Photographing nature: The call of the wild

The era of cheap flights and eco-tourism means more of us are able to witness nature's miracles for ourselves – from the mass wildebeest migrations of the African savannah to breaching killer whales in Norway. With the simultaneous boom in digital photography, photographing wildlife around the world has never been more popular. But that doesn't mean to say that we have all suddenly become incredible wildlife photographers, so here are a few pointers.

Choosing a tour operator

The key to maximising your chance of even being able to see wildlife, let alone photograph it, is insider knowledge. Taking time to do your research on the animal or area in question before looking for a tour operator is a huge help. Guide books and official tourism and wildlife websites are a good start.

Seek out charities and organisations dedicated to wildlife conservation in the area and get the low-down from those on the ground. Specialist operators that have local links or affiliations to respected conservation organisations are usually a safe bet. The success of travel wildlife photography is in a large part down to the skills of your guide: local knowledge, field craft and understanding of the animals can make all the difference to the photo opportunities you may get, and ultimately your safety in a wild area. So choose carefully.

What's in your kit bag?

Your baggage allowance is the biggest constraint and will ultimately result in a trade-off between clothing and kit. However, in our experience, you do need to keep just enough pairs of clean underwear to adequately wrap and package that fragile equipment that needs to enter the hold. The very basic kit that you really need on, say, an African safari would be a camera and lens – no problem if yours is a compact camera or one of the prosumer cameras (somewhere between a compact and an SLR). For those who are a bit keener on their photography, a good quality D-SLR camera and a lens or combination of lenses ranging from between 70mm and 400mm would be adequate (see buyer's guide, page 14).

If you want to get even closer, consider buying a teleconverter – a small lens that fits between the camera and the lens which can magnify what you see through the viewfinder by up to two times. Forget the bazooka-sized 500mm lenses that you might see hanging out of safari vehicle windows – they are on the whole unnecessary, cumbersome and still don't mean that you take good pictures.

Don't forget the power cables: chargers and portable hard drives, if you have them, unfortunately don't run on solar power in any significant way (although there are small solar chargers available for compact cameras and smaller batteries). Access to power is a very important consideration when travelling in remote areas, check the availability with your operator and don't be surprised if there isn't any. An inverter powered from your vehicle's cigarette lighter can help in these situations.

What we used to call film, we now term media, meaning the flash cards that store your images. Take as many of these as you can afford, they are tiny, take up very little room and you will never regret having too many. If you are a little trigger-happy then consider investing in a portable hard drive or laptop to store images.

Taking care of your gear in the field is vital. Camera kit is expensive and doesn't take kindly to being bounced around in the back of a Land Rover. Make sure that you have a bag or rucksack, designed to contain your photo-equipment that you can carry on the plane as hand-baggage, and with you in the wild.

To keep lenses and sensors free of dust, a daily wipe with a sunglasses cloth will usually suffice. Try not to expose the innards of the camera to the outside world if at all possible; minimal lens changes will help as will keeping your camera covered by a cloth, towel or even a jumper when not in use.

In damp and humid locations try keeping some silica gel in your bag to prevent condensation on your lens and inside the camera. Cold climates are little challenge to modern cameras, working happily away at -40C. Batteries, however, are more sensitive to cold and it helps to keep a few spare ones warm inside your jacket; hand-warming pads can also be useful for frozen batteries as well as frostbitten fingers.

Technical know-how

Focus: In vehicles this can be difficult due to camera shake or movement, so try using the car window frame. Support your camera with a beanbag or a coat on a flat surface, and ask your driver to switch off the engine if safe to do so.

Exposure: The old saying about shooting a picture with the sun over your shoulder is generally a good one but don't be scared to try different things. By shooting on aperture priority AV on D-SLRs you can be pretty much assured that your exposure will be right for a particular situation. A little plus exposure compensation will make sure that you brighten a dark shot (ie, if you are shooting a bright subject) and minus for the opposite. ISO or film speed works in basically the same way; the higher the ISO the lower the light you can shoot in, but you will get noise in the picture which is the digital equivalent of what film users called "grain", but not so sympathetically admired.

Composition: Don't forget to look around you and see the bigger picture: frame your subject to give an idea of where it is and what it's doing. Don't forget to turn your camera by 90 degrees and shoot some portraits as well. And don't forget eye-to-eye contact. We connect with fellow mammals in particular through the eyes, so an image with eye contact is always more appealing.

Respect: Wait until the animal's natural curiosity points in your direction – never hassle or disturb an animal in order to achieve a shot. Respect for your subject is the most important part of photographing nature.

Andy Rouse and Tracey Rich are the authors of numerous wildlife photography books. Visit www.andyrouse.co.uk and www.traceyrich.com

Interesting? Click here to explore further