How to Get the Shot: 9 Tips From Wildlife Photographers

[Reyed Mia (Apprentice, DIU)]

How to Get the Shot: 9 Tips From Wildlife Photographers

1. Do your research: The best shots start before photographers even set foot in the field

Joe Capra, a wildlife and time-lapse photographer who has been featured by outlets like National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel emphasizes the importance of preparation. "Research the wildlife that's likely to be present at your shooting location. Try to learn about their behavior, movements and habitat. Research the location you'll be shooting so you're able to maximize your chances of finding the wildlife, the best places to shoot from and which direction sunlight will be coming from at various times of day."

For example, if your subject is crepuscular (most active at dawn and dusk), you likely won't get much traction at noon. If your subject is nocturnal, grab a Red Bull and hope for the best.

2. Patience is a virtue, so arm yourself with it

Wildlife and landscape photographer Jeff Mitchum has had his work displayed on the walls of fine art museums, including the Smithsonian Institute and Getty Museum. Mitchum knows just how important the waiting game is in getting the shot. Consider the image above, which Mitchum calls "The Man." Although it's spectacular, it didn't come easy — Mitchum biked 160 miles across the Alaskan wilderness to capture this photo. Says Mitchum, "In this shot, I was standing on my toes looking over the willows when I saw the moose. I saw a hole and then antlers growing out of it ... and I knew he was huge. Looking just to the west, there was an open location that evenly composed the largest mountain in North America, Denali. And in a rare occurrence, Denali was also out! After about five hours of waiting, this behemoth finally walked out of his rut hole and passed over to the exact spot I had hoped for."

3. Think outside the box when it comes to your vantage point

Paprocki, currently in Alaska studying gyrfalcons (the world's largest falcon species), explains that the most obvious perspective isn't always the best perspective. "I've recently been doing a lot of shorebird photography, and it's easy enough to walk around standing up and take a photograph of a bird on the ground. However, you achieve a better depth-of-field and intimacy level with birds on the ground if you get down on your belly and see things from their perspective. This also allows you to approach birds far closer than if you just tried walking up to them."

4. ... But don't sacrifice safety for perspective

Remember, wild animals are indeed wild — so don't get too close. Burrard-Lucas once lost a camera to a lion. Thankfully, it was attached to one of his prototype buggies ... not his neck.

Husband-wife nature photography team Mary Ann and Joe McDonald know the unpredictability of animals firsthand. Joe was first-place recipient in 2013's BBC Wildlife Photography of the Year Competition, Mammal Division, and the winning photo, "The Spat" — an action image of jaguars sparring — really captures this. In this photo, "The male approached the female thinking that she would be receptive, but instead she turned on him, talons out and attacked and pushed him right into the bushes backwards."

5. Aim for simple backgrounds — make negative space work for you

Says Capra, "The most dramatic wildlife photos usually include a very simple, and non-distracting background. The goal is to highlight your subjects and make them stand out. Photos with cluttered and distracting background cause your subject to get lost in the image/scene." Sometimes, less can be better.

Mitchum emphasizes the importance of understanding space: "A fine art photograph is comprised of a tremendous amount of space and chaos, and it is our job to organize this into a fine art image. When you think about it, there is a lot more space than material to work with. So, why not make space and openness work for us? As photographers, we need to discover a delicate arrangement of space so contrast of subject comes alive. Contrast of space is critical because your subject needs to stand out. Your subject needs to be the dominant element and wisely using these open 'oxygenated vents' will allow your images to have the separation needed to eliminate unwanted clutter."

Says Capra, "The most dramatic wildlife photos usually include a very simple, and non-distracting background. The goal is to highlight your subjects and make them stand out. Photos with cluttered and distracting background cause your subject to get lost in the image/scene." Sometimes, less can be better.

Mitchum emphasizes the importance of understanding space: "A fine art photograph is comprised of a tremendous amount of space and chaos, and it is our job to organize this into a fine art image. When you think about it, there is a lot more space than material to work with. So, why not make space and openness work for us? As photographers, we need to discover a delicate arrangement of space so contrast of subject comes alive. Contrast of space is critical because your subject needs to stand out. Your subject needs to be the dominant element and wisely using these open 'oxygenated vents' will allow your images to have the separation needed to eliminate unwanted clutter."

6. A good photo needs to grab attention, and there are several ways to achieve this

Employ dramatic lighting. German wildlife photographer Gabriela Staebler offers some advice for beginners looking to make dramatic lighting work in their favor. Specifically, she details how to capture animal silhouettes in the context of a sunset. "Most cameras have various functions like 'low light,' or 'sunset' you can choose. The 10 to 20 minutes after sunset can produce a fantastic colored sky. If you use a digital SLR-camera: Select your exposure reading based off the brightest part of the picture. Focus on the animal and take the picture."

Capture something that hasn't been seen before. Burrard-Lucas: "This may mean concentrating on a specific animal and photographing it in more depth than anyone else, or finding a new way of photographing commonly seen creatures." He lists his first BeetleCam photoset as an example. "The resulting photographs were widely published because the unique perspective really captured people's attention."

Inject emotion. Capra recalls a successful, emotionally-charged photo. "One of my favorite shots is one I took of a penguin in a snowstorm while I was in Antarctica. I think it really just captures a sense of the loneliness and harshness of Antarctica."



Have a backyard? Consider a bird feeder! Clevenger says, "Some of my best hummingbird shots are captured by putting up a hummingbird feeder near a natural looking branch, setting my camera on a tripod with a remote release and just waiting for the hummingbird to show up, all while sitting in the backyard."Paprocki adds that for photographers looking to omit human structures, supplying perching and cover opportunities close to the feeder will also draw the birds. "If you can provide a nice natural perch such as a tree or a bush near the feeder, birds will often come there first before approaching the feeder."

Those with gardens: Give macro photography a shot! Clevenger recommends trying photography on a macro scale. "Macro, or close-up, photography requires a lens that can focus very close and an enormous amount of patience, but the result can be amazing. Your own garden, no matter how small, is a miniature ecosystem."

8. Be respectful of your subjects — know when to call it off

Mary Ann McDonald recounts a time her group called off a shoot. "One year in Tanzania, we found a leopard sleeping in a tree in the midday heat. We pulled our vehicles off to the side in the shade of another tree, to sit and wait for it to wake up and come down. While waiting, some other vehicles showed up and pulled right up underneath the tree. The leopard was 'shy' and immediately reacted to these people being too close. It went up the tree and onto the top of the acacia tree and into the hot sun. You could tell that it was agitated, and we felt terrible that these people had violated its space and its 'flight or fight' zone. So instead of contributing to its unease and its stress of now being in the sun versus the shade, we went and talked to the vehicles, urging them to leave, and we did the same so that the cat could come back down into the shade and not be bothered."

9. Have fun with it — it will translate on film

Burrard-Lucas recalls a particularly fun project: "Earlier this year I traveled to Botswana to photograph meerkats. The meerkats had no fear of me and would use me as a lookout post so that they could spot any predators that might be lurking in the long grass. I was lucky that my trip coincided with the birth of some baby meerkats, and I was with them for their first week above ground. They quickly became very comfortable around me and they were painfully cute. It was a wonderful experience and some of the resulting images are amongst my favorites ever taken!"

http://mashable.com/2014/06/17/wildlife-photography-tips/#o.wnOhrVluqB