Photo Tips for Wildlife Shooting (contd..)

Tip 1 (Look for the animal's behaviour): Typically, if you have been watching the animal for some time, you will get to know the kind of behavior that the animal exhibits and be able to predict the behavior. So, if the animal is stalking a prey, and you have been observing this behavior for some time, you will be able to know with a fair degree of accuracy as to when you need to be ready with your camera.

Tip 2 (Try and get the eye in the shot): If you want your wildlife photos to be noticed, you need to be aware of what attracts people. People are attracted towards photographs that show the face and the eyes (even if the photo is those of animals). If it turns out that you are using some great zoom lenses that have a shallow depth of field, be sure to concentrate on getting the eyes in focus. If the eyes are not in focus, then there better a very striking feature that is instead the focus point.

Tip 3 (Timings): I believe I have stated this earlier, but it is worthy of repeating. Animals normally make their appearances in the transition between day and night, so dawn and dusk are when you will have the best chance of catching animals in your cameras.

Tip 4 (Learn to use equipment silently): Animals (especially wildlife) do not stand unknown sounds and will vanish if they hear something out of the ordinary. If your zoom lens does not have a silent motor, or the click when you take a photo is noticeable, there is a very good chance that your ability to get some good shots of wildlife will get compromised.

Tip 5 (Be unobtrusive): You might consider yourself to walk silently, but you may be actually be making a huge amount of noise, enough to scare away most animals. What you need to do is to compensate for your presence through using some techniques, such as knowing the timings of animals, which are the paths they follow (so that you can plan to be there long earlier), or even using equipment such as a remote trigger that means you can keep a slightly better distance from the animal.