Wildlife photography has been gaining steady popularity in the recent past, with an increasing number of lensmen looking to make it big in the genre. The road to excellence, however, calls for some keen navigation. The key challenge faced by wildlife photographers is making their subjects communicate with the audience. That is one of the reasons why it is advisable for budding photographers to make the most of wildlife photography workshops and photography classes for beginners to get acquainted with various skills, tips, and tools of the trade. To help you get started, let’s look at five useful wildlife photography tips. Read on.

Know Thy Gear

When it comes to wildlife photography, you always have to be on your feet to ensure that you do not miss any moment that may carry your next masterpiece. With most breathtaking moments in the wild lasting for no more than a few seconds, the ability to act swiftly is indispensable. It is, therefore, important to be thoroughly familiar with your photography gear. Thanks to the digital revolution, there is no dearth of information on how to get the best out of your different photography gear equipment.

Cover All Basics

Whether you shoot on snow-clad mountains or thick jungles, photography basics, such as the rule of thirds and exposure triangle, can go a long way in helping you manifest your creative genius. Wildlife photography requires you to establish a real connection with subjects and capture the soul of the wildlife. Though the task may sound largely based on imagination and creativity, getting the technical bits in place will surely help you achieve your objectives with much more ease. In fact, staying thorough with photography basics also gives you the liberty to break certain rules and capture stunning stills, whenever feasible.

Understand Your Subjects

Wildlife photography is all about capturing enigmatic moments, amazing poses, and unconventional arrangements that may never be seen again. Needless to say, you can only capture such moments when you get thoroughly acquainted with the behavior and moods of the wildlife you plan on capturing in your camera. While one cannot be 100 percent accurate when predicting the behavioral patterns of animals, there is still always an underlying pattern or a set of traits that you can identify and use to your advantage.

Make The Sun Your Spotlight

When photographing wildlife, you do not have much scope to alter the lighting to your preference. You will, therefore, be required to use natural lighting to your advantage. Most wildlife photographers prefer to shoot during the golden hour (an hour just after sunrise and an hour just before sunset because of two reasons - one, the diffused warm light during this is time is agreed on by most photographers to be the most flattering, and two, these are the times of the day when most animals are found to be most active. Hence, get up early and stay out late to be able to capture some of the most aesthetically pleasing shots.  

Learn to Exercise Patience

Wildlife photography is not like fashion, wedding or other genres of photography, where you have a great degree of freedom in terms of subject placement, lighting and other aspects. What this means is that you may have to wait for the perfect shot for hours or maybe days. Though you can predict certain behaviors of animals, as stated in a previous section, all that comes into play when you finally spot the animal you want to capture, and that itself may take days to get accomplished. But with enough patience and perseverance, no mountain is too high to climb. Besides, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’!

Wrap Up

Wildlife photography, above all the technicalities involved, is all about finding a unique perspective that can be hard to come by. You must learn all there is to know about your photography gear, have a thorough understanding of photography basics, be familiar with the wildlife you plan to capture, and last but not the least, have a generous amount of patience. If you think you have what it takes to accomplish all of these, Nikon School is the place to be. We regularly conduct wildlife photography classes and wildlife photography workshops, with an aim to inspire and help wildlife photographers expand their technical and creative horizons. To learn more, simply call 1800-102-7346 or fill out our contact form and we will get back to you as soon as possible.