Which is the most important quality the Wildlife Photographer needs? Is it their mechanical photographic skills or their artistic ability?
A “camera freak” will say a tack sharp image with perfect focus, correct white balance, minimal grain, and correct exposure as prerequisites for a good picture. Their more artistic colleague can appreciate something where the art overshadows the lack of a perfect photograph. Going even further the artistic colleague might purposely dispense with these prerequisites to achieve a striking picture.
Similar Articles you may like to read –
Can you make a living as a wildlife photographer?
How do I start a career in wildlife photography?
Is wildlife photography a good career?
What to study to become a wildlife photographer?
Possibly they are not separable and to do anything more than produce another literal shot of a squirrel the Wildlife Photographer also needs to be artistically skilled.
Camera Skills
Wildlife Photographers require great camera skills. Besides having mastered the principles of photography, they require a complete understanding of their camera and how to combine the two. You should also develop the ability to change setting quickly to be able to keep up with the animals you are shooting who can’t be told to ”hold that”.
Read your manual and try out things you haven’t used or possibly didn’t even know about.
I recently, after years, found that my FujiFilm XA-1 could automatically set the white balance by taking a photo of a sheet of white paper!
Take every opportunity to take photographs, enter competitions and define and execute photographic projects. Get your photographs critiqued, especially when you start a new approach. Critique the photos of others, this helps you see what makes a good photograph and prepares you for the critique you are going to get, which isn’t always easy.
Keep up to date on photographic technology but avoid the temptation to become technology dependant. Having a strong artistic approach to your photos often reduces the need for image perfection.
Artistic Skills
A Wildlife Photographer should be a talented artist and should continually develop these talents. That will allow them to turn the normal “journalistic mugshot” or “literal shot” of a wild animal into something that draws attention and rouses emotions. Something that can differentiate it from the millions of other literal photographs of the same animal.
Develop your talents by studying the art of others from great artists to as many photographers as you can. When you see something that you really like see how to emulate the style. Not to copy and use it, but to see the possibilities, develop your skills, and free up your creativity.
Follow photographic and entrepreneurial blogs and podcasts. Read up on art and the theory of art. Read as many theories as you can and use them to finetune your image where they are applicable. But don’t hesitate to ignore them when your artistic self sees it’s appropriate.
Nature & Wildlife
Wildlife Photographers need to have a real love of nature, a commitment to the ethical treatment of animals, and a commitment to the environment.
You need to develop a deep understanding of animals and their habitats and ranges. You need to focus on learning in great depth about the animals you specialize in photographing.
Visit nature or game reserves if possible, and read textbooks and travel magazines. There is a big animal behavior literature and as usual, simply browsing the internet gets you useful information like
Michael Nicolas in a National Geographic article How to Photograph an Elephant makes the following unexpected comment
“An expensive telephoto lens is not going to get you an interesting picture, … what makes your photograph a success is not the quality of your lens but the moment happening beyond it…
So really, he says, you can make great pictures of elephants with your smartphone, provided you stick around long enough.”
Life Skills
The Wildlife Photographer needs to be creative, enquiring, knowledgeable, independent, and patient to succeed in wildlife photography. You should be a good communicator to help you to work with others. You should be empathetic and …???
Physical Attributes
By definition the Wildlife Photographer spends a large part of their time outside in the field. The harsh and even dangerous environments associated with particular animals can put severe demands on the Wildlife Photographer’s physical prowess and endurance. It’s good to be healthy and fit and living a healthy lifestyle.
You should have the necessary equipment both for well-being, comfort, and safety and always be aware of the potential dangers, and don’t do foolhardy things
More articles you may like to read –
What should I wear for wildlife photography?
What are The Types of Wildlife Photography?
What equipment do you need to be a wildlife photographer?
What type of wildlife photos sell best?
Post processing
There are two aspects of post-processing that are required, the first is those actions that improve the quality of the image. These would be color correction, sharpening, grain reduction, exposure adjustment, dodging and burning, dehazing, and the like which is the more mechanical editing in your selected software. Then there are the more creative techniques available in other software that transform the image using techniques such as cropping, compositing, High Dynamic Range processing, color manipulation, applying art styles like oil painting, posterization, and distortions, perspective adjustment some of which would mainly come from specialist
Promotion Skills
Probably the hardest thing for an artistic Wildlife Photographer is the ability to sell their work, This includes an understanding of and skills in using social media but more importantly the life skills like communication, listening, empathy and optimism.
As always read of others’ techniques and experiences but beware of the “how to make six figures a month from your photographs” type who has found tier place in selling but not in delivering.
At the end of the day keep practicing and learning and stay optimistic!