Wildlife Photography How To

Whether you shoot landscapes, wildlife, sports, or just about any other type of photos, if you miss focus you’ve pretty much botched the job. That’s because unsharp results are one of the most common ways to spoil an otherwise great scene.

Photographers tend to be very serious about eliminating (or at least reducing) noise in their photographs. These ugly digital artifacts tend to show up as distracting specs of grain, or random variations in color and brightness in areas of an image than should appear clean. 

Rita Kluge is a German-born freelance photographer with a passion for the sea. In this amazing series she swims with whales to capture some captivating shots of adult leviathans and their babies.

Filing the frame with the critter isn’t required for great wildlife photography. Reflecting on how I first slanted my wildlife photography in this direction, it has its roots in the first lens I had to shoot wildlife. I started with a Vivitar 400mm f/5.6 on an old Minolta that was soon replaced with a Nikon 400mm f/5.6 on an F2. That 400mm was my main lens for a long time and it taught me lessons about wildlife photography that I still depend on to this day.

This is a great time for bird photography as nests are being built, with eggs soon to hatch followed by fledglings taking flight. Best yet, you don’t have to travel far to capture stunning images, and you can often find great opportunities in your own backyard.

Bird photographer extraordinaire Tim Boyer is one of our favorite sources of quick, helpful tutorials on capturing great photos of our feathered friends. In the six-minute video below, he provides five simple tips for photographing shorebirds.

Photographing birds is a great way to try your hand at shooting wildlife because traveling to exotic locations isn’t required. All you need is a nearby park or nature reserve, and you can even get started in your own backyard.