Mastering Wildlife Photography Part 1: How to prepare for a wildlife photography adventure

This is episode one of eight, where we will take a deeper dive into how to take great wildlife photographs.

We’re going to start with preparation. Good preparation can make all the difference between a successful shoot and a complete disaster.

 Here are the key things I'll cover in this episode:

• Research & Planning 
• Gear & Equipment 
• Health & Safety 
• Mindset & Patience 

Next episode:

Next time, we’ll dive into the secrets of getting close to wildlife without disturbing them. Trust me, you won’t want to miss it.

 For more information:

Check out my PDF “A Brief Guide to Wildlife Photography” for more ideas.

 Please remember to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE.

It's time for another podcast...

Please take a look at the 2026 Wildlife Calendar. It's available now.

Transcript

>> Graham: 0:08

Foreign. Hello again and welcome to the first in a short series of eight podcasts where I'm going to take a deeper dive into certain aspects of wildlife photography. So the idea of this series is to really take you a bit further into the subject than I would in a normal podcast. So that's why it's split out into eight. So before, before we start, my name is Graham Elliott and please remember to like and subscribe. It doesn't cost you anything and it really helps me with, getting visibility. I'm going to give you, ah, a link at the end as well, which takes you to an ebook that I have on the website which dives also into both wildlife photography and regular photography. So depending on what you're doing, there are a couple of ebooks there that you might like. There is, another one just now and of course, if you have other subjects you'd like to know about, I'm happy to share what I know with you. So let's just get into, this first one. So this first episode is really looking at preparation. And you will have heard me talk about this before, but preparation is, in my opinion, it's, it's kind of all important. It's if you don't get your preparation right, you can waste a lot of time, a lot of money. You have a really disappointing experience. So although this can feel quite boring if you're me, someone who likes to, just get stuck in and do it, I pretty much have to force myself to sit and do my preparation. But it really is important and it saves a lot of embarrassment as well. So we're gonna, I'm just gonna step through a few things and you're welcome to take, notes. So the very first thing to look at is location. And obviously this will depend upon what it is you want to photograph. And that will be a big driver, obviously. So the example that I often use is humpback whales in Australia or swimming past Australia. So at a particular time of year, you're going to get humpback whales up both coasts, both west and east coasts of Australia. And I photographed humpback whales on both coasts actually. But if you're based in Sydney, for example, and you want to photograph humpback, whales, the really important thing you need to know is that they are only going past Sydney between roughly the middle of May and mid to late November typically. So if you turn up in April hoping to photograph humpback whales from Sydney, you're likely to be very disappointed. And so this Is the first question, when are they going to be there? Secondly, it's a good idea to understand why the animals are there at a particular time of year because then you understand a little bit more about what's going on, what kind of behaviors you're likely to see. So in the case of the humpback whales, humpback, whales spend the summer months, so the, the summer months, Southern hemisphere, so kind of Christmas time, they spend that time in Antarctica because the water is relatively warm, they can feed. And that's where humbug, whales get bigger. However, once the winter starts to come along, they then head north. And in fact, looking at the east coast of Australia, they head up to Queensland. So the waters of Queensland, and that's where they mate. That's where they give birth. That's where the young obviously are born. And in that warmer water, it's particularly important for the younger whales, the baby whales, because they don't have much blubber when they're born. And the young ones, the calves, will spend a lot of time feeding from their mothers, as they spend time up in Queensland. And then when they begin the return journey to Antarctica so that they're back down there again for the beginning of the summer. Hence you'll see the last few whales passing Sydney around mid November, because by then you're sort of, you're getting into the summer months, Southern hemisphere. So that explains why they are there at those times. And it also means if you want to see newborns, very young animals, you want to go in the second half of the season, because for the first half of the season passing Sydney, they're on the way up to Queensland and on the way. And second half of the season they're on the way back to Antarctica also. Now this is just a personal observation and others may completely contradict me based on their observations, but it seems to me that the whales are a bit more interactive, let's say with the, whale watching boats in the second part of the season than they are on the first part quite often in my experience. So stress that part. They tend to be just heading, that they go north. They don't, they tend to be just swimming. You might get some behaviors, you might get, what we call competition pots, which is typically one, female and two males. And the two males are fighting one another, to get a girlfriend. so that's a behavior you might see. But obviously this is all in the run up to the mating process. On the way back, of course, they have mated and I Think of this more like having a cigarette after the deed is done and they're, a lot more chilled. And you may. Well then see, closer interaction with the boat, spy hopping, that kind of behavior. In terms of breaching, again, Now, again, others may contradict me, but I think, you know, from recollection, probably more breaches in the second half, but, that. That can be just. That's how it was for me. But this is the important part of the research because you need to know where you need to be and when, how many whales you're likely to see. So there are definitely peak periods in the whale migration. So when they're first going past. So probably June, July, you've got a lot of whales going north. By the time you start getting into August, some whales are starting to come back again. But there's a bit of a lull because most of the whales going north have passed Sydney. So you have that lull. And then once you get past August, so September, October particularly, that's when you get another very busy period because the bulk of the whales are then heading down south and they're passing Sydney at that time of year. So understanding that process, and this is just an illustration of it, you have a much better idea of when your best chances are of seeing whales and the kind of behaviors you're likely to get. Now, obviously, weather is a big factor when it comes to Wales, because if it's really rough out there, it's not very pleasant on a boat. not only is the boat moving around a lot, but also it's hard to see the whales because you're generally looking for a blow, which is, some call it a water spout, but it's like a jet of steam that you see coming out of the ocean, and that's the whale breathing out. And. And you can imagine in very rough weather, or even when you get a lot of whiteheads on the waves, it starts making it very difficult to see those blows because the wind will blow them away almost as soon as the whale is exhaled. So understanding weather conditions as well is also useful because it can get your expectations to be much more realistic about what you're likely to see. Now, I have been out in quite rough weather and managed to get some quite dramatic shots. But having said that, there was an element of luck. Now, that's true of anything to do with wildlife, I think, for the most part, but you can make your own luck by having a bit more of an understanding of what's going on, why they do Certain things at certain times, where they're likely to be what your best chance, when your best chance are of seeing them, that kind of thing. So if you're looking at land animals, if you're looking at predators, when do they typically hunt? What do they hunt? Where are the prey animals? is there a seasonal change in where they are? So for example, if you go from a rainy season to a dry season, what happens in the rainy season? The prey animals can be anywhere almost. If there's lots of vegetation for them to feed on, they'll tend to disperse, which makes it harder for the predators because they've got to go now and find them. And it becomes much harder for you as a photographer because you've got to do the same. Obviously in when it be, when it gets very dry, animals tend to be very near the water holes. So obviously that's where you pre, your predators are going to be. So it is well worth spending a bit of time understanding what's happening with the, with the animal. So it's also good to know about their behaviors. I'm a big one for ethical photography and the reason I mentioned this and I was, a friend shared a video with an incident that happened in Tanzania in July 2025, so not long before this particular podcast has been recorded. And it was the I think it was Cape buffalo builder beast. Anyway, there was a part of the migration going on. I'm thinking builder bees, but I think they were actually Cape buffalo that I was looking at. Anyway, there was big movement of animals and the tour guides, the drivers driving the four wheel drives just went insane and they were driving like lunatics. Large numbers of them. I think 20, 30 vehicles. I'm not sure the final vehicle count, but way more than is necessary. they were also actually blocking the path of the migrating animals so that their customers could get a great photo. Now that to me is completely unethical. the whole point about wildlife photography, I believe is that it's about filming animals doing what they would naturally do in their own environments. So we are there to observe nothing else. We are not there to interact with them and these people. And this has been reported is quite a major incident in terms of the tourism in Tanzania. So I think it was Serengeti, because that's really not wanted, you know, that's stressing the animals. It's just totally unethical. So do please bear that in mind. Okay, the second thing I'm going to touch on briefly is the gear. So obviously this camera the lens or lenses, that kind of thing. Now you may well be limited, most of us limited by what we've got, but you might be looking at buying something suitable for where you want to go. So that would mean just having really getting clearer on what you need from the camera. So for example what you intend to do with the final images, are they going on social media, in which case you just want small JPEGs so they download fast when someone's looking at them. Do you want to put art on a wall? In which case you need big images and you may need to post process them with something like Topaz Labs Gigapixel to be able to get really high quality images that will stand being printed to let's say a zero size or maybe even bigger depending on what you want to do. Alternatively you might want to produce photo books, so you need to be able to produce print quality images, which means you're definitely shooting raw. You might be doing the final image as a jpeg, but you may also be using the tiff. So all of these things are important because they will determine what your camera needs to provide in the first place. Is it just a quick snap or is it a much larger image? And also it points towards the quality of the lens. So when I'm talking about cameras and lenses I think about the good old days of hi fi. To me they were anyway, we had a big stack of stuff but one of the key parts of the system was actually the speakers because that's where the sound came. And you can have the most amazing stack of cassette players, CD players, whatever it was at the time, even vinyl. But if they were coming out of really awful speakers, what's the point? So your speakers needed to be really good because that they directly interact with your ears. And it's the same with lenses. So I always recommend buying the best quality lens that you can, if you can buy a pro, quality lens from one of the main manufacturers and that way you know, optics are really good. And also in my experience I tend to change the camera bodies more frequently than I change the lenses. So when I invest in a lens and I do buy good quality lenses, I'll have that lens for a long time. So that's the first thing, you need to obviously be able to, you're going to take what you, what you have available or you might be looking at buying something special if you can justify in whatever way you do that. The next thing to think about are tripods, monopods, that kind of thing some way of stabilizing the image. So again ways of doing that on a boat. So with the whales I tend to hand hold because it's not really practical to use any kind of tripod on a boat that might be, you know, moving quite a lot at sea. where I have used in fact a ball head to go on a tripod is when I was in a hide in Finland recently taking photographs of bears at night. So in the hide there's actually a, little positions where you can mount your camera but you need to provide the tripod head. Now often these places will rent one to you if you haven't got one. But it's useful to have your own because you know how it all works and that allows to mount the camera and then the camera lens will pop through a hole in the hide and there you go. So that's something to think about. And if you're not sure and you're going to a location like that, just find out what they actually provide and what they don't. So you know what you need to bring or what you can perhaps hire on the spot if that's easier for you. other things like bean bags, things like that are very useful if you are in say four wheel drive photographing land animals and they're keeping the engine running. I, when I'm photographing things like lions or elephants or anything, pretty much I like to get down as low as I can. So with it depends on the vehicle that you're in. But some of them are kind of open sort of waist height I suppose as you're sitting in them. And it's helpful if you can rest your lens, particularly have a long telephoto on the side of the vehicle. But of course if the engine's ticking over, you're going to get vibration through the body. So if you've got something like a small bean bag or even a rolled up T shirt, first of all it isn't your lens, whether it's metal or plastic against the metal of the vehicle. And also that pad, that padding will dampen out some of that vibration. So that shouldn't affect your images. So have a think about what you're going to need for the camera. I've done a deep dive into gear in other places and it's certainly in the ebook, so I won't do it here. but the next thing is actually your clothing because you don't want to be turning up in bright colors, where there are a Lot of land animals because you really want to be blending in as much as you can. So I tend to use, light greens, light browns, tan kind of colors. in terms of T shirts, similar colors. I might have a black T shirt on, but I often wear a long sleeve, very lightweight shirt over the top because that covers my arms and it protects me a bit from the sun because being ginger and gorgeous, or I was ginger once, my skin's quite sensitive. So, I'm slapping on a lot of sunscreen. But also if I've got a long, a long sleeve shirt like that and actually do the same, my legs have very lightweight, explorer trousers, that are great because they protect my legs from the sun from anything that might decide to take a liking to my leg directly and, that I find much, much easier. So think about your clothing though. So though again that that clothing is either a tan or a green. And keep your colors that way. Don't turn up in bright reds, bright blues, that sort of thing, you know, because you, you don't want to be standing out. what else do you need to, think about in that kind of area? The only thing I would suggest is your camera lens because some lenses I know, Canon Pro lenses, the long ones, telephotos, tend to be, quite. They tend to be white. I use a splash cover which is gray, and I just prefer that it keeps all the dust out of, the lens and the camera anyway. Stops me getting problems there. but secondly also just mutes down the whole color of everything. And that does take me back to lenses because you just need to make sure you've got the right kind of lens. So for wildlife, I would recommend, a telephoto, how long depends on what you want to spend on your lens and what you're photographing. So the ideal for a thing like, for birds is something like a 600 mil focal length, but that's really hard to handhold. Most of them are pretty solid and quite heavy. So you would need to think about a tripod or some way of mounting it. for handheld shots generally something like a 100400 is pretty manageable. you might be able to manage something longer. It really depends on you how much your camera and lens weigh and how, much practice, frankly that you're able to put in. Okay. So, other things I'll just mention are, binoculars, field guides, GPS systems, if you don't have them in your phone. So these can all be useful things if you have to do Any kind of navigating health and safety. I'm just going to touch on this briefly because it's really important that you look after yourself when you're in these environments. If you, if for example, you're British, which is how I grew up, we'd get awfully excited when the sun came out and, you know, run around like lunatics in it and then get very badly burnt. the thing is though, some people, when they go from a summer in England and they go to summer in Central Africa where it's hot, they kind of treat it the same way. And that's big mistake because you're often environment that's different. The temperatures can be higher, the humidity will be different. you may well find that you start to dehydrate much faster than you're expecting, particularly if you're very active. So the key things are to stay hydrated. Make sure you have a water bottle or a camelback pack or something like that to keep you hydrated. pack some snacks so you get a little bit of salt there as well. Ah, but again, don't go overboard with this. just be sensible. And something like a very basic first aid kit. So I normally have sticking plasters, disinfectant cream, that kind of thing, and a, compression bandage. Normally that's pretty much my kit, but it's enough for most of the little instance I tend to have when I'm away. So have a think about, where you're going, what the likely dangers are. things like sticking plasters are great. If you get a blister on your foot, things like, you know, it's kind of those little irritating things as well as the, you know, getting bitten by something that really you don't want biting you and the other thing to be aware of. So I've spoken a little bit about the weather and terrain, but do be very respectful about where you are. Make sure you have the right clothing in terms of boots as well. If you're in, an area where you really do need proper walking boots, do invest in them. It's a good investment. I always get the boots with ankle, support, so I can tie them up reasonably tight. But if I do sort of roll my foot a bit, it avoids me rolling my ankle and, because I have done that once or twice and it is quite painful and can be a bit of a nuisance for a few days and may even stop you getting about if you're really unlucky. So again, it's sort of prepare for the worst, hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst without going crazy about it. But just take sensible precautions. And of course, always let someone know where you are. So if you are going out on your own, always make sure someone knows where you are when you're expected to back, so that if you don't show up, they can raise the alarm fairly promptly. Because with all of these things, if someone disappears, it's obviously the first. really two, three hours are the most critical, particularly if you've been injured. You want to get help as soon as possible. Okay, Mindset. so the key things here really are, I think, first of all, manage your expectations. Remember that with wildlife, you can spend an awful lot of time with nothing happening. And then you'll have those moments when it all goes kind of crazy and you need to be ready for them. So just be ready to, you know, wait it out. Get comfortable, be alert. Be aware of what's going on around you. I've certainly been in vehicles where we've been focusing on animal, not realizing, at least at first, that something else is coming up behind us. So you do need to keep a lookout and don't get too fixated on looking through the lens. You know, be aware of where you are in the environment and what's around you. you know, don't, don't start chimping. So that's where you start looking at images as you, as you've shot them, you're looking at the image on the back of the camera, and then all sorts of great stuff is going on that you could have got if you weren't looking at the back of the camera. So do be alert. Look at the photos later, unless they're test shots, just to check exposure, which is something I tend to do. Just make sure I've got my settings more or less right. When it does, it doesn't matter. So when there's no animals around, I'll just take a shot into the bush or where the kind of light conditions particularly that I'm expecting the animals to be in, so I know I'm roughly set up correctly. and I think the key thing also is to just be very familiar with your camera. So if you're not that familiar with the camera, the time to learn is not when you're shooting wildlife. You need to do that before you go, photograph birds in the garden or in a park or somewhere. Find subjects that are a little bit tricky so that you can get better, the sort of finer points of using your camera and using your camera equipment. but don't learn on the job that wildlife photography is not really a learning on the job type of, photography unless you've got a lot of time. But even then you know you're going to mess up that one shot that's not coming back again. Okay, so just to, recap on that, really, before we finish. So the first thing to think about is your research. So the location the species be aware of primarily where the species are going to be, but also with location, it's good to be aware of where he's staying. So you need to plan that. But where can you get medical aid? Is there a hospital nearby? Or are you seriously looking at evacuation? Because if it is that, you need to make sure that things like your insurance cover you, because standard travel insurance often won't. If you're out in the bush in say Africa or India or somewhere, you do need to make sure that the insurance that you have that you're relying on, if things do go wrong, will cover you where you are. So there are specialist companies around and it's definitely worth googling them. Or if you go through a volunteer program, they'll generally be able to suggest someone. But that, that one is important, with the camera gear, I've had a chat about that. So when you pack it, make sure that it's, well protected, it's padded, you really want to be able to get to things quickly. And if you can have a backup, a backup body, maybe a backup lens. And remember, telephotos for wildlife, wide angles for landscapes. Maybe you want both? I tend to shoot both, because I like to try and get in close with the telephoto shots to, portraits and try and give people an experience of the animal that they wouldn't normally have. But on the other hand, wide angle is great for showing the, the context, the kind of environment they live in and put the animal in some sort of perspective. And of course, the other option you have, which, is well worth remembering is your smartphone, your, your mobile phone. Use it in panoramic mode. I use that a lot. I tend to shoot movie on mine. It's just because it's light, it's easy. I've got it with me anyway. And, it can serve as a backup camera in a bit of a pinch. So, don't underestimate what your smartphone will do for you. So again, understand the camera in your smartphone as well as understanding your primary camera. Okay, check, the weather so be aware of where you're going, make sure you have appropriate clothing. So whether it's very hot, very cold, very wet, very dry, all those kind of things. Just make sure you've got the appropriate clothing available because it will keep you. Well, you, you don't want to get, ill or exposure or you know, something ridiculous like that. And you want to be comfortable. You want to be just comfortably warm, dry and enjoy where you are, enjoy the experience because you may well be in an environment that you won't be in again, if you're not able to go to those kind of places often you want to make the most of that experience and it's going to be hard to do that if you're freezing cold, soaking wet. All these kinds of things. think about what you'll need in terms of keeping you alive. I was trying, I was trying to be healthy, but life's good. So things like water, making sure you've got adequate water with you, whether it's a camelback, something like that, which typically are 2 liters or 1 or 21 liter water bottles. I've got a metal insulated, only insulated water bottle that has been around with me quite a long time now and I always have that with me. That's my go to water supply when I'm out. snacks are great, whether it's something salty or something with a bit of energy, a bit of sugar in it. But again, without going crazy on this stuff. But just think about where you are and just, you know, it's nice to have energy and feel good when you're with these animals. And as I've said, think about a very small first aid kit that is good enough if something happens while you're out. and on the subject of that, the other thing I would recommend is that you do have a look at what's recommended in terms of vaccinations and that kind of thing and make sure you're vaccinated, because you know, you don't want to die, you don't want to catch something that you're going. You know, some of these diseases can be pretty nasty for a long time. So you don't want any of that. So have a look on government websites, generally pretty good. Or talk to your doctor and see what he can recommend or she can recommend and go from there. But do take proper precautions. And then the final thing was to just talk about mental readiness. Be aware that you might have to wait for a long time. So you know, Be ready for a wait. it doesn't always work that way. Sometimes things happen straight away as soon as you get somewhere and then you have a really long wait. So you never know. The bottom line is you never know when things are going to happen. So always be ready. Always be aware of what's going on around you. Keep an eye out. And, no chimping. Okay, so that really covers it. So the next thing I'm going to talk about in the next podcast is really going into how you get closer to wildlife without disturbing them. So, that will be the next one. And remember, there's a link in the bio or a link in the description, I should say that will take you to the ebook on wildlife photography, but there's also another ebook on general photography, so the sort of basics. So if you are pretty new to it all, I would recommend starting with that one. So you can, you can get those, if you jump on, you either use the link or jump onto my website and there's a, an area for books and if you really want to learn, if you are very new to photography or maybe you're struggling with photography and not getting the results you want, I do have a full online course that will take you through everything from zero knowledge to the basic building blocks, the approach, what you need to do when, to how the exposure triangle works, how you use composition, all sorts of things. So it's pretty comprehensive, I think. But, I'm, you know, always interested to get feedback, but that is available on the website as well. So thanks very much for your time. I hope you found that useful and I'll speak to you again in the next podcast. Bye for now. Well, I hope you enjoyed that. Now, I just want to say thank you for tuning in and joining me in, the Wildlife in Advance Adventure Photography podcast. If you have enjoyed today's episode, please give me a, like a subscribe, maybe tell your friends, and by all means leave a comment. And if there is a subject you would like me to cover in the future, please let me know and I'll, be very happy to do my best. So thanks again for, joining me and I look forward to seeing you again next podcast. Bye for now, Sam.