Wildlife Photography Top Ten Tips

Blog article – Wildlife top ten tips

Wildlife and landscape photography will always hold a special place in my heart; I spent many of my teenage years exploring our rich, diverse country, trying to unravel nature’s enigma. Countless, dedicated hours have been put into wildlife photography and through that I have some wonderful memories and images to go with them.  I hope you enjoy.

To view more of my wildlife and landscape photography visit www.leedanielsphotography.com

Here are my top ten wildlife tips

1. Dedication – Without dedication to anything you are not going to succeed to a greater level. I’ve put many hours into wildlife photography, mainly early mornings. Getting up at 4am is normal. Putting yourself outside your comfort zone is half the battle with nature photography, put the time and dedication in and you’ll get your reward.

The Gorilla image was taken in Rwanda, I took it upon myself to go to Africa and put myself in a position to photograph these magical animals, and it remains to this day, one of my nature all time highlights.

The photo of a kingfisher required months of planning, I hammered in my post some 3 months back, then attended the same spot on most sunny mornings, wrapped in camouflage awaiting its arrival and sure enough, after a long wait it landed.

This photograph of a fox is my most prized photographed, solely down to the amount of effort and time it took to capture the image. It took endless early mornings studding the fox’s habitual movements and then, one August, Saturday morning it paid off, I remember it well and always will.   

2. Patience – Patience seems such and obvious tip, but forget it and you won’t ever capture that dream image. Nature is wild, most of the time it’s not obliging, nor is it conspicuous. You have to be prepared to wait and gain the trust of nature. Trust is not given, it is earned. 

These little ducklings in Docking Norfolk were always on the move. Waiting for one to look directly at the camera in the position I wanted proved to be more difficult than anticipated.

This photograph of a young pine marten took all my wit and patience. I had pre-planned this image in my head and luckily the pine marten read my thoughts.

3. Early mornings – Early mornings are one of the best times to get out looking for nature, especially in the spring and summer months. The lack of people makes it easier to spot and track wildlife. You also have the beautiful morning light to your advantage. If you are using a hide, being in position before sunrise can be critical to your success. 

This photograph of the  impala was taken in Kenya. In the cool of morning the game drive was particularly productive. Great light, great action and plenty to photograph.

This simple but striking image of a swan was taken one early morning in April. Mist forms in the early hours of day break, creating a wonderful atmosphere that you don’t get any other time of day.

4. Lighting – Lighting is one of the most important factors of photography, controlling it and using it to your advantage is the testing part. The majority of the time you have to use the light that is being provided. Checking weather forecasts and planning in advance is a good idea if you are looking for a particular type of lighting. For example misty conditions, snow or clear skies.

Lighting is a vast subject, but I will highlight the key points I look out for. They are the type, direction and the intensity of light. 

I refer to the type as being the lighting condition for example overcast, sunny, dull or bright. The direction being whether the light source is behind, in front, all around or at the side of your subject. The intensity being how harsh or soft the light source is.

For instance, wildlife images that bring out all the intended features and outlines of an animal, an overcast sky with a diffused intensity will produce pleasing results.

On the other hand this baby dolphin and its mother taken at the Moray Firth in Scotland was shot during the late evening, the light was directly behind me adopting its accustomed orange glow and the intensity was hard and direct, which in turn made the dolphin and blue see glow. When moving directly behind this type of light be careful of your own shadow intruding on the image, stand to one side or take up a lower position.

When photographing deer in their rutting season, the autumn light is just fabulous and you also tend to get misty conditions. For this photo I wanted to capture a rim lighting effect, so the sun was in front of me, but behind the subject, almost directly.

In the Rwandan hills it was a dull and overcast day, this created an extra dramatic lighting effect. The light was soft and diffused. I managed to capture this young gorilla climbing which created lovely form and shape to the subject.  

Harsh lighting provides the opportunity to create some silhouetted effects. Normally your subject is cast in shadow. This image of the Gannets was taken at Bempton cliffs, the bright sea and an under-exposure of 1.5 stops made this image.

To capture this photograph of the swan I had to gallop about 200 metres to catch up with it, I saw the potential and managed to frame it perfectly.   

Again this red deer stag was taken at Bradgate Park. I wanted to create an unusual image so I used the harsh light to create a very atmospheric scene. Positioning was crucial.

5. Knowing your subject – Knowing your subject is a vital part of your planning. Study the species habits, tolerances and behaviour. This, in the long run will work in your favour. I like to think I know a good deal about otter behaviour, especially on the Isle of Mull, West Scotland. The costal patterns of the sea’s tide dictate the otters behaviour, so I make sure I know the tide times. Once the otters are found I apply various tactics depending on the scenario. Keep low and moving slow when the otter is under the water is a good idea. Always be respectful of the animals personal space and boundaries, the last thing you want to do is disturb the animal and create distruption.  

These cubs where photographed on the Isle of Mull, after hours of patient  progression I got close enough for some intimate images, on these occasion I was truly excepted into their circle of trust and the mothers.

Knowing the barn owls habitual movements allowed me to capture this image. I was in place and hidden in shadow, awaiting its arrival. I held off firing frames until the last minute, taking the photograph any earlier would have scared the barn owl off.

6. Creative viewpoints – Using creative angles and viewpoints in your photographs will make them stand out from the norm. Use high and low viewpoints to exaggerate expression and dominance.  Leaving dead space in the image also works well, lead the viewers’ eye into the photo and work with space, you don’t always have to fill the frame.  Dead space also allows the advantage of showing the habitat of the animal as well.

This photo of the deer stag also brings in a feel of the environment and habitat.

I intentionally left some dead space in this image of the Malachite Kingfisher, it leads your eye away from the image.

I adopted a low viewpoint for this Dunlin photograph. I was lying on my front using a bean-bag for support. I spotted a small group of Dunlin working their way along the cost, so I positioned myself way in front of them, hoping not to disturb them. Eventually they came right in front of my lens.

For this cormorant image I used a higher viewpoint and twisted the camera slightly.

7. Seasons – Taking note of the constant changing seasons is a vital element of wildlife photography. Find out migratory routes, breeding seasons, courting display times, when young are born and sanctuaries in leaner months that animals use.

Puffins arrive on land to breed and bare their young in the summer months, beginning in June. The Farne Islands is a great place to witness this spectacular event. June and July are the best times to go.

Grey Seal pups are born in November, Donna Nook is one of the best places in Britain to view these cute little pups.

Jellyfish are abundant on the Isle of Mull in the summer months where the congregate close to shore

8. Anticipation – Being able to anticipate an action, response, or a certain behaviour of the animal your photographing is a hard skill to learn, it takes time to acquire this attribute. But when mastered, reading the animal and making a precise judgement before the action occurs is priceless. 

Make note of previous behaviour of the species, concentrate on individuals to single out their character and tolerances. Think ahead of time and the faster you can plan ahead the better, put yourself in the animals mind and try and predict what it might be thinking, become in touch with your animal instincts.

This image of the jumping lamb was a spontaneous judgement, I saw them frolicking beneath the wall, and pre-anticipated what I thought might happen; this image was lucid in my mind before it came to light.

On the Masi Mara a pair of lionesses had just undergone an unsuccessful hunt on a family of warthogs, taking note of her distaste I stuck with her expression, until finally she glanced down my lens and gave me an almighty growl.

Trying to photograph dolphins in the Moray Firth is quite a challenge, anticipating their leaps is sometimes more luck than judgement, but it pays to be on the ball, trying to predict when they will make their exquisite breaches is best achieved by following their course under water and panning with the camera at the spot you think they might pierce the sea, understandably you disregard more images than you keep.

9. Camera Settings – Knowing your way around the camera is just one less thing to think about and that way you can concentrate more on the subject. Points to remember are,

- Is the ISO setting correct for the light level?

- Focal length too far, close, do you need a converter?

- Check the shutter speed isn’t too slow, will it capture action

- Select correct DOF, I normally stick to F5.6, F6.3

- Colour balance set

- Use of AV mode it is easily and quickly adjusted to suit various settings

- Under or over exposure to suit scenario

- Stabilization tripod or bean bag

- Focus points

The image of this Dragon fly was taken using a fast lens and a fast shutter speed to capture the image frozen. I had the centre focus point aimed on the tip of the dragon fly. I needed a fast shutter speed and shallow DOF

 These white tailed sea eagles were taken on the Isle of Skye, I needed to make sure I had a fast shutter speed, correct iso and good panning technique.

10. Action and expression – People want to see action whether it be fighting, playing or feeding, they also want to see the animal with some kind of expression, funny, cute, pensive etc.

Be on the look out to capture these traits. All what I have mentioned previous will aid in this.

This image of the swans was captured by recognizing the tension between them, inevitably, I knew they would take off at some point.

Lion cubs playing on the mara, lovely engaging behaviour

This Gorilla expression give me the impression that its in a content, peaceful frame of mind in a world of wonder

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