WILDLIFEPICTURES - PHOTOTIPS

It's not all that hard to make a photo of an animal, but that winning image could be more difficult.
That's why it could be very usefull to read some more about wildlife-photography, certainly as a beginner you will find that there is a lot to learn.
With some experience and most of all learning from your own and other peoples errors you will get better in time, here are a number of tips........

Animals:

To make a photo of animals first you will have to find some, not too hard with elephants but the smaller and more shy animals are difficult to spot.
Often you will only some ears or a piece of tail from lion or cheetah sticking out above the grass..... and that is easy to miss.
In that matter it is no use driving through a National Park with 50 km. per hour, with a maximum of 20 km. an hour there's a big chance you will spot the animals someone else just passed by!

In National Parks the animals are often not afraid of cars, untill they come too close too fast.....
Heading full speed for a leopard and then hit the breaks will only give you a chance to shoot a picture of a running leopards backside.
When you want to make close-up photos you will have to approach carefull and slowly, not making any sudden sounds or movement and keeping an eye on the animals reaction.

It can be rewarding to wait for animals to come into action, or do something unexpected. Make sure you know something about the behaviour of animals at the place you are visiting, so you can anticipate to that faster.

Equipment:

Know your equipment!
Never go on safari or other travel with a camera you are using for the very first time, make sure you can use all the possibilities without holding the manual in your hand.

Always (!) keep your equipment ready to use.
Full batteries and empty film or memorycard seem obvious, but missing these vital conditions cost me some very good photos too.
In some situations you will only have seconds to make a shot, if you by then still have to get your camera or change the lens you will end up with only a nice picture of the scenery.

Support your lens!
In particular with bigger zoom-lenses ( 300mm and up ) or longer shuttertimes it is very important to avoid unsharp pictures because of movement.
A beanbag filled with rice for example is easy to make yourself from old trousers, and a cheap but effective way to ceep the camera and lens still.
I would rather use rice because sand is too heavy, and beans still move around too much. ( never fill your beanbag to the max, so you can still model it )

Besides a beanbag you could decide to buy a carwindow-mount or make one yourself, combined with a remote control you can rule out any movement of camera and lens.
In case of sudden animal activity you will sometimes have no other choice but to shoot with a big lens in your hand.
Use a very short shuttertime in that case and keep shooting while panning the object, then you have a good chance of ending up with some useable images.

Composition:

If you only make pictures with the object right in the middle you will end up with a collection that could get boring to watch for other people.
Try to take in a piece of the environment in the picture besides the object you photograph.

The advantage of a bigger lens is the possibility to shoot only certain parts of an animal if you can get close.
Only the claw of a lion, parts of the head or a piece of zebra-striping can make very nice and original pictures.

There is no point in making 20 of the same pictures, try different lenses and experiment with compositions while you photograph for more varied pictures.

The rule of thirds is a good way to pick your composition if you are not sure, this rule is based on the principle that pictures are often better with the object not right in the middle.
Imagine 2 horizontal and 2 vertical lines in the picture dividing your picture in 9 even blocks, and place the object at a point where 2 of these lines cross.

Recommended literature:

There is a lot more to learn about wildlife-photography, the following books are a great help in that case......

- Dennis Nigel - Getaway guide to wildlifephotography
- Richard du Toit - Essential wildlife photography
- Peter Evans - Where and how to photograph wildlife
- Raphael Ben-Shahar - on the trail of the wild