Archive for 'Instructional'
Learning wildlife photography – Behaviour is compelling
Posted on 08. Jan, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
Behaviour is compelling – Having a portfolio of wonderful animal portraits is great, but the images that stand out are the images where the animals are displaying some sort of behaviour. By studying a species and researching its characteristics you give yourself…
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Learning wildlife photography – The three B’s
Posted on 07. Jan, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
Learning wildlife photography – The three B’s – In an earlier article on my series on learning wildlife photography, I covered the three P’s of patience, patience and well, patience.
The three B’s are equally important and really contribute to making an image compelling and distinct. And to summarize, the three B’s of wildlife photography are…
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Learning wildlife photography – Making sharper images – Part 3
Posted on 06. Jan, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
Learning wildlife photography – Making sharper images – Part 3 – In this final instalment on making sharper images, we’ll discuss a few more things to think about when you’re trying to make the…
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Learning wildlife photography – Making sharper images – Part 2
Posted on 05. Jan, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
Making sharper images – Part 2 – In the last post I discussed some of the finer points of using your camera’s auto focusing features to help compose an image and get what’s important (the eyes!) in focus. Let’s look at some additional factors that go into making sharp images.
Lenses – The higher quality the lens, the better images it can produce. And unfortunately…
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Learning wildlife photography – Making sharper images – Part 1
Posted on 02. Jan, 2009 by Paul Burwell.
Making sharper images – Part 1 – A lot of wildlife photography is dependant on the use of telephoto,telephoto-zooms and super telephoto lenses to make reasonable images of small subjects or larger animals off in the distance. When you use a telephoto lens, you need a new set of techniques in order to ensure that you end up with sharp images. Nothing is more frustrating than…
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Learning wildlife photography – Getting close
Posted on 30. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.
Getting close – There can be few things more frustrating than figuring out how to get close to wildlife. One option is to photograph captive animals at a game farm, animal park or zoo. Another is to go to places where the animals are known to congregate fairly reliably like a wildlife refuge’s blind or attend a wildlife photography tour. And the third method, and the one that takes the most effort by the photographer, is to learn about the animals, learn where they are likely…
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Learning wildlife photography – Lighting
Posted on 29. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.
Lighting – Learning to see the light and interpret how it will look in an image is a critical skill for a wildlife photographer. The early and late light of the day is often the best light of the day and fortunately coincides with the times when many animals are most active. On the other hand, photographing under high overcast skies…
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Learning wildlife photography – Composition
Posted on 27. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.
Composition – Like all types of photography, the way a wildlife photograph is composed creates the drama and interest in a captivating image. The space around an animal and the angle you photograph an animal from are all important considerations.
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Learning wildlife photography – The three P’s
Posted on 24. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.
The three P’s are (in no particular order), patience, patience and finally patience.
In my experience, there is no other commodity of more value to the wildlife photographer than patience; the patience to get up early to meet the sunrise and find some wildlife, only to discover that the animals have missed the appointment; the patience to find a cooperative subject who doesn’t flee on site; the patience to watch and learn an animal’s behaviour. And, the patience to keep persevering when, after all other conditions were perfect, it just wasn’t the day for any compelling images to be made.
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Learning wildlife photograhy – Natural history
Posted on 23. Dec, 2008 by Paul Burwell.
Natural History – Members of the public are often amazed at the great wildlife photographs they see. When a casual photographer gets close enough to take wildlife shots they are often frustrated at the images they produce. A professional wildlife photographer has learned where to go to find the photographic opportunities and developed a knack for anticipating behaviours. It is through this anticipation and experience that truly memorable behavioural shots are created.
One approach to wildlife photography is to drive randomly around a location hoping to come across something worth photograhing. Another approach, and the one I prefer, is to do some research. I’ll target a species or two that I’m interested in photographing. Then I’ll spend some time Googling for information about the species to learn their habits and the sort of locales they tend to hand out. With that information in hand I’ll build myself a route to follow that is most likely to give me an opportunity to photograph the species I’m looking for.
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