Steve Parish Publishing

For any wildlife photographer, photographing Australian wildlife can be a very addictive pastime — one that can provide a dedicated photographer with a life-long fascination with Australia’s fauna and how it interacts and behaves. Regardless of whether your camera is an SLR or a compact camera, or what lenses you have, the three factors that are most important for a wildlife photographer are content, mood and design (CMD).

The content of a photograph refers to the subject and what makes it unique or charismatic. Are there elements that, if included in a composition, will make a wildlife image even more powerful? Usually there are, but these may be as simple as the obvious twitch of a kangaroo's ear, or the wrinkle of a Koala's nose. Mood is a combination of lighting and the effects you have used to create an image, such as selective focus and flash fill-in. Design is multifaceted, involving composition, angle of view, background and colour. Every time you approach a subject as a wildlife photographer, try to consider CMD — as time passes you should find that you’re concentrating on these factors subconsciously. With those elements in mind, now you need to kit up to increase your chances of getting some stunning shots.

When I am wandering around during the day taking photographs of animals, I usually carry two cameras. One has a 80–400 mm zoom lens, the other a wide-angle zoom that also enables close-ups. This is an ideal way to “kit up” when you just don’t know which Australian animals you will encounter. The telephoto lens is certainly my favourite lens for wildlife photography and I use one for everything from landscapes to flower close-ups. The optics of a long telephoto lens create a wonderful sense of compression and, by shooting with the lens at its maximum aperture, it is possible to create soft backgrounds for wildlife shots. I have also used close-up lens attachments, macro tubes and macro lenses over the years, and can say with some certainty that I never run out of Australian animal subjects when I have a macro lens with me. If I shot close-up every day for the rest of my life, magnifying small insects, frogs, reptiles and flowers, I would never tire of the subject matter. If you want adventure, there are entire worlds in the undergrowth or beneath the sea that offer a lifetime of challenges for a close-up wildlife photographer.

Want more? This article is extracted from Steve’s new book A Wild Australia Guide: Wildlife Photography. At just $14.95 (even less with member discount), it’s the perfect affordable and portable guide to capturing wildlife on film or digital cameras.