Wildlife Photography Tutorial for Beginners
photography·@manoldonchev·
0.000 HBDWildlife Photography Tutorial for Beginners
Hello, nature lovers and other Earth inhabitants! Here I am going to show a few things and talk about a few more to those of you who would like to take a shot (was pun intended?) or two at wildlife photography and would like to improve in that field.  Some previously shown galleries and an [article of mine](https://steemit.com/archisteem/@manoldonchev/wildlife-in-the-heart-of-sofia) had enough response to make me feel there's a lot of people here who would be interested. As some of you may know, I work as a photographer. That does not mean I work as a wildlife photographer, though. Wildlife is a genre I adore and I love taking my chances with it from time to time but I still consider it a hobby. Or a future goal. While I do not consider myself a master in the genre, I have some experience, both positive and negative, so I think I will be of good service to all who want to start or have recently started. <br> ### Wildlife is difficult? Yes, generally it is but not so much that you can't start trying. Don't give up, there are problems and there are solutions. Again, I'll go through some of those. <br> ### Before I continue I want to mention important rules every responsible wildlife fan should know. We can do harm by our mere presence and despite our good intentions. So we should never be overeager and pursue the perfect shots at all costs. Some potential and quite real damage is not immediately obvious. _If we scare an animal into action, especially in cold seasons when some of nature hibernates, we may cause severe exhaustion of its stacked resources and it may not be able to recover them. And die of starvation days later._ _Scaring parent animals away from their children or even unhatched eggs, for example, may also cause lethal damage to the still dependent specimens._ _Some food which is good for us may cause severe food poisoning in some animals, especially if they are small in size. A horse is pretty much stronger than us but a sparrow should not eat that much sugar or salt._ So we'd better avoid approaching animals during hibernation, breeding seasons and when we give animals food, it better be suitable for them. We'll get back to it soon. # Alright, what do we need in terms of photo equipment and techniques? ### Do we need good zoom capabilities? <br> They definitely help since animals keep their distance. And to make a good picture _<b>it is not enough to have the animal in the frame, it should fill a good portion of the frame</b>_. Also, not just any moment will be suitable, we have to be patient and try a lot to get a beautiful moment - something interesting happening or at least a good motion or pose. Just like with people, actually. But what I want to clearly state is that a zoom lens alone will not get us close enough to an animal most of the time. Patience and correct behavior will. Sometimes luck. And sometimes a curious and even cheeky squirrel or other critter will come so close that zoom will prove to be a problem - can't go wide enough to fit all of that into the frame or make a proper composition, right? You'll see.    _Wider is sometimes good for us._ <br> ### What settings should we use? <br> Animals, especially small ones which feel more vulnerable, do move pretty fast as you can see on [this video](https://steemit.com/wildlife/@manoldonchev/new-year-s-feast-in-the-park-first-video) I published a couple of days ago. So we generally need high shutter speed to capture motion relatively well. I would recommend faster than 1/500 part of a second and even faster than 1/1000 of a second with small birds flapping their wings - the faster, the better. But here come the problems and the great compromises we have to make. A wood is darker than a field. And winter is darker than summer in general. And so we need ways to let enough light reach the sensor in order to afford such high shutter speeds. Wide open aperture helps - a wider hole means a broader beam of light reaching in. But we cannot go indefinitely wide, so at some point we have to increase ISO settings to make the sensor more sensitive. But noise occurs. So it's about balance. And in the end sometimes I personally settle for more noise and for a lower speed and thus - more motion blur. You get to know what the boundaries are by trial and error. Depending on your taste. I can eat some noise (i.e. grains in my image). Can you? ### How do pros do it? (Don't worry, we'll see how we do it soon after that.) They usually have those monster lenses, but that is far from it. They wake up hours before dawn. They camouflage themselves or use hideouts and they go in them or they prostrate themselves in the mud long before the sun lights the swamp surface. And in order not to trouble the inhabitants they will wait for the day to end and then crawl back quietly after the animals are again asleep. I don't do that yet. This is why I am not a master. ### But we have to start somewhere, right? We can start in our garden or in the park. Yup, we start practicing with animals in urban or rural environment. Or other places where they've seen more people and grew more patient about them. Make a feeder. Bring some seeds. Raw and without salt, remember? Then just be patient.   <br> You don't like the ugly feeder in the frame? Well, frame without it or just crop the image afterwards like in the example below. <br>   _See how wings are not perfectly captured at a speed slower than 1/1000? Next time will be better, right?_ <br> Animals in that park are pretty accustomed to people but according to regular visitors, that took time. So don't worry if it does not work at once. It will at some point. Animals tend to choose the easiest way to find food and once they check out and confirm it is safe, it will work. <br>   _I even went close myself and took a wide angle shot at that one from closer than one meter._ <br> ### That will be it for now but feel free to leave questions. And I will be happy if you share your experience. --- ### Finally This tutorial is also an update to the gallery that I provide for free to be used as editorial material in blog posts across the Steem blockchain. The easiest way to use any of those is by right-clicking and choosing Copy Image Adress, then pasting it in your post. But you may also save those and add your own changes if you like - like inverting colors, cropping, adding text, removing or adding elements, etc. ### All other available images Here's the link to the [project](https://fundition.io/#!/@manoldonchev/rewhqftcc) with links to all other galleries in the description and in the News section. Be sure to check it out for updates. That is also the place where you may support my initiative if you feel like it. ### This way you help me as an artist and you help others pick from a greater number of images to enhance their own works. Backers of the project will also receive large files of their choice as rewards. This week's update adds up to a bank that will be continually growing (it has reached a total of about 130 photos so far). And it will be growing faster when I get your support. Please, read my conditions in the link above and do help yourselves to any image that you would like to use. Just remember to mention the source. --- Take care and until next time! Yours, Manol <center>[](www.steemit.com/@steemitbloggers)</center>