Sean’s top four tips for photographing wildlife

1 Get to know your subject

There is nothing more important with wildlife photography than really getting to know your subject. Understanding its behaviour and habitat will reward you with some great images. You’ll have a far better understanding of their movement and will be able to predict your shots before they happen, allowing you to get set up.

2 Unconventional shutter speeds

Once you’ve bagged a few great shots, change your settings and experiment with different apertures and shutter speeds. Here, I shot slightly slower (1/15 sec) to capture some motion blur as the pelicans flapped their large wings. Remember to stop down (f/18) and lower your ISO (L50) to avoid over-exposing your shot.

3 Get down to eye-level

Portrait images of animals are lovely to look at but can often lack impact when they are composed badly. Getting on eye level with your subject will add a new dimension to your photographs, enhance your depth of field and give you a new insight to the environment of your subject. Bring a bin bag to lie on if you find yourself in wetter locations.

4 Pay attention to your background

This is one of the trickier aspects of wildlife photography because you are somewhat limited to where the animals that you are photographing decide to place themselves. However, paying attention to the background and positioning yourself in a spot you can shoot from that will have a clean background will help you avoid introducing distractions.