HOW–TO

10 Tips For The Wildlife In Your Life

7 Work to capture animal behavior. As you learn more about wildlife and become more familiar with your equipment, expand your photographic abilities to include animal behavior.

A dynamic image is almost always more interesting than a static image. Try capturing birds taking off or landing. Birds in National Wildlife Refuges are acclimated to cars on the auto tour routes. Look for birds that perch along the roads; they often return to the same roost.

A mother with her young is another great behavior subject. Practice with subjects like these at local zoos and wild animal parks. You can also check with local wildlife rescue facilities to see if they offer photo sessions.

8 Develop the right ethical approach; you’ll become a better wildlife photographer. Too often, we become so excited with the wildlife photo opportunity in front of us, we forget about the welfare of the subject. Never put a wild animal of any kind in a position where its existence is threatened, especially when photographing baby animals or birds at their nests.

Never freeze or refrigerate an insect, reptile or small animal to make it more “manageable.” You could permanently harm the subject, and all you get is a picture of a frozen animal.

9 Understand the direction of light. Light has directional characteristics a wildlife photographer can utilize. From an exposure standpoint, frontal lighting illuminates an animal’s face evenly and completely.

If an animal is facing you, side lighting lights one side of the animal’s face while the other side is in dark shadow—a potential exposure problem even with fill-flash. Unfortunately, frontal light can be flat, while side lighting creates depth, so there are always trade-offs.

Back lighting falls on your subject from behind it. You’re shooting into the sun, so exposure can be tricky, and you need to watch for lens flare, but the resulting image, usually silhouetted or with rim light, is often striking. For exposure, meter the sky away from the sun, lock in your exposure reading, recompose on the subject and shoot.

10 Now go out and have some fun! Rules are meant to be broken, and while there’s no magic formula for creating stunning images, if you keep these basic suggestions in mind, you’ll be able to develop your photographic skills and have a great time doing it.

Besides, the wildlife might enjoy watching you as much as you enjoy watching them. They might even employ some of your camouflage techniques to study you in secret.

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