Article

Wildlife Photography

When we look at wildlife photography we open up a wide range of photographic situations and an even wider range of projects or subjects that we could photograph.

Our interest may be in birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects, or mammals, or other specialist group, however most of us will want to photograph all types of wildlife and in a variety of settings and situations.

To start with the interest may be like that of a hunter, shooting your subject, and ticking them off a target list. The challenge being to capture images of as many creatures as we are able, the rarer and more difficult it is to achieve the greater achievement is experienced. Birds in particular can hold an addictive drive to search out all rarities and track down every one.

Many of us soon tire of this hunter/achiever approach and its often the behaviour and creature within its habitat that we want to photograph. In many ways we are observing, recording, and becoming familiar with variations and cycles within the birds or animals life. So its not a case of see a greater spotted woodpecker, tick it off, and move on, but what can we discover and record of its way of life, what it eats, the difference in look between the male and females and the young. Can we tell the difference between one adult male and another and how do they interact between themselves, with other birds and with us. These are very dominant birds on the feeding station able to hold their own even against much larger birds, but are also on occasions taken by birds of prey.

We are lucky in that we have such a wide variety of wildlife available to us, without going out especially looking for it you will see over 100 types of bird in a year, and very many mammals and other creatures. If we take a greater interest we can search out without great difficulty far more, for example 7 types of deer are wild in Britain at present and at least the majority of these can also be seen and photographed in deer parks where they are easier to see and photograph.

Photographing wildlife is also a safe pursuit here, nothing is going to try to eat us, we may find the odd sea bird that is protective about its space, or horses that kick out if we were unwise enough to try and creep up on it from behind, and of course it would not be wise to get in between two male deer in the rutting season. So providing we act sensibly, we are not likely to come to any harm.

Cost wise, we can choose to get more equipment but within the article looking at equipment, we also look at how this can be done with no budget or a small one. Access however to most wild and county locations is free and the overall cost of taking up wildlife photography as a hobby is less expensive than many others. We have large numbers of reserves, many with free entry and if we join the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust we can enter their sites as many times as we like, during the course of our membership. Similarly joining the RSPB, gives us access to their sites, but a great many of their sites are free for everyone to enter.

We have some articles available now and many more planned that will open up many more areas of wildlife photography, take a look at :-