Capture 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.

Note: Some blog posts contain affiliate links to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

How 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.

How 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?

Dust, 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.

Clash 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?!

How 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…

Windy Paine

Sea lions, penguins, foxes, pumas, guanacos, rheas, condors, short-eared owls, American tourists, Spanish speakers, Singer sewing machines, waterfalls, sunshine, snow, rain, lenticular clouds, wind, wind and more wind—and did I mention the wind?! That’s what you get when you travel to Torres del Paine in Chile.

Dress for Success!

Wherever you go in the world to take pictures, it’s important to wear the right clothing. I’ve worked as a photographer in 26 countries on all seven continents, so I thought I’d give you the lowdown on what I usually wear in different places and in different conditions.

Experiment 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.

Accessorise!

If you want to buy a camera or lens for wildlife photography, there are probably millions of online articles to give you all the advice you need, but what about accessories? Tripods, filters and cleaning kits might not be as sexy, but when you need them, you really need them!

The Two-second Rule

How long does it take you to get ready to photograph something? If it’s more than two seconds, you might miss your chance. The ‘two-second rule’ is a way of crystallising the importance of being ready at all times. Birds fly away, animals turn their backs, and some idiot in your vehicle might drop something and scare off all the wildlife!

Sony ⍺1 Field Test

I’ve been using my pair of Sony ⍺1 cameras for a couple of years now, and I thought it would be worth doing a proper field test. I’ve just come back from a couple of weeks in the Serengeti photographing the Mara river crossing, so how did they perform?

Eight 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!

Mara River Crossing

Beautiful women, power cuts, cold water, wildebeest, rain, laughter, one business class seat and 78,000 photos. That’s what I got when I went to see the Mara river crossing in the Serengeti National Park!

Fieldcraft

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.

Get to Know Your Camera Gear!

I often meet guests on safari who have just bought a new camera but haven’t had a chance to work out how to use it properly. They couldn’t be bothered to read the manual, they didn’t have time to take any pictures or they were supposed to go on a course, but they were too busy…

When to Abandon Default Settings

When you become a wildlife photographer, people give you lots of instructions about how to take pictures. They’re all good starting points, but the rules don’t always apply!

Find a Travel Company you Like and Stick with it!

Professionals like Andy Skillen are funded by the BBC and other clients to go on photographic trips around the world. The rest of us have to make do with booking our own—often at great expense! So what’s the solution?

Create a Shot List

I have to confess that I very rarely make a shot list. The problem is that I’m a freelance wildlife photographer, so I don’t have clients to satisfy, and I’m happy to take pictures of whatever I happen to see. As Matt Kloskowski is fond of saying, I ‘embrace the chaos’!

Experiment with Different Styles

Have you ever taken a slow pan shot or used focus stacking? Have you taken macro shots of the insects in your garden or stayed up all night to photograph star trails? If you haven’t, maybe you need to experiment a little bit more!

Coping with the Cold

When I went to Sweden, the cold broke my tripod. When I went to Canada, the cold broke my lens. When I went to Antarctica, the cold broke my camera. I could go on…!

Extremely low temperatures can wreak havoc with your photography gear, so here are a few lessons I’ve learned in the past few years to help you cope with the cold.