Nature Photography How To

While everyone’s definition of “extreme” is a little different, the one thing that can be said of extreme outdoor photography is it involves leaving the car far behind and dealing with whatever difficulties present themselves without running for cover. To help get you ready for your next extreme shoot, here are my seven most important tools for working in the wild under tough conditions.

The LensCoat LensHide is a clever camouflage covering that conceals both the photographer and his or her camera gear for stealth, undercover nature photography.

Nature photography may encompass grand landscapes or large wild animals, but it can also incorporate the smallest of objects. There is an entire delicate world of light, beauty, color and form in macro photography. Wonders that can be documented while on vacation on a tropical island, in a national park or even in your backyard. I have spent mornings lying in a bed of wildflowers, moving no more than a few feet, recording everything from the dew on a spider web to the shape of a purple iris. I am often surprised and rarely disappointed.

If you’ve visited Shutterbug’s galleries, you’ve likely seen Douglas Croft’s splendid work. A specialist in nature, outdoor, and travel photography, Croft’s gorgeous images have received glowing remarks from fellow Shutterbug readers.

Kamchatka, Eastern Russia: I am standing at the crater rim of the active Tolbachik volcano, taking pictures. Suddenly the volcano spits out a red-glowing lava bomb that is heading precisely in my direction. Luckily enough it doesn’t hit me but lands just by my side. Although afraid at first, I delightedly grab my camera: this is a rare opportunity to take close-up shots from still very hot and glowing cinder bombs.

My wide-angle lens was perfect when the late-evening shadows crept across the mountains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The sweeping landscape, wide open and treeless, was suited to the wide field of view. Until, that is, the weather turned, and with it, my perspective on that wild place. I woke one morning to rain pattering intermittently on the nylon of my tent. Between showers, I emerged to find the mountains obscured by scudding clouds.