by Josh Shiels

Created on: October 20, 2008   Last Updated: October 28, 2008

"Tips for wildlife photography"

Here are some of the easiest tips and tricks to improve your wildlife photography, after reading this, I promise you will be shooting nothing but quality photographs.

Now wildlife photography is one of the tougher fields of photography, as they are animals and to get up close to one becomes a task, they are prone to fly away or flee the area before you get close enough. It is purely based on technique, but don't worry these techniques are not impossible to master and once you have got it down to a fine art you will be producing some of your finest work.

The most effective lens to use for wildlife photography is the 600mm F4, it has an impressive 12x magnification, however this hardware is a hefty 6kg (13lbs), though the quality is on par with the best.

Now once you have invested in that new telephoto lens, and you have just come back from a days worth of shooting and you start to go through the photographs and begin to wonder why they are not up to magazine quality. You have just parted ways with your hard earned cash, what happened?

You go through the moments of taking the shot, the animal was not moving at the time, so you rule out blur, you remember checking that the lens was focused right before pressing the shutter button, so that isn't the problem. Though the picture isn't sharp enough? Don't worry this has nothing to do with the hardware you are using, it is more than likely "camera shake". Anybody that has used a high quality telescopic lens, knows that the smallest pump or vibration is turned into a huge unsteadiness in the image you are looking at. So if the scope is not held perfectly steady, it wont be a quality photograph.

I recommend a tripod. When buying a tripod bring along your biggest lens to the store. Try your lens on the tripod and when looking into it, tap the lens itself, if it shakes for more than a split second then the tripod isn't sturdy enough, though you don't want to go overboard and buy a movie sized tripod, they are steady, yet the are a pain to lug around the field all day. I personally recommend the Benbo range. They are medium weight, they are steady enough to support a 600mm lens and best of all they are designed for nature photography. The legs are sealed at the bottom, and are also waterproof. It also has a universal locking system,which makes it that much easier to use on uneven ground.

Now when you need to get down low, I recommend shopping for a standard sized bean-bag (5kg or 11lbs) that will support a 400mm lens perfectly, and for the 600mm lens I recommend the larger sized bean-bag (10kg or 22lbs), though one mistake many photographers make, is filling the bean-bags up to much, you need the lens to fit nice and snug as you need the steadiness.

Once your geared up, you will be shooting quality photographs in no time, though the best tip I could give you, when shooting wildlife, is to not go over the top, this is a form of art, unlike any other, as the piece you a shooting has a grace and beauty of its own and once positioned you need to let the animal do what it does best. You will find that photograph you have been searching for in no time.

Learn more about this author, Josh Shiels.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.