Wildlife photography is an exciting profession that takes you along the various crests and troughs of life and helps you unravel the beautiful bounties of nature in the best possible manner. To witness these beautiful offerings of nature, you need to have an undying passion that fuels your thirst for exploring newer facets of photography. In order to explore this interesting area of exploration, it is important to assimilate a few important facts for photography.
Why Wildlife Photography?
One of the more challenging areas of photography. (Birds the most challenging of wildlife).
Wildlife are undependable – they move
Safety concerns when approaching
Tend to be crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk) when lighting is the most challenging for photography
Can require state-of-the-art camera technology
Big lenses, fast frame rates, fast auto focus, many megapixels
Can be quite successful with less extreme gear!
Because:
You get to travel to interesting places.
Experience behaviors that most people never get to see.
A thrill when you capture that “moment”
A learning process to constantly improve technique and skill
Provides a strong motivation to constantly learn about animal behavior and types of animals.
An opportunity to be an advocate for conservation through photography.
Get Close, Safely!
Each species has a different “threat zone.”
Safety for wildlife and human life.
Become agitated, notice you, flee or consider you prey.
Better to be stationary and let wildlife approach you.
Long lens gets you “close” and provides comfort zone.
When Most Active?
Crepuscular – Dawn and dusk, sleep/rest during the day.
Ungulates (Moose, Elk, Deer, Bison, Hummingbirds, River Otters)
Nocturnal – During the night (Most owls, Raccoons, Cougars, etc)
Diurnal – During daylight (Most raptors like Hawks, Eagles, Falcons, Snowy Owls, Hawk Owls, etc)
*Many are not in just one category, and some change with season.
Understand Your Subject
Understanding behavior is the key to anticipation. Anticipation allows you to start shooting before the action starts.
For ex: A leopard will jump and climb a tree when threatened.
Anticipation
For ex. Cranes will lean forward just before they begin their take off!
A Guide To Ethical Wildlife Photography
If you are a beginner or an amateur nature and wildlife photographer, you should follow certain principles and should not harm anyone for self interest even if no one's watching. A huge number of people enjoy nature and wildlife photography tours with their high end photography equipment and harm wildlife just to get that "PERFECT SHOT".
Now a days, it has become very common due to more usage of social media and lack of awareness among people. Whatever is the reason, self regulation is the best thing to spot this unethical photography. Before telling and stopping anyone, we need to see, are we harming anyone? If the answer is no, then you can go ahead and stop others.
Though there is nothing wrong in enjoying nature and wildlife photography, but what matters is "HOW DO WE DO THAT?" and DOES THAT HARM ANYONE? Your enjoyment should go parallel with responsibility. But in many places, these things are rarely found. There are large number of people with luxury cars with no sense of driving and large number of photographers with expensive gear but are not sensitive towards nature and wildlife.
So the bitter truth is there are few responsible photographers who are sensitive towards nature but at the same time, there are numerous uncaring and insensitive people who have become a danger.
What Is Unethical Photography?
There are plenty of photographers who never realize by their harmful actions. They just want to enjoy wildlife tours and think of their pleasures only and do not think of the stress caused by them deeply Making photographers aware of this issue might make them think over it on their next outing.
Examples Of Unethical Wildlife Photography
It's not possible to define every example of unethical photography. But we have included a few examples based on common practices.
Crowding:
A large number of people or jeeps gather at one place in the national park / sanctuary, and closer to a spotted animal to provoke it. Crowding causes stress and disturb them. This may lead to change in the animal behaviour (like hunting, courtship, feeding etc) and may make them more dangerous.
Driving Fast In The National Parks:
Driving fast to reach early before closing the gates or for spotting can frighten animals and may lead them to move away from there. Speeding is prohibited in the national parks but still this practice is carried out. Maintain speed within prescribed limits.
Nest Or Den Photography:
Capturing images of birds near their nests or mammals near their dens may disturb them and forces them to shift to another den / nest which may not be as perfect as their previous habitat. This unethical practice motivates other photographers to do the same. It is better to avoid such activities and stay away from the new born babies.
Playing Bird Calls To Attract Birds:
Fake bird calls may cause stress to the birds and results in wastage of their energy in responding to the playback. It also disrupts the social systems and break up of bird pairs. Sometimes playing birdcalls during the breeding season may disturb adults in performing their tasks (like courtship, nest guarding or protecting boundaries. Avoid such practices (especially when they are rare and endangered species).
Use Of Mobile Phones In The National Parks:
Most national parks and sanctuaries have banned usage of mobile phones and wireless radios. This disturbs the wildlife and the tourists who are here to enjoy the nature.
What To Do?
If you spot any animal or bird, maintain good distance. If you see any safari vehicle / jeep approaching, silently capture the images and move away before making crowd over there. And if you find any photographer, driver or guide doing any harmful actions, you can record a video and complaint to the authorities.
Why You Need To Attend Wildlife Photography Workshops?
In the recent past, when nearly every phone comes with a camera, more people are becoming photography enthusiasts. This has caused them to venture into different areas of photography such as wildlife photography, bird photography or even landscape photography. There are many people who are practicing these photography genres either as budding professional or just hobbyists.
Unfortunately, when you visit the social media where most of these photos are posted, you will realize that most of them will not speak to you. This is due to the fact that most will only snap and keep hoping that the photo will come out decently. However, when you want to step beyond this and get an image that ticks all your right boxes, you may need to get into a bird photography workshop. Here, you will be taken through the guidelines and rules and the moment you understand how to use them, it will be possible for you to break out of them.
It is advisable to take time to test boundaries. You will not want the photo to appear like a stock-standard images that you would get from a standard photographer. Remember that when taking that wildlife photography, there is need for eye contact.
If you would also want to take the best shot, you will need to stick to the golden light hours. In other words, you will need to wake up early so that you are already in the field by daylight. You will also need to go out in the afternoon to ensure that you take advantage of the last hours of sunshine. This is important as photography involves painting using light.
When it comes to nature, things can get unpredictable. This means that you will need a lot of patience as you will need to observe your subject and understanding their behavior patterns.
