So what's the secret to taking good pictures in the wilds of India? Here are a few tips to keep in mind for beginners starting out on the tortuous route of Nature Photography. I assume in this article that you already have appropriate photographic equipment available. If you do not, and are considering buying equipment, remember to read the excellent reviews on photo.net
Look for interesting combinations of: color, light (and shadow) and texture. The best light is usually morning light (warmer, yellow), late afternoon, or evening light (warmer, a hint of red to full red). Mid-day light can make shadows and bright contrast that are difficult for the film to handle. In India, due to high levels of dust, smoke and water vapour in the atmosphere, beautiful light is seen rarely; the rainy season is your best bet. If landscape photography is your passion, learning to see the light is the single most important talent you need to develop. In India, that also means that you need to make the most of every opportunity available.
Get up close to the flower or bark of a tree; maybe only inches away. Look up, look down. One great rule is to look behind you; sometimes the best photo is the one you just walked by but saw from the wrong side. Freeze the motion of a waterfall with a fast shutter speed, or blur it with a slow one.
Don't always make the main subject the center of the photo. Try the rule of thirds, placing the main subject of the photo in the left or right third of the frame.
When photographing landscapes, give the photo a feeling of depth by including close objects in the frame as well as the distant subject. These also add a sense of scale to the photo. Find situations where the close in objects frame the further object. Remember to use a tripod in such situations. That will allow you to use the smallest aperture possible, giving you the highest depth of field.
Really close. Closer. Fill up the frame. It's easy to be too far away from your subject, but hard to get too close.
Many beginning nature photographers are amazed when they see their first wildlife photos. The animal they found, and painstakingly stalked and photographed are small dots on the film, barely recognizable. Very often there is simply no way to get a frame filling photo without good telephoto equipment, but there have been instances when I could have got closer but did not.
A telephoto lens is almost a must. For professional looking wildlife photos, you really need a 400 mm., 500 mm. or 600 mm. telephoto lens (which are equivalent to 8-power, 10-power, or 12-powers binoculars, respectively). These lenses are out of reach of almost all of us. But a 200 mm. telephoto (which is typically what most beginners have) can work well with deer and other big animals. But for smaller wildlife, a 200 mm. lens is not enough. You need to save money for a 300 m.m. or higher focal length lens.
In addition, many photographers use a hide, a camouflaged hiding place. It may be a tent, a bush, a wall of camouflage material, a car, or even a window. The point is, the photographer lets the wildlife come in close to him or her. While using hides, remember that the welfare of the animal comes foremost. Nesting birds are very sensitive to intrusion, so be very careful.
This is the advice that all beginners ignore, but you should not. When beginners in the art of photography meet, they fight over camera bodies. Pro's fight over tripods and heads.
For the beginner, most any tripod will do. But the lighter the tripod, the more likely you are to take it with you. American nature photographers tend to carry heavy tripods, but that is only because they all have a car as an extension of their body. In India, where you have to walk everywhere, you need a light tripod. I find the cheap light ones made by Slik are quite adequate.
The best photo opportunities present themselves only during certain times of the year, at any given place. So be ready to travel, to catch every place, at its most opportune time. The Valley of Flowers is the place to go to in August and September, Bharatpur in winter and Kanha just before the rains.
Most serious photographers take several shots of the same subject, trying several different angles and exposures. Film is your cheapest investment, when compared to time and equipment. You could give away the not so good ones to one of your local nature clubs, which are generally very happy to accept contributions of slides.
Like cooking, if you can't remember the recipe you used the one time you got it right, you'll never learn enough to do it again. Try to note film type, location, time of day, lens used, aperture and shutter speed. Try making a standard form that you can fill out as soon as you take the photograph.
You do need to use your camera enough that it becomes second nature to you. Many opportunities in nature photography are fleeting; you don't want to miss it because you couldn't remember how to over-ride the auto-exposure setting, etc.
Don't get so wrapped up in photographing that you forget to enjoy what you're seeing. A photograph is a poor substitute for being there, so enjoy it while you're there. Make photography part of the overall fun, not an end in itself. As you progress in your work, you will need to share your ideas and experiences with others - the photo.net Nature Photography Pages provide the best resource on the Web.
There are many good books on Nature photography available. But my favourites are the four books by John Shaw, to whom many of the ideas mentioned above, owe their origin. If you must buy only one book on photography, buy the first one listed below. It is worth the price, just for the photographs.
If you have access to the Web, then read the immense amount of material put up at photo.net by Philip Greenspun and others.