Photographing Wildlife
Photographing wildlife is similar in some ways to photographing children. You either need to be really close to them or you need a long enough lens to bring them really close to you!
Animals seen from a distance are just not interesting, unless you are photographing an extremely large herd. Again, like children, you have to appear friendly and non threatening, have lots of patience and time, and realize that it's all about them – you cannot reason with them, beg them, or in the case of animals, bribe them.
Animals with young are dangerous. Don't do anything that may scare them and if you see a young animal on its own, be aware that the parent is probably nearby. Don't get between a baby and it's parent and don't get between a hippo and a waterhole. Hippos kill more people than any other wild animal although you would never think that to look at them.
In a game park only turn your vehicle engine off when you are sure you are in a position of safety and make sure that you have a clear exit route if you need to leave in a hurry. If you are lucky enough to see wildlife up close, hang about and be patient. They may be moving slowly (in the case of herbivores) but they are moving, and you may end up with a better view and vantage point if you are prepared to wait. Remember to keep the camera steady as all camera shake on a long lens will be magnified. Find a solid object (eg. the window frame of your stationary vehicle) to balance the camera on and squeeze the shutter gently.
If you are not fortunate enough to be able to see animals in their natural state, what about a photographic field trip to the local Zoo? The question to ask , "Is it possible to take good wildlife photographs in a Zoo?"
There are several obstacles to taking good pictures of zoo animals if you do not want the photos to scream "captivity".
Firstly, in nature there are no straight lines, which means that you cannot have any geometrically perfect vertical or horizontal objects, even if they are totally out of focus, in the background.
Next, the vegetation at a zoo is all wrong . You can't include the completely out of focus but still identifiable fir trees and flowers in the background, or it will look as if you took the picture of the rhino in your back garden.
Zoos keep office hours so you are out of luck with early morning and dusk light too, and will have to make do with back light or flat overcast light on a dull day.
And lastly, zoo animals are pathologically bored and terminally unhappy, and how do you keep that out of the pictures?
So the answer to the question posed is "Yes" and "No". "Yes", with a suitably long lens focusing on animals new to the zoo, or jaded old inmates with young, you can probably get something worth taking home with you. And "No", because as an adult, it's difficult not to be saddened by the diminishment of the lives taken from the wild. And sad photographers taking pictures of even sadder animals, don't add up to great pics.
Animals seen from a distance are just not interesting, unless you are photographing an extremely large herd. Again, like children, you have to appear friendly and non threatening, have lots of patience and time, and realize that it's all about them – you cannot reason with them, beg them, or in the case of animals, bribe them.
Animals with young are dangerous. Don't do anything that may scare them and if you see a young animal on its own, be aware that the parent is probably nearby. Don't get between a baby and it's parent and don't get between a hippo and a waterhole. Hippos kill more people than any other wild animal although you would never think that to look at them.
In a game park only turn your vehicle engine off when you are sure you are in a position of safety and make sure that you have a clear exit route if you need to leave in a hurry. If you are lucky enough to see wildlife up close, hang about and be patient. They may be moving slowly (in the case of herbivores) but they are moving, and you may end up with a better view and vantage point if you are prepared to wait. Remember to keep the camera steady as all camera shake on a long lens will be magnified. Find a solid object (eg. the window frame of your stationary vehicle) to balance the camera on and squeeze the shutter gently.
If you are not fortunate enough to be able to see animals in their natural state, what about a photographic field trip to the local Zoo? The question to ask , "Is it possible to take good wildlife photographs in a Zoo?"
There are several obstacles to taking good pictures of zoo animals if you do not want the photos to scream "captivity".
Firstly, in nature there are no straight lines, which means that you cannot have any geometrically perfect vertical or horizontal objects, even if they are totally out of focus, in the background.
Next, the vegetation at a zoo is all wrong . You can't include the completely out of focus but still identifiable fir trees and flowers in the background, or it will look as if you took the picture of the rhino in your back garden.
Zoos keep office hours so you are out of luck with early morning and dusk light too, and will have to make do with back light or flat overcast light on a dull day.
And lastly, zoo animals are pathologically bored and terminally unhappy, and how do you keep that out of the pictures?
So the answer to the question posed is "Yes" and "No". "Yes", with a suitably long lens focusing on animals new to the zoo, or jaded old inmates with young, you can probably get something worth taking home with you. And "No", because as an adult, it's difficult not to be saddened by the diminishment of the lives taken from the wild. And sad photographers taking pictures of even sadder animals, don't add up to great pics.
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