Nature Photography Photo Workshop

7.6. WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY

You will likely encounter situations where you're out shooting nature, and lo and behold, there's a wild animal (see 7-25). Photographing wildlife in nature is an entire genre of its own and as such deserves its own study, not to mention books that specialize on the subject.

Being able to work quickly and confidently without disturbing the animal is essential to getting good wildlife shots. Wildlife will often be at some, possibly great, distance from you, which requires long lenses for good pictures. 300mm is a reasonable minimum for most situations; many serious wildlife photographers use lenses of 500mm, 1000mm, and more to get right into the action.

With all wildlife photography, paying close attention to the animals' behavior and anticipating their movements helps you make better photographs. Some photographers set up camouflage blinds, similar to those used by hunters, to hide their presence and allow them to observe the animals unnoticed. Though you may not choose to go to these lengths, remaining calm and quiet while you work is critical.

Figure 7-24. ABOUT THIS PHOTO Image of rock and water (ISO 800, f/14, 1/2 sec. taken with a Canon EF 70-200mm lens). The rock was in shade; the bright highlights are reflections of the cloudless sky. I wanted to distill the photo down to its simplest elements and emphasize the glow of the water as a field of color juxtaposed against the texture of the rock. The bright line of specular reflection separating the ...