Tips on Animal Photography

Photographing animals is one of the hardest types of photography.  The basic thing you want to remember is that you might get one or two good shots out of forty.  In order to compose the perfect animal photograph you need to have time and patience.  Sometimes you can take one photo and have it be perfect, but other times you can take fifty and not like one of them.  So here are six tips on photographing animals.

Action...It took me about twenty shots to get just the right action photo of these three.  I just kept taking shots one after another.  Animals tend to be spontaneous and you should keep a camera on you at all times in order to get really good shots.

This shot has nice back lighting, I also like the the patches of light filtering through the tree they add a nice abstract pattern.  Make sure you shutter speed is set fast, or your camera is in action/ sport mode.

The natural lighting gives the photo a more natural feel.  Although using lights, can give the photo a dramatic feel, I have found most animals are not patient enough to wait for you to get the lightging just right. 

Panning...These two cows are native of India.  I took this shot out of a bus window.  The shadows give the cows form.  Because this is a pan shot, the background is blurry.  A pan shot is where you or the subject is moving and you keep the camera on the subject at all times, so only the subject is in focus.  It is also nice to have the subject not centered, it frames this picture better.  

Posed...I put Tigger, my cat on one of his favorite chairs and let him lay down.  He is very docile, mostly because he is 17 years old, but I made sure he was comfortable and petted him a lot.  I then sat on the floor level to the chair and used the chair to frame the bottom.  The flash lit the front, and I like how the background becomes darker.  I chose this chair because the pattern is similar to Tigger's fur, and it calms the photo down to have similary colored objects.

Multiple...This photo is fun, but could have been better if I had moved closer to the railing and put myself more in the sun.

I took this at a horse show, and the horses are  in a nice pattern.  With multiple animals you want to be careful about how the animals interact.  Since these horses work together once to twice a week, it is safe to have them in this postion as long as all the riders pay close attention.

Silhoutte... The horses are hard to see, but I like how the viewer has to look to see the magic of this photo.  It is not just any other sunset, the subject is not just the sun.  I just snapped this picture and hoped for the best.  The sun has almost set which is the reason it is so dark.  The photo would have been ruined if I had used a flash so I just clicked.  In order to achieve a silhoutte the light needs to be behind the subject and the light sensor needs to pick up light from the background

Wildlife... When taking photographs of wild animals, make sure that you are a safe distance away, and the animal knows you are there, so you do not startle them when you take the photo.  The animals need to be comfortable with you, so they don't attack.  These are wild kangaroos in Australia, and they were comfortable around people because they live near a Cave Tour Program, and are fed so tourists can take photos.

The top rules of animal photography are:  be patient, don't rush, allow for a lot of time, if the animal gets bored don't make them sit still, make sure the animal is comfortable, be aware of the surroundings and always have a camera handy.  Oh yeah, be really patient!