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Simone Sbaraglia - Ten Tips on Wildlife Photography Master Photographer Simone Sbaraglia offers ten tips on wildlife photography Article rating: 9.30

1. Recognize beauty!

Train yourself to recognize beauty in your daily life, even when you don't carry a camera. At home, at work,  in the car, at the shopping mall, always be on the lookout for beauty. It can be a color, a pattern, a facial expression, an interesting light. A photographer is a person trained to recognize beauty and extract it from the surrounding noise, clutter and ugliness so that other people can see and appreciate it.

2. Less is more

Simplify your composition. Remove all unnecessary elements. One idea is plenty to put in a picture.  Decide what your main idea is and remove all elements that are not essential to communicating that idea.

3. Careful with that background!

The background of a photograph is as important as the main subject. A cluttered background will ruin your picture. Always work the subject from all possible angles.  Be aware of the background and how the subject blends with it.

4. Suffer!

The more you suffer, the better your picture will be. Few great pictures can be taken from the comfort of a couch. You must be crazy, passionate, determined and obsessed with photography to the point that you don't mind carrying heavy gear for miles, enduring cold and heat, bugs and discomfort, skipping lunch and dinner. (See photos of bison in Yellowstone and alligators in Everglades)

You have to have that drive. Never be satisfied with what you’ve got. There is always a better picture waiting for you.

5. Don't be in a hurry

Especially when photographing wildlife, take the time to learn the subject's behavior and wait for it to become habituated to you. Try to get close and learn to anticipate what the subject will do. Your pictures will show your intimacy with the subject. It’s extremely rare to snap a great picture right away. Even under favorable conditions, it usually takes days or weeks to even reach the point where you can get a good picture. 

6. Don't run around

Just concentrate on one subject and one location for as long as it takes (even the whole trip), rather than searching constantly for new opportunities. Work with what you have, shoot from all possible angles. Start wide and slowly get to the details. After some time you will begin to see angles and details that you didn't see at first glance.

7. Be ruthless in editing

Ultimately, a portfolio is judged by the worst picture it contains, not the best.  If you realize that a certain image is less than perfect, leave it out of your portfolio.  Be ruthless in your editing. Try not to get emotionally attached to your pictures. The fact that you had to stand in the snow for a whole week to get a certain picture doesn't mean that it’s a great image.

8. Shoot with balance

Don't be afraid to shoot a lot. Wildlife is often unpredictable. Besides, shooting a lot in the first few days of an assignment will warm you up and make you less tense.  Once you know that you got something, you’ll be more relaxed. Then the good stuff will come.

At the same time, don't shoot carelessly or you won't be able to focus and none of the pictures will be good. The mere fact of taking more pictures is not going to increase your chances of getting a good one. Think about this: even if you shoot 1000 pictures per day at (say) 1/500s, you only captured 2 seconds out of 24 hours...

9. Shoot for the final print

Learn to envision the how the final print will look after all your post-processing is done. Shooting is just one step in the whole process. It often pays off to be conservative when you shoot to leave more room for adjustments in post-processing. Some examples:

• Set the camera to the lowest contrast setting if you shoot JPEG because contrast is easily added but impossible to remove.  
• Don’t use sharpening. 
• Try never to burn your highlights (the histogram is your friend!) 
• Shoot in low-contrast light (overcast sky, shadow etc).  
• Learn which situations are likely to increase noise (underexposure, heat, etc).
   
  
  
  © Simone Sbaraglia

10. Good gear and a tripod

You need a good camera and especially good lenses to take quality pictures. There is no way around it. Buy fewer lenses but buy the best. Carry a good tripod at all times and try to use it as much as possible (e.g. all the time, unless you really need to be highly mobile). Using a tripod will make your images much sharper and, more importantly, will slow you down and make you think more carefully about your composition.

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	I am strictly an amateur, I am guilty of doing numerous wrong things. Thanks for the tips, could use more. Posted by: Jerry W. Gordon Apr 17, 2008 @ 7:33 PM EST
	Hi Simone: Thanks for all of the help! 9 out of the 10 Tips you suggested come very natural to me. I have only had my camera for about a year. It goes everywhere with me now, because I always seem to see something beautiful or unique everyday: at least to my eye. I know I need to take a class to learn the basics. But to this point, it have been trial and error, and lots of feed back from great friends. Because it is true for me to get emotionally connected to a picture or group of pictures. But I am weening myself away from that. HAHA. I for the most part take pictures of Remote Control Airplanes flying....and I have been published in 2 national magazines...yea! what a trip! I dream about being as good of a photographer as you, and I understand I am a rookie. Do you think you could suggest a book for a laymen like myself to learn the basics of a digital camera? I have a Olympus E-410 with a zoom lens and a regular lens. I'm saving up for macro lens, because I too enjoy critters and flowers up close, and I also want a telephoto lens for my planes and wildlife that just wont let me walk up on them. Thanks Again Simone, Lori Ann Posted by: Lori Ann Apr 17, 2008 @ 9:24 PM EST
	Great tips....what a fabulous career...thanks, Simone Posted by: Bert Niemyer Apr 17, 2008 @ 11:44 PM EST
	Great tips - food for thought. But more importantly - Simone, your photographs rock. I absolutely love the contrast between the pale, fairytale background and the orange giraffes on lush green grass. The bird of prey perching in snowy woods is also fabulous. Thank you. Posted by: Piotr Szymczak Apr 18, 2008 @ 3:38 PM EST
	Simone,You touched my heart with your photos.I do wildlife photography in Africa once or twice a year and love it. I love all photography but Africa is my passion.Your cheetah photo (as all of your photos) was extraordinary.I did something like that with a leopard and his kill.I'm always afraid to enter it in anything,thinking it will upst people. Digital is new to me i've always shot film.I hope i can learn to use digital as well and make my photos as i see them.Do you teach? Fantastic photos and passion for your work that startles the senses.I so get it and feel it. I will look forward to seeing more. Thanks for sharing your magical photos. SANDI Posted by: sandi kaufman May 23, 2008 @ 12:19 AM EST
	wow ok. im only 17 but I love to take pictures.... not so much of people cause they always pose, the animals such as the ones you have captured are AMAZING im writing a paper for my english class and you are going to be one of my topics. thank you so much for enspiring me even more to be a photographer -Chasity Posted by: Chasity Jun 3, 2008 @ 9:59 AM EST
	Simone...Am back reviewing your great hints and advice,,,thanks again. I have started a gallery and a website...please visit if you can and make comments....thanks, Bert. theouthousegallery.com Posted by: Bert Niemyer Jun 13, 2008 @ 12:25 AM EST
	These are great reminders. I'm inspired by your work and discipline Mary McGrath Posted by: Mary McGrath Jul 21, 2008 @ 1:58 PM EST

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