believe it? That means we’ve been back home in Holland for 4 months now from Australia. And we miss the land Down Under every day! Going through my photo’s, I found heaps of amazing Ozzie animal shots, so that’s why this month I’ll be covering wildlife photography!
Every month, I show you some of my own travel photos. For inspiration, but also to give you some quick tips on how to improve your own travel photography.
Into the Wild
I love to encounter wildlife on my travels. I’m not sure if the animals feel the same about me, as they usually try to run in the opposite direction of where I am as fast as they can… But nevertheless, I still manage every now and then to get a couple of them in front of my camera.
Now, first of all I don’t usually set out to go and look for wildlife photography opportunities specifically. The encounters and following shots usually ‘just happen’ with me. That and the fact that I have little patience, talk too much and seem to be a bit to slow sometimes to catch animals right in the action, might not make me the best person to give you advice on wildlife photography. But, for what it’s worth, here are some tips that helped me taking better shots nevertheless:
Basic wildlife photography tips
1. Get to know your camera before you start taking pictures
I don’t have a fancy camera with a massive zoom lens. I have an old Nikon SLR with a 18-200 mm lens. I find this a perfect travel lens, as I don’t have to carry any other lens, don’t have to change them all the time and can still take photos up close and a bit further away. For smaller animals like birds, or animals that are quite far away, you want to be thinking more towards a 300-500 mm zoom lens. Again, I’m not a camera pro, but I’ve figured out how to set my camera to manual focus (essential when trying to catch an animal through foliage, for example) and how to use it in different light situations, working ISO, aperture and shutter speed all together. It’s a few things that are easy to learn that make a big difference.
2. Take lots of shots, from various angles
Don’t feel like you have to get the perfect shot at once. Do you know how many shots a professional photographer takes? Well, I once saw this documentary of a couple that worked for National Geographic. I think they shot about 4000 frames. They only used about 10 of them – and still edited the photo afterwards. So no worries, take your time, take lots of shots and don’t forget to take photos from every angle you can come up with as well to give a bit more variation to your shots. For example, take a portrait shot, one that includes more habitat in context to the animal, another close-up of details, such as face, horse, tails, etc.
3. Don’t put yourself or the animal in danger
Seems obvious, but when you spot that rhino, you might get as excited as these girls I met in Nepal, running towards the -ehm dangerous!- animal armed with cameras to get the best shot. Not so clever, and not quite necessary too (says the girl that was sitting high and safe on an elephants back getting all the good shots, but still…) I rather don’t interfere with the animal in his natural habitat at all when taking a photo, so I keep my distance as much as needed.
4. Focus
If you have a close-up of an animal, try and focus on the eye to make it pop out. If you can get eye contact with the animal, that’s great, as it creates a connection between the animal and the viewer. You really get drawn into the image. It’s almost as if the animal gets it’s own personality that way.
You can also draw focus to the animal by blurring the background, like you would in portrait photography. There is a couple ways of doing this, by a wide aperture for example, but also by trying to get as much distance between the subject and the background.
5. Evoke Emotion
With wildlife photography, you really want to give the viewer an insight into the world of the animal your shooting. One of the best ways to do this is to get on the same level as the animal.
Another thing you can do is by looking for thing around the animal that can help you create emotion, such as the children looking for the penguin in the photo below.
6. Get Close(r)
Now, as I said before, usually as soon as animals notice you, they will take of, but getting as close as possible to an animal (physical or with a zoom lens) gives the image an extra dimension. Try and lie down on the floor to become less noticeable, wear camouflaging clothes, hide behind trees and buildings… or simply look for slower animals to practice on first :)
7. Pay attention to the background
Background in a wildlife shot is all important. If you shoot the animal from a standing position (from above), that means the ground will form the immediate background of your shot. This will only look good if the background adds something to the photo (as the photo below showing the great camouflage of the thorny devil), rather than just being distracting.
If you get low on the ground and shoot the animal from that angle, the background of the shot will be much further away, so you can capture the animal in sharp focus, while blurring out the background. This will isolate the animal and makes it stand out quite well. Another trick, that you can see in the koala shot, is to use the foreground (blurred/soft focus) to add an extra layer onto the photo to create depth when you can’t get the background blurred.
And finally, sometimes the background really helps create a story in your photo, especcialy when it’s unusual (such as the sea/beach being behind the kangaroo) or gives the suggestion your animal is moving (as the winding roads in front of the emu’s in the picture below)
Koala, QLD Australia
Penguin, VIC Australia
Thorny Devil, NT Australia
Kangaroo, NSW Australia
Emu’s, WA Australia
More wildlife photography tips from the experts
Now that you’ve read a bit about the basics of wildlife photography, you might want to get more into it and become a pro. I’ve found these resources for you that can help you create even better pictures of wildlife:
- 5 Big Tips to add Impact and Variety to your Wildlife Images by Piper Mackay on Digital Photography School
- Winter wildlife photography: tips for taking amazing pictures at home by J Meyer on Digital Camera World
- Bird photography tips: how to shoot pin-sharp pictures of birds of prey by J Meyer on Digital Camera World
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Shooting Wildlife (With a Camera) by Robert Caputo on National Geographic
- 10 Tips for Improving Your Wildlife Photography by Morkel Erasmus on Digital Photography School
- Wildlife Photography hints, tips and tutorials on Ophrys Photography
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Get Buggy: Tips for Photographing Insects by Rob Sheppard on National Wildlife Federation
Wildlife photography inspiration
Besides tips, you may just want to look at some amazing wildlife photography, so I’ve looked up the names of ‘s Worlds best wildlife photographers for you. Go and Google them now!
Mattias Klum – Art Wolfe – Marina Cano – Morkel Erasmus - Andy Rouse - Jan Vermeer - Giulio Zanni – Joel Sartore - Klaus Nigge - Brian Hampton - Kudich Zsirmon - Bence Mate - Charles Glatzer - Jim Brandenburg - C.S.Ling - Danny Green - John Hyde - Siddhardha Garige - Mario Moreno - Roselien Raimond - Federico Veronesi - Amir Ayalon - Tim Laman - Kalyan Varma – Edwin Kats - Frits Hoogendijk - Rathika Ramasamy - Werner Bollmann - Nikolai Zinoviev - Brian Skerry - Marsel Van Oosten - Alex Saberi - Jon Cornforth - John Isaac - David Maitland - Cyril Ruoso - Stefano Unterthiner - Denver Bryan - Shah Rogers - Ganesh H Shankar - Daisy Gilardini - Paul Nicklen - Thomas D Mangelsen - Steve Bloom - David Llyod - Paul Souders - Austin Thomas - Michael Nichols - Nick Brandt - Grant Atkinson - Richard Peters - Alexander Mustard - Andrew Parkinson - Hennie van Heerden - Urszula Kozak - Stephen Earle - Roeselien Raimond - Wolf Ademeit - Tom Hadley - Stephen Oachs - Frans Lanting - Laura Dyer - Mark Dumbleton - Susan McConnell…
Do you have a favourite wildlife photographer? Let me know in the comment section! And don’t forget to check out my new travel photo tips every month, or look for more of my travel photos on Instagram too.
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