A Beginner’s Guide to Wildlife Photography
Capturing the wild requires patience, but it’s easier and cheaper than you think…!
Bear Gills
Wildlife photography starts with a passion. This shot of a brown bear catching a salmon at Brooks Falls is probably my favourite wildlife image—but it was a long time coming! The summer after I left university, I went to visit a friend of mine in London. He wasn’t home, but I met his mother. To pass the time, I asked if she’d been anywhere nice on holiday, and she said, “Well, I’ve actually just come back from watching bears catching salmon in Alaska!”
Ever since then, I dreamed of doing the same, and in 2015, it finally happened—I booked a trip to Brooks Falls. It was expensive, and the journey lasted 37 hours, but it was worth it!
Wildlife photography is one of the most challenging but rewarding genres in the world of visual storytelling. It combines technical skill, fieldcraft, and a deep appreciation for nature. Whether you’re venturing into your backyard, a local park, or the African savannah, this beginner’s guide will equip you with the essential knowledge to get started.
Why Choose Wildlife Photography?
Dark Waters
Wildlife photography allows you to spend time outdoors, observe exotic species and capture memorable images to show your friends and family back home. It rewards patience, perseverance, and awareness, and the thrill of a great sighting can last a lifetime. I’ve seen penguins jumping between ice floes, elephants enjoying dust baths and cheetahs chasing down prey at 70mph—and all because I chose to become a wildlife photographer!
I’ve only taken one proper ‘holiday’ since 2013, but every time I go on a photography trip, I’m doing what I love and visiting fantastic parts of the world—from the Antarctic ice to the African savannah! Whatever your favourite species or environment, there’s bound to be somewhere in the world you can visit over and over again to capture great wildlife photos.
Understanding the Basics
Dust Bird
Before diving into gear and techniques, it’s important to understand what sets wildlife photography apart:
Unpredictability: Animals don’t pose like models. You have to anticipate and react quickly.
Low light: The best light is often during the so-called Golden Hour just after sunrise or just before sunset, so you often have to make difficult trade-offs between shutter speed, aperture and ISO.
Field knowledge: Understanding animal behaviour increases your chances of predicting what will happen next and capturing the decisive moment.
Respect for nature: If you want a clear conscience, ethical practices are essential—and most photo contests don’t allow baiting or any harmful approaches to wildlife anyway.
Conservation: If you’re driven by a love of Nature and a desire to preserve it, your images can help educate people and make the case for protecting endangered species and fragile ecosystems.
Choosing the Right Gear—Without Breaking the Bank!
Stealth
You don’t need to start with the latest and greatest gear with all the bells and whistles. Modern technology has made wildlife photography more accessible than ever, and you can find real bargains if you’re prepared to shop online or buy second-hand. All you really need is a decent mirrorless camera or DSLR with a lens that offers you the reach you need—and you can always start with a bridge camera. That’s what I did!
Here are a few options for cameras, lenses and accessories…
Entry-level Cameras
Full-frame 35mm cameras are the gold standard in wildlife photography, but APS-C cameras with smaller sensors are usually smaller, lighter and cheaper.
Mirrorless:
DSLRs
Bridge Cameras (Superzooms):
Budget Lenses
Eye of the Rhino
Some wildlife photographers specialise in macro work or wide-angle close-ups with forced perspective. However, most rely on a good telephoto lens to photograph distant subjects, fill the frame or take close-ups without having to get too near the wildlife!
Prime lenses with a fixed focal length tend to offer better image quality and a wider maximum aperture, which is great for low-light conditions and getting smooth, creamy, blurred backgrounds. However, zooms are a lot more convenient for framing your subject and switching between subjects—and they’re also a lot cheaper!
Telephoto Zooms:
Accessories
Mother's Pride
You don’t need many accessories for wildlife photography. When I first started, I bought a tripod and even a flashgun—but that was before I realised I’d be spending most of my time in a safari truck on game drives! All you really need to do is buy a camera bag and enough spare batteries and memory cards to avoid running out of juice or storage at a crucial moment!
Extra batteries and memory cards
Bean bag for stability (some safari lodges already have them, but you can always take an empty one and ask them to fill it up with beans or rice)
Lens cleaning kit
Rain/dust protection
Camera bag (rollaboard or backpack)
Knowing Your Subject
The Pointer
The best wildlife photographers are also great naturalists, so it’s useful to learn about:
Animal behaviour: When are they active? What do warning signs sound like?
Habitat: Where are they most likely to be found?
Seasons and migrations: Timing your shoot increases success (eg salmon runs and the Great Migration).
This kind of knowledge and awareness only comes with time, though, so don’t expect to be an expert after your very first trip! If you need help identifying species, smartphone apps like Merlin Bird ID and iNaturalist are free and easy to use—or you can just ask your safari guide.
Composition and Camera Settings
"Is this close enough...?"
Photography is potentially a very complicated pastime. Learning how to get the best out of your equipment is tricky at the best of times, but most cameras offer various auto modes to help get you started. The basic trade-off is between convenience and control.
If you just want to point and shoot, that’s fine, but it won’t always work. As you get more experienced and knowledgeable, you’ll find out the tricky situations that cameras can’t deal with very well (such as a backlit leopard in a tree!) and learn how to cope with them using exposure compensation, say.
If you’re just starting out, the most important thing is that your photos are sharp and well-exposed. That means getting to know the autofocus (or AF) system on your camera and finding an exposure mode that’s right for you.
Autofocus
Continuous AF (AI-Servo/AF-C) for still or moving subjects. You never know when they might do something, so you need the camera to keep focusing all the time!
Eye detection and tracking for focusing precisely on the eyes (only available on mirrorless cameras)
Exposure Modes
Shutter Priority (S/Tv): Useful for slow shutter speed shots. You set the shutter speed while the camera chooses a suitable aperture for the right exposure. (You can choose auto or manual ISO.)
Aperture Priority (A/Av): Ideal for controlling depth of field, eg at sunrise or sunset. You set the aperture while the camera picks a suitable aperture for the correct exposure. (You can choose auto or manual ISO.)
Manual Mode with auto ISO: Manual sounds scary, but if you use auto ISO, you keep control of the shutter speed and aperture without having to worry about the exposure.
Composition Tips
There are a ton of rules of composition that can help you take pleasing images. It’s always a subjective judgment, of course, but the rules are based on human psychology and aesthetics
Rule of Thirds: Divide the frame into three equal columns and three equal rows and place your subject on one of the lines or points of intersection.
Leave Room: Leave space in front of where the animal is facing or moving.
Backgrounds: Watch out for distractions. A clean or nicely blurred background emphasises your subject.
Eye-Level Perspective: Shoot from the subject’s eye level for more intimate images. This gives the impression that you’re entering the animal’s world—almost as another member of the same species!
Field Techniques and Patience
"No means no!"
Wildlife photography is possible in almost any environment, whether it’s the mountains, the desert, the savannah, the garden, the sky or even underwater! That means it’s impossible to give hard and fast rules on how to approach your subject. However, there are a few guidelines that are usually helpful.
Move Slowly and Quietly
Sudden movements or noise will alert wildlife.
Use Natural Cover
Trees, bushes, and blinds help you remain unseen.
Be Still
Sometimes the best tactic is to sit and wait. Animals often resume natural behaviour when you’re non-threatening.
Know When to Back Off
Signs of stress? Walk away. You can always find a better subject at a better time.
Ethics in Wildlife Photography
He-Lion
With wilderness areas becoming more and more accessible to tourists, there’s more and more pressure on the local wildlife. Habitat loss and human/wildlife conflict are major issues, so it pays to follow a few simple guidelines. If you go to Africa, your safari guide should know these things and act accordingly, but if you’re on your own, ‘ethical’ wildlife photography is easy with a little common sense:
No baiting or luring (unless officially permitted and humane)
No flash with nocturnal animals or nesting birds
No harassment or encroaching on comfort zones
Leave no trace: Pack up everything, minimise impact
Share responsibly: Think before geo-tagging photos of endangered species. (It’s actually illegal to do it with rhinos in South Africa!)
Editing and Post-Processing
Miss Saigon
Editing is not cheating—it’s essential for bringing out the best in your photos. However, it’s easy to go too far when trying to make them ‘pop’, so make sure you keep things looking natural! If you want the best all-round bundle, you can subscribe to Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop for a few pounds or dollars a month. However, there are plenty of free alternatives if you don’t want to commit to spending any more money!
Free software from the camera manufacturers, eg Canon Digital Photo Professional or Nikon NX Studio
Windows viewers, eg Irfanview
Windows editors, eg Paint.net
Apple software, eg Apple Photos
Photo editors, eg NCH Photopad
Browser-based photo editing software, eg Canva
App-based photo editing software, eg Snapseed, Adobe Lightroom Mobile or Google Photos (for iOS and Android)
Layer-based software, eg Photo Pos Pro
Raw file processors, eg Raw Therapee or Darktable
Advanced, eg GIMP
Filters, eg Pixlr
What to Adjust
If you’re shooting in Raw rather than compressed JPEG files, you won’t get the best out of your camera unless you make a few basic adjustments:
Exposure and contrast
White balance
Cropping
Sharpness and clarity
Noise reduction (especially at higher ISOs)
One of the good things about the more advanced programs, such as Lightroom, is that you can create presets for common tasks. These save a lot of time by allowing you to make the same adjustment to as many files as you like.
Sharing Your Work and Getting Feedback
Olympia
Wildlife photography is about connection. Share your images to educate and inspire:
Social Media: Facebook (pages and groups), Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X
Photo Communities: 500px, ViewBug, ePHOTOzine, Flickr etc
Competitions: Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Nature’s Best Photography, Shoot The Wild etc
Website: Start a blog or create a website to showcase your favourite images.
Phone: If you meet people interested in photography, it’s important to be able to show them your best work!
If you publish your work on these platforms, you’re likely to get a few likes and follows and the odd nice compliment. However, it’s a bit like showing your photos to your friends and family—you’ll never get any criticism, constructive or otherwise! If you want to learn more and improve your skills, book a review session with a photography coach.
Verdict
I always tell people that you don’t have to be a professional wildlife photographer to take professional wildlife photos! All you need is to buy a decent camera and spend time in the wilderness. Eventually, you’ll have great sightings that are easy to turn into great photos. If you’re lucky enough to visit Africa, say, you’ll pretty much be guaranteed once-in-a-lifetime experiences every time you go there—but they’ll always be different!
Your first wildlife photos won’t be perfect, but that’s all right. The key is to keep shooting. You’ll eventually be able to build up a portfolio that you can share not just with your friends and family but the wider world. I have this website, and I’m on all the main social media platforms, which are a great source of positive vibes and reassurance. Photography can be a lonely business, so getting positive feedback is a well-deserved reward!
If everything goes well, you might even think about selling your photos. That’s always an option, and you don’t even need to jump in with both feet. Even if you have a full-time job, that still leaves you evenings, weekends and holidays to practise your craft, so you can always ‘suck it and see’!
If you’d like to order a framed print of one of my wildlife photographs, please visit the Prints page.
If you’d like to book a lesson or order an online photography course, please visit my Lessons or Courses page.
