4 Rules Of Wildlife Photography

Who doesn’t like photographing wildlife? I mean, most people do. You just have to take a safari to a wildlife sanctuary to find the number of people from all walks of life trying to capture the animals with their cameras. In this short ‘help’ article, I will try and guide you with some ‘do’s and don’ts’ that could possibly make you a better wildlife photographer. Do keep in mind that not everything is covered and what may work for one photographer may not necessarily work for another.

- Rohinton Mehta

The first rule of wildlife photography can be summed up in this famous quote by an anonymous wildlife photographer: “ If you are running short on patience, forget wildlife photography”.

Sorry guys, I just made that up! Even then, its 100-percent true. If you are short on patience, wildlife photography is not for you; you may as well try some other activity. You cannot order an animal/bird to do what you may want it to do. For example, you cannot command an animal to look into the camera lens. If you want that animal to look straight into the lens, you will have to wait till it decides to do so. In other words, the name of the game is ‘patience’.

You may wait patiently, say for an hour, but then something startles the animal, and off it goes into the thick. Frustration? That’s the challenge of wildlife photography; patience does not necessarily equate to a ‘national geographic’ shot. Remember, when a wild animal hunts, not every hunt is successful; we need to learn from this fact; we also need to realize that lady luck too plays a very important role in wildlife photography.