Practicing Wildlife Photography

Wildlife photography is a notoriously tricky genre of photography to practice because wildlife unlike in other photography genres is unpredictable. It is just not as simple as heading out one day and snapping away. This is not to say other photography genres are easier to learn, they all come with their own challenges however, wildlife if you haven’t learnt already is unpredictable at the best of times…

If this is the case, how do you go about practicing it then?

Step One: Know your camera

The first thing about learning any type of photography is to learn how to use your camera and by this I don’t just mean the on/off and shoot buttons. If you want to get good at any type of photography you need to learn the different settings and modes of your camera so that you can almost shoot without even thinking about it! Similar to when you learn to drive a car and eventually get to a point when you are no longer having to think so hard about gear changes, rather it just begins to happen naturally.

There is only one way to learn how to use your camera and that is (after reading the basic instructions and knowing what the buttons mean) to go out and photograph something with all the different modes and then compare the results for yourself. When I first started experimenting with changing my camera settings I watched a YouTube series by brilliant wildlife photographer Chris Bray, which takes you through all the basic buttons and settings on a camera. You can find that here, I thoroughly recommend watching it yourself as his explanation is better than anything I could offer in this post.

Step Two: Wildlife

Once you know the basic settings and can actually use your camera, you can get started with wildlife… This is easier said than done because most wildlife is extremely elusive and unless you already know where you can find a specific subject it can be hard to practice. Which is why I have two recommendations to get you started with photographing wildlife and learning the basic techniques, as well as what works and what doesn’t work for you: Farm animals and your local park.

Farm animals are a great place to get started! Even though not technically wildlife they are perfect for practicing on because they tend not to run away and are use to humans. If you want to take it one step further though, try and find farm animals that are a bit ‘wilder’ for example highland cows, wild ponies, and goats. There are several populations of these around the UK, so you are sure to be able to find some locally and they make great practice subjects as they look a bit ‘wilder’ than your average dairy cow and they tend to be found in more rural habitats. Always be careful though and remember the wildlife photographer code- respect the wildlife- their welfare comes first no matter what the potential photo opportunity; it is NEVER worth compromising their welfare or habitat.

Another great spot to consider is your local park, particularly if it has a pond as usually that means ducks! A local park is the perfect place to practice because it is most likely that the wildlife living here is very familiar (sometimes overly so) with people, usually as a result of people feeding the ducks. Although, ducks may not be exactly what you had in mind when thinking about wildlife photography they are a great subject to practice on and try out your own techniques to find out what works for you! Plus, everyone loves a good duck photo!  

Step three: Wilder wildlife

Once you’ve done a bit of practice on the local farm and park life, you can start branching out into more wilder species. Although its good to point out here that wildlife photography is not always a forward timeline- you can skip stages, double back, and overlap; even after several years of wildlife photography I still really enjoy visiting my local park to try out new techniques or angles I have been playing with. It’s also fine to branch out or stick with whatever you enjoy, you may find that actually photographing highland cows and feral ponies is exactly what you want to stick to- there’s not a definitive timeline or subject of wildlife these are just examples of species that may be easier to locate and photograph when you first get started!

On the other hand, if you are looking to branch out into other wildlife a good starting point can be insects, which can be particularly good in the summer months when butterflies, dragonflies and bees are more easily available. Insects offer a slightly different set of skills in wildlife photography in that their small stature and quick pace can make it more challenging to get a good photograph.

After this, the sky kind of becomes the limit in what wildlife you can photograph, and species that are available to you! I think it’s important to remember though what your aims are and why you started. If you want to read about how you can actually go about finding wildlife to photograph you can check out this other blog post here or even check out my vlog over on YouTube instead!