10 Tips for starting wildlife photography

Wildlife photography is such a great activity, however when you first get started it can also be quite overwhelming; with trying to juggle your gear, different locations, online advice, and wild animals its easy to get lost! So, in light of this I wanted to put together ten of my favourite quick tips for starting wildlife photography! These are things I wish I’d known when I first got started!   

Camera settings

When I first started wildlife photography I paid absolutely no attention to my camera settings. I just went out, pointed and shot my camera; and to be fair this worked pretty well the first few months. However, there came a point when I realised there was quite a lot of buttons that I had no idea about. So, I headed to YouTube and finally learnt what the different buttons meant, and my photographs improved IMMENSELY. So, although you don’t need to know straight away at some point, I recommend you check out what those buttons actually do! I watched this series by one of my favourite wildlife photographers Chris Bray. I even brought the booklet and memory cards that I carry with me in my backpack just in case I ever need a recap quickly!

Know your wildlife

So, something I didn’t consider particularly when I began was how much I needed to know about wildlife in order to get the shots I wanted. Now, its all well and good having that basic wildlife knowledge and being able to sprout a few facts about a species. However, what I’ve found is the more you understand their behaviour the easier good shots are to get. For example, dragonflies – a beautiful subject but very fast moving. I attended a ½ day course on dragonflies for £8 and learnt at 5-6am they are still too sleepy to fly= amazing photos.

Theres no need to rush

If you spot something when out with your camera, your first instinct is probably going to be to start going crazy snapping away. However, what I found was there is usually always going to be a second opportunity and even if there isn’t, one good photo is worth ten blurry ones. What I mean is, think through what your doing, take your time moving slowly and carefully to adjust both your own position and your camera settings before you snap a photo.

Safety and welfare first

For me this may be the most important tip for wildlife photographers- nothing is worth risking your safety and no photo is worth impacting an animal’s welfare. It’s as simple as that and there is no argument or example when this isn’t the case.

Patience is key

Somebody remarked to me recently that I must have a lot of patience, and I kinda laughed and told them I had no patience at all. Well, later on I got thinking and realised she was right and even though in my personal life I might not be patient, when it comes to wildlife, I have all the time in the world. The only way to demonstrate why patience is key is from an example- Last week I spent two mornings photographing bank voles- I arrived around 8am sat and waited. At 9:38 a vole poked its head out of a hole for a grand total of 2 seconds, not enough time for me to even react. BUT, another hour later it did it again, then at 11:30 it felt safe enough to emerge long enough for a photograph. It may have taken the better part of a morning, but it was so worth it! 

Don’t compare yourself

Comparison is the thief of joy as they say, and with social media all around us it’s easy to compare your photos with someone else especially when that person has loads of followers and is just posting beautiful photos every day. However, it’s not and should never be about what other people are doing, wildlife photography is about you and your journey so yeah you will compare yourself to someone else’s photos but at the end of the day remember you are on your own path not theirs.

Everywhere has cool wildlife

I live in the UK, a country not particularly known for its wildlife, and I spent a lot of time when I was younger believing we only had boring wildlife. None of it is exciting, there’s no leopards or giraffes, no scorpions or kangaroos, but at some point, you’ve got to get off this ‘cool’ wildlife train of thought because you know what we don’t have any of that but that doesn’t mean our wildlife isn’t awesome, and exciting in its own right.

Composition

I used to think composition was for other types of photography, I mean wildlife photography is about photographing the wildlife and you should just concentrate on getting that photo surely? No, as I mentioned earlier in Tip 3. Don’t rush! Composition is just as important with wildlife photography as with every type of photography it can make or break a photo. I actually found watching landscape photographers on YouTube really useful in implementing composition strategies into my photography and it’s made my photographs better in the long run. 

Location, location, location

I think locations for wildlife photography are notoriously tricky, for a number of reasons. Firstly, when your getting started its kinda tricky to find wildlife (it has taken me years to gather locations for different species) and it’s more so for species that are ‘at risk’ from certain groups. People on online wildlife groups such as Facebook generally don’t like sharing locations because they don’t know who’s searching. I recommend as a good starting point, any local parks, or green areas you have nearby can be home to a variety of species that are used to humans. Another good idea, is to just spend a lot of time out walking around, scouting different areas particularly at dawn and dusk- once you’ve seen something you can return with your camera. Finally, ask your neighbours and friends what they’ve seen, or visit green areas (such as national trust properties) and ask the staff what has been seen- then scout out and take your camera.

Remember why

Finally, remember why you are doing wildlife photography, and what your motivations are. It can be easy to forget the real reason or to get bogged down with other things but don’t let this overtake your passion and if your not enjoying what your doing, your doing it wrong.

Note from Holly: I hope you’ve found these tips useful, let me know in the comments or find me over on social media @naturewithholly and I’d love to hear from you! Happy Photographing !