Recent Animal Articles

Are You Getting Too Close To Your Animal Subjects?

When it comes to bird and wildlife photography, getting as close as possible without disturbing the animal is often the name of the game. However, there is an issue of geometry that can sometimes ruin your shot. This excellent video will show you why sometimes, you are better off getting farther away from your subject to get the best possible shot.

5 Helpful Dog Photography Tips From The Dogist

Dog photography can be a tremendously fun and rewarding genre, but it also takes a fair amount more skill than it might seem on the surface. Whether it is something you would like to make money from or you are simply trying to capture some nice memories of your own pups, check out this great video tutorial that features an experienced dog photographer sharing five useful tips to improve your work.

This "Dogist" Has Photographed Over 50,000 Dogs

Elias Weiss Friedman, better known as The Dogist, has photographed over 50,000 dogs in his career, and as such, he has learned a thing or two along the way. If you are a lover of dogs and photography, check out this fantastic video interview with The Dogist, in which he reveals why he prefers photographing dogs over people and offers a lot of fun insight into his work.

The Journey to Finding Your Style as a Photographer

Are you struggling to find your style as a photographer? In teaching photography, I am often asked how you even know what your style should be. This is both the easiest and hardest question. Let me explain why.

Check Out This Amazing DIY Pond for Filming Wildlife

One of the most difficult aspects of wildlife and bird photography is finding your subjects and having the patience to wait for them to come into position in frame. So, what if you could make your own spot that you knew would attract wildlife? This photographer and filmmaker designed and built his own pond for bird and wildlife photography, and this awesome video shows the location and the beautiful footage he gets there.

Can You Take Decent Bird Shots in Low Light With a Narrow Aperture?

Bird photography is a genre that requires long focal lengths, wide apertures, and fast shutter speeds, making it a nightmare scenario for consumer zooms. So, can you still get good photos in challenging low-light situations? This great video takes a look.

5 Helpful Tips to Improve Your Bird Photography

Bird photography is a difficult but fun genre that requires a combination of specialized technique, patience, creativity, and knowledge of how birds behave in order to get successful results. If you would like to improve your bird photography, check out this fantastic tutorial that will show you five tips sure to put you on the track to better images.

How to Photograph Shy Birds

Birds are some of the more easily spooked creatures out there, and as such, it can be particularly tricky to get close enough to photograph them before they fly away. One particularly useful tool is a blind, and this awesome video will show you both what it is and how it is used.

Winners: Picfair's Urban Wildlife Contest

Andrew Interisano, a digital advertising specialist and an amateur photographer, has won Picfair's Urban Wildlife Photography Awards. Scroll to see all of the category winners! Of note, all of Picfair's profits on winners print sales will go to global conservation non-profit Re:Wild.

Learn How This Eagle Photo Was Shot and Edited From Start to Finish

Bird photography is a challenging genre that requires a lot of patience and skill, but when you get things right, the results can be really rewarding. If you would like to improve your work, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you how a photographer shot and edited an eagle photo from start to finish.

Tips for Photographing the World's Largest Land Predator in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic

Have you ever thought of taking a trip to the sub-Arctic or Arctic to photograph polar bears and their habitat? Ever thought it might be your destiny to come nose-to-nose with the largest predator living on land? My latest article for Bradt Guides' Travel Club is all about taking photos of polar bears and their environment. I thought I'd share some of the tips and photos here.

Are You Ready For Back in Person? Consider HOWL, an Ethical Wildlife Photography Conference

As the world slowly opens back up, it's time to consider photography conventions as a means to link back up with like-minded photographers. Postponed last year in the shadow of COVID-19, HOWL, A Wildlife Photo Convention is back. Even if you don't live close to Whitney, Ontario, the gateway to Algonquin, you can still attend virtually. HOWL is running October 21, 22, and 23, 2022.

How To Nail Your Exposure in Bird Photography Every Time

With fast action and rapidly changing backdrops, getting the correct exposure can be a real challenge in bird photography. With the right techniques and a bit of practice, however, you can ensure consistently correct exposures, and this fantastic video tutorial will show you everything you need to know.

How to Become a Successful Bird Photographer

Bird photography is not an easy genre in which to find success; it takes a fair amount of both specialized equipment and knowledge (a lot of which is outside photography) along with a lot of time, patience, and effort to find success. This great video features a few seasoned bird photographers discussing how to navigate the road to success in bird photography and some of the important lessons they learned along the way.

5 Great Tips to Help You Take Better Pet Portraits

Whether you want to do it professionally, donate your talents to a shelter, or just want to create some nice memories of your favorite pup or kitty, pet photography can be a tremendously fun and rewarding thing to do. No matter why you are doing it, this excellent video tutorial featuring an experienced pet photographer will give you five great tips that are sure to help you get better results.

Picfair's Urban Wildlife Photography Awards

Picfair is sponsoring a new Urban Wildlife Photography Awards competition intended to celebrate our growing connection with urban wildlife. Enter here. Hurry, entries close May 31, 2022 at midnight.

How to Take a Great Bird Photo From Start to Finish

Bird photography is a challenging genre, requiring top-level technique, specialized equipment, and an excellent understanding of animal behavior to produce compelling images, but when you get it all right, the results can be stunning. If you would like to improve your bird photos, check out this fantastic video tutorial by an experienced bird photographer that will show you everything that goes into making a compelling bird image from start to finish.

Call for Entry: The Mkapa African Wildlife Photography Awards

Following the success of its inaugural competition last year, the African Wildlife Foundation and Nature's Best Photography have launched the second annual Mkapa African Wildlife Photo Awards. Get your entries in before the June 1, 2022 deadline.

How to Capture Sharp Photos of Birds in Flight

When it comes to photos of birds in flight, few other things matter if the final image is not sharp. If you would like to make sure your photos of birds in flight are nice and crisp, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will give you a range of tips as well as a nice discussion on what makes a compelling image of a bird in flight.

What You Need to Know to Take Fantastic Pet Photos

Whether you want to make it a business, volunteer your time and skills for shelter pets in need, or just want to create better memories of your own furry friends, pet photography is a specialized skill that takes some careful technique and knowledge. If you are ready to improve your pet photography, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you everything you need to know from the best gear to lighting, camera settings, working with treats, and more.

Five Keys to Working in the Adventure Travel Industry With G Adventures, Frontiers North, and Oryx Photo Tours

Wanted: Photographers to shoot in exotic, sometimes inaccessible locales. Needed: Photographer to set up shop and work with clients among the icebergs and penguins of Antarctica, the bears and icy tundra of Hudson Bay, the apex predators on the wide-open veldts of the Serengeti or Maasai Mara. If this sounds like something you yearn for, how does the position of photography guide sound?

Can You Do Wildlife Photography on a Budget?

When it comes to serious wildlife photography, it generally takes some of the most advanced equipment out there to get the best possible shots, as you will often be dealing with situations with low light and a faraway subject, requiring fast shutter speeds, quick burst rates, great autofocus, and lenses with long focal lengths and large apertures. However, such equipment is often extremely expensive. So, what can you accomplish with low-end budget gear? This great video takes a look.

How to Do Clamshell Lighting

There are lots of lighting techniques to learn, some simple, some complex, and they all offer something a bit different. One of my personal favorites is clamshell lighting and in this video, learn how to do it and when it will work particularly well.

Is the Nikon Z9 the Best Wildlife Camera Ever?

The last few years have seen a slew of new and impressive cameras. Nikon's newest mirrorless body has been turning heads, so one veteran wildlife photographer takes it into the field to give an honest review.

Check Out This Photographer's Incredible Dedication to Getting the Shot

Some genres need remarkable levels of patience along with all the usual requirements regarding creativity and technique to get the shot. How long could you wait to get the image you wanted? This photographer waited multiple days for the perfect photo, and as this video shows, the results were worth the wait.

Behind the Scenes of Bird Photography in the Jungle With Great Tips

Bird photography is tremendously difficult and so is photographing in a jungle. So, it follows that photographing birds in a jungle will require a lot of skill in patience. Watch as two veteran wildlife photographers go through recent shots and offer some tips and mistakes to avoid.

5 Helpful Tips for Bird Photography

Bird photography is a challenging and fun genre that takes a lot of good technique, patience, understanding of animal behavior, and creativity to make compelling images. Whether you are new to the genre or a seasoned pro, this awesome video tutorial will give you five excellent tips that are sure to help you produce better photos.

8 Tips for Taking Photos at the End of the Earth

I recently wrote a piece for Bradt Guides' Travel Club offering tips on how to get the most out of a trip to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. I, for one, am feeling serious withdrawal from travel. If you're planning a trip to Antarctica or love landscapes and wildlife, climb aboard.

How to Take Better Indoor Pet Photographs

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the season of shorter days and more time spent indoors is upon us. Indoor pet photography can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to result in leaving the camera down until spring.

How to Improve Your Wildlife Photography With the Topaz Image Quality Bundle

As a professional nature photographer, Topaz DeNoise is an essential part of my workflow. I had heard about it for years, but since I owned Lightroom and Photoshop, I didn’t add Topaz into my software library until last spring. I was late to the party, but at least I can save you the trouble. Just DeNoise alone is worth every penny. Come see why.

How to Revolutionize Your Raw Processing

There is an art to raw image processing and it takes practice to master. In this video, two veteran photographers walk you through their workflow and offer some tips on getting the most out of your files.

African Wildlife Foundation Photography Awards: Winners

As part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, the African Wildlife Foundation just launched the Benjamin Mkapa African Wildlife Photography Awards exhibition. The exhibition displays the winners of a worldwide competition that received almost 9,000 entries from 50 different countries. If you're a fan of wildlife photography, this exhibition is worth a look.

5 Helpful Tips for Respectful Wildlife Photography

Wildlife photography can be a tremendously rewarding genre that connects you with nature and allows you to capture stunning images of the world around us. However, it takes some special considerations to maintain safety and to treat the animals with respect. This fantastic video tutorial will give you five tips to create wildlife photography in a respectful way.

This Photographer Built His Own Pond for Bird Photography

One of the hardest parts of wildlife and bird photography is simply finding and waiting for your subjects. This wildlife photographer made a way for them to come to him, however, by designing and digging his own pond for bird photography, and this neat series of videos show the ideas that went into the design, the construction process, and the impressive results that came from the project.

What Makes a Good Bird Photo?

Bird photography is a popular genre that can be undertaken in a variety of different ways, with each style presenting its own challenges. Nonetheless, there are common elements in what makes a successful bird photo, and this excellent video features two seasoned pros discussing seven important aspects of every compelling image.

How to Photograph Tiny, Quickly Moving Birds

Wildlife photographers deploy a range of tactics when attempting to capture birds, and those which are very easily scared and move incredibly quickly offer a particular challenge. This video shows you some tactics to deploy in order to get some fantastic photos.

I Can’t Wait for This Photography Simulator Video Game to Be Released

Photographers and gamers, would you play a wildlife photography simulator? At first glance, it seems cheesy, but when I watched the trailer for Photography Simulator, it actually looks fun and engaging. I researched the game to learn more about it and share why you might enjoy this game too.

10 Tips to Improve Your Wildlife Images

Capturing good wildlife images can be a thrill, but it takes a lot of good technique, knowledge of how animals behave, and more. If you have been struggling with your own images a bit, this excellent video tutorial will give you 10 helpful tips that will help you take your photos to the next level.

This One Setting Changed the Way I Shoot Wildlife

So, what are the best settings for wildlife photography? Most people would argue that aperture priority would be the best way to tackle shooting fast action like wildlife and sports. It gives you the best balance between automatic camera settings (like picking the correct shutter speed) and manual control (like the ability to compensate for exposure).