Wildlife photography tips

How to take pictures of wildlife

In these digital days, you can get very good images from modestly priced cameras, making wildlife photography much more accessible to the keen and serious amateur. However, even the best camera has to be operated well to produce quality results and Wildlife photography can involve a lot of time, patience and some good luck. First stake out the area in which you have identified your preferred wildlife. The puffin pictured here was photographed on the island of Westray in the Scottish Orkneys, and as puffins are only there during mating and nesting season (spring and early summer) you have to time your visit accordingly. Invest in a good quality telephoto zoom lens - these were shot with a 200mm lens with me lying on a draughty clifftop for well over an hour.

The hummingbird was photographed with a fairly ordinary Canon powershot whilst I was on holiday in Martinique, in a horticultural park, but again I spent over half an hour waiting to get the right photograph.

The monkey was photographed in Thailand and it had been performing tricks in front of a crowd. The monkey had been trained to climb up a coconut tree, twist the nut around until it came free and then throw it down to its owner below. It was a bad tempered creature and tried to bite me as I was taking the photograph!

The crazy baby elephant was shot in a very dark wooded area but I used a small amount of fill-in flash to lift the dark areas. i was throwing it pieces of fruit to make it lift its trunk and open its mouth.

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