Suzi’s tips Advice on taking pictures

We asked Suzi Eszterhas for some tips for other photographers who want to photograph animal babies and infants, whether they’re in the wild or in captivity…

Take your time 1

It takes an incredible amount of time and patience. With a lot of the newborn projects I do, I’m not going for a few days – it’s usually a few weeks or months. In some situations, it can be many months. It requires patience and having a gentle nature, and being able to build a relationship of trust with an animal… even if habituated, they still need to be able to trust you around their newborns, which needs a lot of time.

Be gentle 2

You have to be very gentle in your approach. Even the most habituated moms, when they have a newborn, they can be really psycho: over-protective, extra shy. I’ve seen mothers with really relaxed personalities completely change when they have babies.

Don’t make animals 3 feel threatened

I try to get inside my subject’s heads, in terms of how they might view me as a threat. If I’m going into a den area, what does my vehicle look like? Am I approaching with the sun behind me, or coming in or going out when it’s dark? Am I going in and out a lot through the day, which is really distracting, or am I going in once and going in gently? There are times when I may want to move the vehicle, but I don’t because I feel it might frighten the babies and mother.

Keep your distance 4

I use long lenses. I typically don’t get close to a lot of my subjects. I’m very careful to give them a lot of space.

Make careful 5 movements

I’m really careful in my actions and energy that I bring to the shoot. If I go into a shoot and I’m really stressed and anxious about getting the shot, the mother is going to pick up on that, and that kind of vibe is very predatory to an animal.

I try to get into a zen state and make sure my energy and movement is slow and gentle. If I have to reach for something, I do it slowly and gently. We all get flustered and excited, and grab things like lenses really quickly – when you’re working in sensitive situations, that can be a total disaster.