Wildlife Photography

If you’ve ever tried photographing your pets, you can probably attest to the fact that wildlife photography is a whole different genre. Anyone can photograph a flower or a house, but taking pictures of animals—animals with a mind of their own and a strange aversion to the camera—requires not just skill, but lots of time, patience, and failed attempts.

So how to the National Geographic people do it? How do you make wildlife bow to your bidding and give you that perfect photograph?

First on the list, of course, is practice. There’ll always be wildlife to photograph, but if you don’t practice, your skills aren’t going anywhere. Here are ten other tips to help you take better wildlife photographs.

1. Always be ready. As you’ve probably learned, you can’t set up your dog and make him do tricks for the camera. Your only choice is to wait, and be ready for when he does do something of interest. Always keeping your camera on—it’s not very efficient, but if you miss that crucial moment by one second, you’ll still be talking about it five years later.

2. Stoop to your subject. A typical amateur would stand over the animal, camera pointing down, and press the shutter. What’s wrong with this position is that it limits you to a top view shot where you can’t even see the face of your subject. Don’t be afraid to crouch, crawl, and get dirty to get the right point of view. It’ll give you a fuller view and a more interesting composition.

3. Let them play. The best wildlife shots are taken when the animals are in action: running, grabbing their prey, playing in the grass, doing whatever they do best. Moving animals tend to come out blurred, so make sure you set a fast shutter speed and compensate with a larger aperture (lens opening).

4. Use natural light. Try to shoot outdoors in bright daylight, so you don’t have to use your flash. The flash can surprise your subject and scare them into hiding. The best time to photograph is usually 2 pm when the sun is high and at an angle, and the last couple of hours before sunset, when the light is most flattering.

5. Shoot from various angles. Ditch the usual portrait shot and get creative with your angles. Sometimes just tilting your camera a few degrees will put your subject in a whole new perspective. If your background is a landscape, for example, tilt your camera so that the horizon forms a diagonal line behind your subject.

6. Invest in good gear. While photographic skill is important, you’re still largely limited by what your camera allows you to do. This is especially true with wildlife photography. If you want to be serious about it, invest in a high-resolution camera with a good zoom lens (most of your shots will be taken from afar). As you go along, you’ll also need a tripod, lenses, timer, and a variety of filters.

7. Learn manual focus. The autofocus feature works well for family portraits, but not for animals in the wild. You have to guide the camera to your subject. Often, a branch or leaf will stand between you and your subject, and the autofocus will capture it instead. Play around with your camera and see which settings work in each situation.

8. Keep it sharp. If you don’t have a tripod, you’ll need a very steady hand to take decent wildlife pictures. Keep your images sharp by carrying one around whenever you shoot. Look for a sturdy all-aluminum one—you’ll be shooting in all kinds of weather, and you want something that’s up to the challenge. If you’re shooting by hand, practice pressing the shutter lightly to prevent shaking.

9. Respect your subject. Animals like their privacy just as much as you do. Try to shoot as quietly as possible and don’t scare them out of their homes. With most species, you’ll have to keep your distance—get too close and they’ll either run away or attack. Feel around for the safe shooting distance for every subject.

10. Take LOTS of pictures. Not even the best photographers will get it right every time. It’s not common for your first ten or even hundred shots to turn out bad. After all, it’s your subject controlling the shoot, not you. Just keep shooting until you get it right.