People sometimes show me a wildlife photo and ask me what I think, but I always turn the question around. “What do you think of it yourself?” Aesthetics are subjective, so there’s no right or wrong answer, and my view is no more ‘valid’ just because I’m a professional wildlife photographer. However, if you ask me what makes a good photo, that requires a much longer answer…!
Read MoreCapture the Moment!
Here are all my posts on photography, covering techniques, trips, research, exhibitions, talks and workshops. Watch out for my latest article every Saturday.
I’ve also written dozens of articles for Expert Photography and Camera Reviews.
If you’d like to contribute a guest post on any aspect of photography, please email me at nick@nickdalephotography.com. My standard fee is £50 plus £10 for each dofollow link.
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I'd Rather be Lucky than Good!
In a sense, every wildlife photograph is a matter of luck. These are wild birds and animals we’re talking about, not fashion models working in a studio! You can’t tell wildlife subjects to pose, and bears and big cats are too dangerous to get close to.
Read MoreHow to Organise your Photos
Have you ever been desperately trying to find a photo that you took? Have you had to scroll endlessly through your Photos feed on your smartphone? Have you ever had to give up because it was just too hard to find? I’m sure the answer for most photographers is “Yes”, “Yes” and “Yes”! Keeping track of your photos is hard for everyone, but here are a few tips that might help.
Read MoreAddicted to AUTO...?
Are you addicted to AUTO? Do you leave your camera in AUTO mode without ever trying aperture or shutter priority, let alone manual? If so, let me be your sponsor! I can help you improve your photography by encouraging you to use different cameras, lenses, settings and rules of composition—and you won’t even need to go cold turkey!
Read MoreStills or Video?
If you’re a wildlife photographer who also shoots video, when should you take pictures and when should you film? Tricky one. I’m in the same boat, and I’m never sure of the answer. I see myself as a photographer first and foremost, so that’s my priority, but there are times when video is the right way to go.
Read MoreHow to Photograph in the Rain
Not many people like being out in the rain, and I’ve even been on a game drive with a guide who immediately turned round and went back to camp as soon as it started raining—even though we were only 20 yards down the road!
Read MoreGetting Started on Bird Photography: 10 Essential Tips
Bird photography is a uniquely accessible pastime, particularly in the age of affordable high-performance cameras. However, it can be much more involved compared to other photography-related hobbies because of the technical know-how and personal discipline needed to capture human-shy bird species.
Read MoreTop 100 Photos: Strengths and Weaknesses
I’m going to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPOTY) exhibition at the Natural History Museum in a couple of weeks to see the top 100 wildlife photographs in the world. Unfortunately, I know in advance that I’ll like hardly any of them!
Read More10 Classic Safari Shots
To my knowledge, not many photographers who go on safari put together a shot list in advance. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s worth considering so that you can make the most of your experience. The last thing you want to do is come home kicking yourself you didn’t get a shot of a leopard or a cheetah hunt.
Read MoreTypes of Light for Wildlife Photography
Light is light, right? Wrong! Light varies in colour, direction, brightness and softness throughout the day, and each type makes different demands on the photographer. You need to know how to guarantee good light and how to cope with bad light by using the right camera settings and editing techniques.
Read MoreCalibration can Make Your Images Pop!
Calibration might be the last panel in the Lightroom Develop module, but it’s by no means the least useful. I often use the Blue Primary Saturation slider to make my images ‘pop’', and you can do the same!
Read MoreHow to Avoid and Remove Noise
Noise is the bane of many wildlife photographers. It can easily ruin images shot in low light, and there’s no easy way to fix it. However, photography is all about trade-offs, and there are a number of things you can do in terms of your choice of equipment, your settings and your editing workflow that should allow you to create clean, high-quality images whatever the conditions.
Read MoreHow to Improve Your Backgrounds
By definition, the background isn’t supposed to be as important as the subject, right? Well, that may be true, but the real point should be that you usually have far more control over the background than the wildlife! Here’s a pick-and-mix list of things you can do to improve your backgrounds—either by removing something negative or adding something positive.
Read MoreHow to Shoot Handheld
The first photograph was taken in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce using a shutter speed of eight hours! He had to keep the camera still for so long that he needed a tripod. However, modern cameras and smartphones have brought shutter speeds down so far that most people shoot handheld. So what’s the best way to do it?
Read MoreDust, Air and Spume!
According to Paul Goldstein, dust, air and spume are the “Holy Trinity of wildlife photography”. The idea is to show energy and movement by showing the dust thrown up by galloping hooves, animals and birds ‘getting air’ and the spume created by action shots in water.
Read MoreClash of the Continents
I’ve taken pictures in 36 countries on all seven continents, so I thought I should talk about the best one to visit for wildlife photography. Is it North America for grizzlies and polar bears, South America for jaguars and pumas, Antarctica for penguins and seals, Europe for bears and birds, Asia for tigers, Oceania for kangaroos and duck-billed platypuses or Africa for predators and prey?!
Read MoreHow to Photograph the Big Cats
One of the most popular subjects in wildlife photography is the big cats—including the tiger, lion, jaguar, puma and cheetah. I’ve photographed all of them in the wild, and here are a few tips I picked up along the way…
Read MoreExperiment with Lens Blur
Lightroom's latest release (13.0.1) has just come out, and it offers a cool new AI feature called Lens Blur that works with any image format. It's labelled 'Early Access', so it's experimental and doesn't (yet) work with masking or presets or include sharpening, but it's a great way to add creative blur in post.
Read MoreEight Ways to Photograph Crowd Scenes
As a wildlife photographer, I find crowd scenes very difficult. I’ve just looked through my Top 100 shots of all time, and only one of them had more than four subjects!
Read MoreFieldcraft
What is ‘fieldcraft’ exactly? Well, it’s the combination of knowledge and experience that lets you maximise your chances of taking good wildlife shots by knowing where and when to go and being able to predict what happens next.
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