Wildlife Photography How To

One of the great things about photographing birds, especially during these days of relative isolation, is that you needn’t travel far to capture amazing images. In fact, with the proper skills, you can often shoot spectacular photos in your own backyard.

Experienced wildlife photographers know that the power of an image often depends upon how an animal’s eyes are rendered. Out-of-focus dull eyes can really spoil an otherwise great shot, while overly brightened, sharpened eyes make the subject appear unnatural and crazy.

Spot Metering is an extremely powerful tool for all types of photography, especially when shooting backlit subjects, scenes with extremely light or dark backgrounds, or under other difficult lighting conditions. When used properly, your camera’s spot-metering mode almost always guarantees a proper exposure.

One way to simplify the photographic process and get the best results possible is to configure your camera properly for the type of images you shoot. That's because the camera settings you choose for portraiture or still life photography can be inconvenient or worse the next time you go out to shoot landscape, sports or other types of images.

If you need something to brighten your day – and who doesn't these days? – get a load of the hilarious winners of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2020. We gave you a glimpse at 15 of the finalists last month and now contest judges have chosen the funniest of them all.

In truth, we all want to travel to exotic locations, and most of us, myself included, have never taken the time to see what is in our own backyards. And guess what, the more I looked the more I saw…nesting robins, bluebirds feeding young, white squirrels on the feeder, butterflies, and some very cool patterns on plant leaves.

Proper focusing techniques are important for all types of photography, and that’s especially true when shooting animals in the wild. Some photographers prefer to activate autofocus with their trigger finger on the shutter release button, while others swear by a method known as “back button focus.” So which approach works best? Read on.