Nature never goes out of Style

The world’s three largest photography organisations, the Photographic Society of America, the Federation International de I’ArtPhotographique and the Royal Photographic Society have adopted a common definition for nature and wildlife photography to govern photography competitions, their respective presidents writing in a joint statement, “The development of a common definition for nature and wildlife photography will be an important step in helping photographers, many of whom enter competitions internationally, know what the rules are. It will also provide organisers with a very clear definition when they need to deal with the problem of ineligible images.”

As well as requiring photography skills, wildlife photographers may need field craft society. For example, some animals and birds are difficult to approach and thus a knowledge of the animals and birds behavior is needed in order to be able to predict its actions. Photographing some species may require stalking skills or the use of a hide/blind for concealment.

While wildlife photographs can be taken using basic equipment, successful photography of some types of wildlife requires specialist equipment, such as macro lenses for insects, long focal length lenses for birds and underwater cameras for marine life.

Wildlife photography is all about capturing pictures of animals, especially those considered exotic, in their natural habitats, and so only became truly popular once cameras were portable. Depending on the purpose of the photograph and photographer, Wildlife photography can either portray the animals in action (such as eating, fighting, or in flight), or in more static and detailed poses for identification purposes. Much like in landscape photography, wildlife photography is also often used in magazines such as National Geographics to inform and inspire audiences.  Many wildlife photographers also use blinds or camouflage in order to get closer to their subjects and capture more appealing shots without scaring the animals or causing a shift in behavior in them, a method that was developed early on, since camera lenses were not developed enough to take quality photos over long distances.