Wildlife photography
Wildlife photography is a genre of photography concerned with documenting various forms of wildlife in their natural habitat.
As well as requiring photography skills, wildlife photographers may need field craft skills. For example, some animals and birds are difficult to approach and thus a knowledge of the animal's 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.
History
In the early days of photography, it was difficult to get a photograph of wildlife due to slow lenses and the low sensitivity of photographic media.[2] Earlier photos of animals were often of captive ones.[3][4] These included photos of lion cubs taken at the Bristol zoo in 1854 and in 1864, photos of the last Quagga by Frank Hayes.[5] Wildlife photography gained more traction when faster photography emulsions and quicker shutters came in the 1880s.[6] Developments like these lead to photos such as the ones taken by German Ottomar Anschutz in 1884, the first shots of wild birds in action.[6] Members of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club (DVOC) captured early photographs of nesting songbirds in the Philadelphia area in 1897.[7] In July 1906, National Geographic published its first wildlife photos.[8] The photos were taken by George Shiras III, a U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania. Some of his photos were taken with the first wire-tripped camera traps.[9][10]
Definition
The world's three largest photography organisations, the Photographic Society of America, the Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique 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."[11]
Equipment
Equipment for wildlife photography can be very specialized.
Some other specialized gear includes camera traps, hides, ghillie suits and flash extenders.
See also
- BeetleCam
- Digiscoping
- Escape distance of animals
- High-speed photography
- National Wildlife magazine
- Nature photographers
- Nature photography
- Project Noah
- Wildlife observation
References
- ^ Eric Hosking; Harold Lowes (1947), Masterpieces of Bird Photography, William Collins, Sons, p. 9, ASIN B000O8CPQK, Wikidata Q108533626
- ^ "Answers – the Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions". Answers.com.
- ^ Origins of Wildlife Photography (PDF). BBC Wildlife. Feb 2012.
- ^ "A Brief History of Animals in Photography". 2015-06-04.
- ^ Cox, Rosamund Kidman, ed. (2014). Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Firefly Books. p. 13.
- ^ a b Cox, Rosamund Kidman, ed. (2014). Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Firefly Books.
- ^ Pflicke, Holger (1 September 2020). "The Philadelphia Breeding Bird Census of 2018" (PDF). Cassinia. 77: 5–26.
- ^ "First National Geographic Wildlife Photos, Photos, Wallpapers – National Geographic". Archived from the original on 2008-05-10.
- ^ "First Digital Camera Trap, Photos, Wallpapers – National Geographic". Archived from the original on 2008-01-12.
- ^ "These Were the First Wildlife Photographs Published in National Geographic".
- ^ "Accessed 25 May 2014". Archived from the original on 25 July 2017. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
- v
- t
- e
- 35 mm equivalent focal length
- Angle of view
- Aperture
- Backscatter
- Black-and-white
- Chromatic aberration
- Circle of confusion
- Color balance
- Color temperature
- Depth of field
- Depth of focus
- Exposure
- Exposure compensation
- Exposure value
- Zebra patterning
- F-number
- Film format
- Film speed
- Focal length
- Guide number
- Hyperfocal distance
- Lens flare
- Metering mode
- Perspective distortion
- Photograph
- Photographic printing
- Photographic processes
- Reciprocity
- Red-eye effect
- Science of photography
- Shutter speed
- Sync
- Zone System
- Abstract
- Aerial
- Aircraft
- Architectural
- Astrophotography
- Banquet
- Candid
- Conceptual
- Conservation
- Cloudscape
- Documentary
- Eclipse
- Ethnographic
- Erotic
- Fashion
- Fine-art
- Fire
- Forensic
- Glamour
- High-speed
- Landscape
- Nature
- Neues Sehen
- Nude
- Photojournalism
- Pictorialism
- Pornography
- Portrait
- Post-mortem
- Ruins
- Selfie
- Social documentary
- Sports
- Still life
- Stock
- Straight photography
- Street
- Toy camera
- Underwater
- Vernacular
- Wedding
- Wildlife
- Afocal
- Bokeh
- Brenizer
- Burst mode
- Contre-jour
- Cyanotype
- ETTR
- Fill flash
- Fireworks
- Harris shutter
- High-speed
- Holography
- Infrared
- Intentional camera movement
- Kirlian
- Kite aerial
- Lo-fi photography
- Long-exposure
- Luminogram
- Macro
- Mordançage
- Multiple exposure
- Multi-exposure HDR capture
- Night
- Panning
- Panoramic
- Photogram
- Print toning
- Pigeon photography
- Redscale
- Rephotography
- Rollout
- Scanography
- Schlieren photography
- Sabattier effect
- Slow motion
- Stereoscopy
- Stopping down
- Strip
- Sun printing
- Tilt–shift
- Time-lapse
- Ultraviolet
- Vignetting
- Xerography
- Zoom burst
- Diagonal method
- Framing
- Headroom
- Lead room
- Rule of thirds
- Simplicity
- Golden triangle (composition)
processing
- Category
- Outline