Everything about Wildlife Photography

Low light wildlife photography can be challenging but also very rewarding. Capturing animals in their natural habitat in low light conditions can often produce stunning results.

There are a few things to remember when photographing wildlife in low light, such as using a fast shutter speed to prevent blur and choosing an appropriate ISO setting to avoid graininess. A tripod can also help keep your camera steady.

Night wildlife photography is the process of photographing animals in their natural habitats during the night.

There are a few things to keep in mind when photographing wildlife at night. First, you will need to use a higher ISO setting on your camera to compensate for the lack of light. Second, you will likely need to use a slower shutter speed which could result in blurry images depending on how much movement there is in the scene.

Finally, it is crucial to be aware of your surroundings and ensure you do not disturb the animals you are trying to photograph. While using a flash is possible with some wildlife, doing your research and being aware of when flash can be used safely is an important part of night wildlife photography.

Low key wildlife photography is a type of photography that emphasizes the dark tones and shadows in an image. This style of photography can be used to create striking, moody images of animals and nature scenes. To create a low key image, photographers typically underexpose the image slightly to bring out the shadows. They may also use special lighting techniques, such as backlighting or side lighting, to create more contrast in the image.

Black and white photography can create some stunning images of wildlife. By removing the color from an image, the photographer can emphasize the subject’s shapes, lines, and textures. 

This type of photography can also help to create a feeling of mood or atmosphere in an image.One of the great things about black and white photography is that it can be used to photograph just about any subject. Especially when photographing animals in the wild, black and white can help to create a beautiful and evocative image.

As the name suggests, wide angle wildlife photography uses wide angle lenses to document animals in their environment.

Wide angle lenses have a focal length of 35mm or less. This allows the photographer to capture a much wider field of view than possible with a standard or telephoto lens.

Wide angle lenses are particularly well suited to photographing animals in their natural habitat, as they allow the photographer to include more of the animal’s surroundings in the frame.

Macro wildlife photography is a type of photography that captures close-up images of animals and insects. This type of photography requires a special lens that can magnify the subject matter. 

Macro wildlife photographers often use natural light to illuminate their subjects, which results in stunningly detailed images. You can also use a ring light mounted to the front of your lens to illuminate your tiny subject.

Telephoto lenses are long focus lenses that allow the photographer to zoom in on their subject while maintaining a distance from the wildlife.

This is beneficial for wildlife photography as it allows the photographer to capture close-up photos of animals without disturbing them or getting too close for comfort.

Telephoto lenses come in a variety of different focal lengths, which is the measure of how much the lens can magnify an image. The longer the focal length, the more zoomed in the image will be.

Minimalist wildlife photography is all about capturing the essence of animals with as few elements as possible. 

This type of photography can be incredibly challenging, requiring you to understand the animal’s behavior and movements deeply. But when done correctly, minimalist wildlife images can be stunningly beautiful.

Wildlife bird photography is a type of photography that focuses on capturing images of birds in their natural habitat. It can be both a challenging and rewarding form of photography, requiring patience and skill to get the perfect shot.

Wildlife bird photography often takes place in remote or difficult-to-access locations, making it logistically challenging. With the right equipment and approach, however, wildlife bird photography can result in some truly stunning images.

With the growth of cities and the consequent increase in the number of people living in close proximity to wildlife, there has been a corresponding rise in the popularity of urban wildlife photography.

Urban wildlife photography captures images of animals living in or near human settlements. This can include anything from squirrels and birds in city parks to deer in suburban backyards.

Wildlife photography is shot almost exclusively outdoors. Because of this, the quality and mood of your images are very dependent on the time of day and weather conditions. 

For instance, shooting on a sunny day in the middle of the day will present some lighting challenges like potentially overexposed images or hard light and shadows. Alternatively, shooting at twilight might not provide enough light to get a sharp image of the wildlife. Having said that, in some instances, you might want to achieve a moody aesthetic for your image. Golden hour or magic hour tends to be a preferred time for many photographers, but regardless, having a plan going into your photoshoot will help you determine which time of day is best.

As you gain more experience, you’ll likely feel more confident with wildlife photography composition, but one of the most important composition techniques we like to remind aspiring photographers of is the rule of thirds.

To put it simply, the rule of thirds will ensure your subject is not directly in the middle of the image, but is instead in the left or right third of the image, leaving the other two-thirds more open. 

That being said, there are no specific rules to follow. Let yourself experiment with different types of composition and break away from some of the traditional practices.

Using a flash in wildlife photography can be controversial because of the chance that the bright light disturbs the natural wildlife in the area. At the same time, though, a flash can be necessary when trying to bring life to a dull scene. It can also give you the freedom to create some really dynamic wildlife images.

For instance, you could use a fill flash as a great alternative that selectively brightens the subject. You could also use flash to backlight or sidelight your subject to make your images more striking.

You might be lucky enough to snap a winning shot that wasn’t carefully planned, but in general, with wildlife photography, photographers become intimately familiar with their subject. This is especially true when photographing animals.

Remember, animals can be unpredictable in terms of their movement and behaviors. The more familiar you are, the more likely it is that you’ll be able to anticipate the scene prior to it happening.

Wildlife photography requires you to be out in the wilderness, and that means you need to have equipment that can work in a variety of conditions (i.e. weatherproofing, a gear bag that can carry large loads of equipment during a hike, etc.)

In addition, if you want to capture quick-moving objects like animals, you will need to have a camera and a lens that have the capability to handle high ISO settings and fast shutter speeds to minimize the amount of noise and blur in the images. We’ll go over some more specific equipment recommendations in the next section. 

Wildlife photography takes patience, and a whole lot of it. When you’re working with wildlife there is very little that you’re in control of. You can’t pose or direct your subjects, your subject to the weather conditions and there are so many other factors that come into play. Be ready to put in time waiting for the right moment to present itself. When you do come across a photo-worthy scene you might be tempted to get in there and start shooting right away. But remember, the sound of the shutter can be quite loud when you’re out in the wilderness. More often than not, this will cause the animals to scatter, which means you could lose your scene before you even had the chance to set it up. Use a silent shutter mode if your camera has that capability. Be patient and you’ll be rewarded.

When shooting wildlife, you should always expect things not to go as planned. Whether it be poor weather conditions, animals in hiding, or hiking conditions that prevent you from reaching your shoot location, you need to have a backup plan ready to go. Alternatively, simply accepting that it might take longer than anticipated to get your shot is wise.

Because wildlife photography can be so unpredictable, knowing your settings can be extremely beneficial for wildlife photographers. For instance, if you’ve been waiting all day for a pack of lions to show up, you need to be ready to shoot when the opportunity finally does present itself. Consider then, that as soon as the lions arrive the clouds break and the sun is streaming down. You’ll need to quickly change your exposure settings to get the best shot of the pride before they move along.

In general, a faster shutter speed will help freeze the motion of the animals. In addition, aperture priority might help you. And lastly, a mid-range ISO is generally best for wildlife imagery.

Never assume that you’ve captured your perfect shot. With wildlife photography, because of the unpredictability, you never know what you’re going to get. Put your camera down for a moment and there’s a chance you’ll miss a winning shot. Instead, we recommend taking short burst images.

And lastly, as a wildlife photographer, it is extremely important that you respect the wildlife. In other words, we urge you to be mindful of how your presence impacts the wildlife around you. Some general rules of thumb include observing from a distance, never feeding the animals, storing garbage securely, and avoiding wildlife during sensitive times (i.e. mating, nesting, or when with young animals).