Entry #3 - 07/04/2024
Begin your Wildlife Photography journey
Where do you begin? 5 beginner rules and tips
Birds, mammals, insects, or various animals must have piqued your curiosity for you to be reading this article. Whether you’d like to document their life, take aesthetic pictures, or simply have fun with your camera, there are a few things you need to know and consider if you want your pictures to be above average. I tried to keep this short and sweet to give you my 5 best tips to begin your wildlife photography journey.
If you like this blog post or have any questions or suggestions, please let me know by sending me a message via the form below! Now, let’s jump into our first tip:
1. Start without the camera
Mmmh, okay? Stay with me…
Whether you’re planning on taking pictures with a phone or a camera, I’d recommend actually starting your wildlife photography journey without it. This way, you’ll be able to observe the environment you’ll be taking pictures in. Observation is one of the pillars of wildlife photography, and to be a great wildlife photographer, you have to get to “know” your subjects.
First, which animal (or insect, etc.) do you want to take pictures of? Where does it live? When does it come out? How close can you get to it? Can you spot it from the sound it makes? It can be tempting to go for a walk with your camera and “see what you find”, but more often than not, you won’t be prepared to get THE shot if you don’t know which animal you’re going for and how it behaves.
Before you take any pictures, get familiar with the environment you want to experiment with. If you’re into birds, go for a walk at your local park and look for them in the trees, on lamposts, on the ground etc. Notice what time of the day they’re the most active and how they behave. Are they scared of you? Do they barely notice you? This will influence how you go about taking pictures of them later on.
2. Be patient
Great wildlife photography requires patience. Just like you need to take the time to observe your subjects, you need time to photograph them. You could also be lucky and get the perfect shot immediately, but chances are this will take a little practice.
Don’t let the initial frustration get to you when birds fly away or when animals don’t behave the way you wanted them to for your picture. After all, you’re only a guest in their environment and they’re the ones leading the photoshoot, not the other way around. This takes me to the next tip:
3. Respect the environment
When you’re taking wildlife photos, you’re doing so on their conditions. Your goal isn’t to control the animal’s behaviour or influence it for the picture, although this can be tempting if you want to get a particular shot.
It may sound obvious, but if it were, we wouldn’t need to mention it: take your rubbish and waste with you when you leave a photography spot (or anywhere else!), try and avoid interfering with the wildlife by feeding them to get closer or to be able to touch them.
This is also tempting for many, but will disturb the ecosystem in the long term or even endanger some species which will then rely on you for food and lose their natural instincts.
4. Know your gear
Whether you’re shooting with a phone or a camera, it’s always best to learn and become comfortable with its settings first. It might (it will) save you some frustration when you’re editing pictures and realise some have too much grain, are overexposed or even out of focus. You can get to know your device by watching videos and tutorials online and by experimenting from home: open the window and look for birds, go out in your garden, experiment with your surroundings.
If you have a camera, the Manual (M) mode is your best friend for wildlife photography. I know it sounds scary to get off the very comfortable (and sometimes reliable) Auto mode, but you’ll have more creative control over the final result by playing with the aperture and the shutter speed. To put it (very) shortly, the wider the aperture, the blurrier the background, and the quicker the shutter speed, the sharper the picture. You can of course play around with these settings depending on the result you wish to achieve.
5. Experiment with composition
Your gear and/or skills might enable you to take super sharp pictures, but if the composition is off, the picture won’t actually be considered a good one. For example, if the background is too crowded, or if your picture lacks symmetry and balance.
Of course, some of the greatest wildlife pictures ever taken go against the main rules of photography, but they’re taken by professionals who know how to break these rules and still make the image work.
At the beginning of your journey, you want to focus on these main points:
※ the rule of thirds (this will ensure balance in your pictures)
※ focal length and aperture (this will help you achieve different results including beautiful blurry backgrounds, bokehs or layers depending on your subject)
※ balance, pattern (with or without interruption)
※ symmetry or intentional asymmetry (this will help you pick how many animals you want in the same picture, what position do you want them in, how close, etc.)
※ contrast vs blend in (depending on which animal, environment and settings you’re shooting with)
In a nutshell...
Great wildlife photography is the result of patience and observation. Of course, practice also makes a difference, but the number of pictures taken doesn’t always reflect the skills. The more you get to know your subjects and environment, the better you’ll get at taking pictures, and composition will come naturally.
Bonus tip: Trust yourself and your skills
It’s easy to compare your work and your journey with that of other photographers, especially at the beginning. You can still do so, but in a constructive way. No more “wow, they take such great pictures, I’ll never be able to take pictures like this…” Once you start seeing all these talented photographers as inspiration and use your own work as a means of comparison to reflect on where you’d like to improve, your pictures will start to change and you’ll notice how much you’re actually improving.
Thank you :)
I hope this blog entry was informative. There’s more to come on this blog about wildlife photography, and I’ll be going into more details about camera settings, how to choose your subjects and how to compose a great picture.
Let me know via the form below what you thought about this article and if you’d like to read more!
Feel free to include any suggestions or ideas of what you’d like to learn about. Thanks a lot!
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