• Do not be in a hurry. Patience is key as you cannot control nature and are a guest. You must wait for the perfect shot to come. Ansel Adams spent hours waiting for his shots.
• Be prepared for anything – When you go to the wilderness things can happen that could mess you up. Come with extra equipment, lens cleaners, etc. I went to the mountains in the snow once and got a massive brown glob in the middle of my lens.
• Be ready for any photo that can come – With nature, there are many great opportunities that are available but many of them are fleeting. Having your camera out and ready for the right settings will save you the missed opportunity.
• Shoot large animals from a distance using telephoto lenses. This saves the many hours needed to build comfort with them. I once tried taking pictures of wild donkeys by becoming their friend. It never happened.
• Stay your distance – If you get too close the “natural” element may be disturbed as the animals may be starring at the camera.
• Photograph small animals and wildlife closer since they will look very small.
• Learn to take pictures of moving objects.

There are many people that also use white balance wrong and make pictures look very ugly. There are certain color tones that work better with certain types of images. For example, skin tones work better with reddish color temperatures than with green color temperatures. Of course, I did hear about a man that had blue skin so in his case the green would work better.

Controlling the white balance is very easy. Usually there is a button you push for manual control. When you push the button make sure the camera is pointing at something white. If you point it at something off white the color balance will be set different. Setting the white balance to a white piece of paper in a room will make all the colors look normal. This can be good and bad as well. If you lit a scene to look yellowish and white balance a white piece of paper the whole yellowish color from the lights will disappear and the scene will look as if there were no yellow lights. To fix this problem, white balance before you put the yellow gels on.

Yes, I mentioned safety rules in the “Zoo-Specific Rules of Behavior” just prior to this topic. It bears repeating and expanding upon. Zoo animals are NOT housepets. They are not trained and tamed cuddly plush toys. The lion licking the glass in front of your face is not being cute, it is trying to find out if you taste good. Zoo rules are there to protect the animals and you. Never ever cross safety barriers. This includes sticking your camera lens through and over fences. The fun at getting and ultra-close-up shot of an ostrich is over when that bird uses its large beak to peck the camera lens or worse.

Your behavior does not affect only you. How you behave reflects directly on every other person with a camera. If you make life miserable for the other visitors, staff, and animals you affect the ability of other photographer’s to enjoy the zoo later on. If you are polite, friendly, and considerate you help to ensure that photography at zoos will remain permitted and perhaps be expanded.

The basic way to avoid condensation is to gradually bring your camera through these extreme temperature changes by sealing it inside a bag containing air the same temperature as the camera is acclimatized to. This way, any condensation forms on the bag instead of the camera as the air and camera gradually equalize to the new environment. In practice, this usually results in the photographer freezing in his/her car because he/she doesn’t want to wait for the camera to cool off when he/she gets to the photo location.

The opposite is also true. If your camera goes into a cold air area and the camera is warmer than the dew point then condensation can form.

Panning is achieved by having a subject that is moving and following the subjects motion as closely as you can. This makes the camera seem to be still with the subject where only the background is moving.

The way to achieve panning is to be parallel to the subject and follow the subjects movement parallel as well. Slow shutter speeds are needed for this panning. 1/60th of a second or slower will work fine.

• Slow Shutter Speed
• Follow Subject Parallel

Simple digital cameras are nice and are getting very high tech now. My sister recently purchased a digital camera that has 12 megapixels! Of course, it’s all automatic and there is no room for any manual controls. Which is great for her since she doesn’t have to worry about me ever asking to borrow it.

An SLR camera is the best choice for photographers that are serious. It gives you full control over your image. Here are various features that are a must for any serious photographer.

• Manual Shutter Speed
• Manual Focus (preferrably the focus ring)
• White Balance
• Removable Lens
• ISO Control

There are, of course, many other features that are great. However, if I ever purchased a camera without the features above I’d hope I saved the reciept.

When finding a camera make sure it not only has all the features you need but will withstand what you need it to go through. A dourable camera is a must for any natural photographer. This is especially true for the photographers venturing off into the wild rainforests of South Africa to catch that perfect shot of the lion and his cubs.

The lens can be as important or even more than the actual camera. Having an awful lense will be very obvious. Do not go cheap on the lens as this will come back at you when you look at the pictures you took.

Taking photographs at the middle of night may be somewhat more difficult since the sky is probably pitch black and there will be more blak in the photo. Shooting night photos when the sun is almost down will yield more interesting results as there is still some color in the sky.

The equipment needed for night photography is basically a camera and a tripod. The camera will, of course, be used to take the picture. Make sure the camera has SLR controls and the shutter speed can be changed. The shutter speed will be set very long so as to give enough time for the light that is present to expose the image. The tripod is used so that the camera doesn’t shake when the photo is being exposed. What is also needed is also a shakeless finger.

When you take a picture with a very long shutter speed the movement that your finger makes when hitting the shutter speed and releasing or holding may make the photo blurry. To resolve this problem a self timed shot could be taken or a wireless shutter could be attached to the camera.

Infrared Photography is not actually 100% infrared but partially. The image is made by using thermal images. There are filters and specific cameras that can take infrared photos but they are very expensive. And as for stock photography, getting infrared photography equipment seems sort of worthless as not many people are interested in buying infrared photos. Infrared photographs can be made on photoshop for free.

Yes, I mentioned safety rules in the “Zoo-Specific Rules of Behavior” just prior to this topic. It bears repeating and expanding upon. Zoo animals are NOT housepets. They are not trained and tamed cuddly plush toys. The lion licking the glass in front of your face is not being cute, it is trying to find out if you taste good. Zoo rules are there to protect the animals and you. Never ever cross safety barriers. This includes sticking your camera lens through and over fences. The fun at getting and ultra-close-up shot of an ostrich is over when that bird uses its large beak to peck the camera lens or worse.

Your behavior does not affect only you. How you behave reflects directly on every other person with a camera. If you make life miserable for the other visitors, staff, and animals you affect the ability of other photographer’s to enjoy the zoo later on. If you are polite, friendly, and considerate you help to ensure that photography at zoos will remain permitted and perhaps be expanded.

The basic way to avoid condensation is to gradually bring your camera through these extreme temperature changes by sealing it inside a bag containing air the same temperature as the camera is acclimatized to. This way, any condensation forms on the bag instead of the camera as the air and camera gradually equalize to the new environment. In practice, this usually results in the photographer freezing in his/her car because he/she doesn’t want to wait for the camera to cool off when he/she gets to the photo location.

The opposite is also true. If your camera goes into a cold air area and the camera is warmer than the dew point then condensation can form.

Depth of field refers to the amount of area of the photo that is in the field of focus. Having a large depth of field would mean that there is a large amount of the picture in focus. Likewise, a small depth of field would mean that a small area of the picture is in focus where the rest is out of focus.

Shallow depth of field is what a small depth of field is referred to as. This is seen in pictures such as when a subject is in the foreground and the entire background is blurry and out of focus.

Expansive depth of field is when there is a large depth of field and the entire or most of the photo is in focus. This is the type of focus used for large landscape photos where the massive mountains in the background are as sharply focused as the rocks in the foreground.

Manipulating depth of field can be as easy as messing around with the focus controls of your camera. However, there are other ways also. Changing the aperture level will yield depth of field changes. A small depth of field would need a smaller aperture number. Having a smaller aperture will make a wider lens opening. Likewise, the larger the aperture the more in focus the image will be. Having a larger aperture number will make the lens opening smaller thus letting in less light.

Having a smaller opening will make the image much more sharper and darker as well.

If you’ve ever been out on a cold day having a cup of tea in a see through glass you’ve probably noticed that when you breathed into the cup mist appeared. This mist is water that forms on the surface of something that is either colder than everything else or warmer than everything else. If you put your camera into an area where there is warm air then condensation will appear. If your camera is in a cold area and the camera itself is warmer than everything around it then condensation also will appear.

Condensation is not something that photographers like to take pictures of when it is forming on their lenses. To avoid this problem, bring the object of different temperatures to the surrounding temperature gradually. Condensation will also occur if you are in a cold area and breath into the lens or camera equipment. Not a smart idea.

When the weather is cold the batteries will lose their power much faster. If you are going out in the cold to shoot photos for a week then make sure to bring extra batteries.

The basic way to avoid condensation is to gradually bring your camera through these extreme temperature changes by sealing it inside a bag containing air the same temperature as the camera is acclimatized to. This way, any condensation forms on the bag instead of the camera as the air and camera gradually equalize to the new environment. In practice, this usually results in the photographer freezing in his/her car because he/she doesn’t want to wait for the camera to cool off when he/she gets to the photo location.

The opposite is also true. If your camera goes into a cold air area and the camera is warmer than the dew point then condensation can form.

• Panning
• Extremely Fast Shutter Speed

If you are panning you must make sure you are following the subject in a parallel line otherwise the subject will be blurry along with everything else. This is very difficult to pull off right if you are taking a picture of a subject that you are in no control over.

Having a fast shutter speed will freeze everything. If you take a picture of rain falling with a fast enough shutter speed you’ll see the rain and it won’t be blurred. This is very easy to use and can make interesting shots.

Taking action photography is all about being ready to shoot the picture. You cannot hesitate and must be ready for that shot. It could be there one second and gone the next.