I don't think you could be really serious about getting into wildlife photography unless you're already quite familiar with the techniques of photography. Even though photography is something, as with most things in life, where you learn something new around every corner, wildlife photography gives you very little time to think about the technical aspects at the crucial moments.

Animals don't always give you too much time to think about photography techniques!

So it would definitely be advisable to get very thorough with at least the basics of photography before planning to go for this. If you're one of those who feel you'd rather learn on the job, so be it, but you'll definitely be spending a lot more in terms of money, effort and time. Thorough basics will also help you immensely in another aspect as the places wildlife photography takes you to gives you more than ample opportunities to try your hand at other kinds of photography like landscape, people, travel, ancient architecture, events etc.

Once you're thorough with the basics of general photography, you can practice the unique techniques related to this line. Some are like the ones mentioned earlier in respect to perception, preparation, prediction and adaptability etc. Some other simple but very useful tips are again related to the understanding of animal behaviour and nature. It is advisable to use a slightly faster film ( I have found 400ASA to be most suited ) since most animals tend to be most active at the time around dawn or dusk, when light conditions are not too good. 400ASA and faster films are also suitable for flash photography when the subjects are more than a few yards away. It is preferable to keep two cameras with you most of the time with different lenses and different speed films. Also since a lot of wildlife photography is done in poor light conditions, it isn't surprising that most of the time you'll be shooting with the lens set at the largest aperture opening. This results in a shallow depth of field. Try to use this to your advantage to by making it focus the viewer's attention to the subject of your photograph by blurring out the background or the foreground. Also due to this shallow depth of focus, when you are clicking a subject coming straight towards you, start the process of pressing the shutter release button just as it is about to come into clear focus. If you wait to start this process only once the subject is already in clear focus, the time lag between when you start to press the button and when the picture is actually taken, often results in the subject having already passed through the range of focus at the crucial time.

Your photography can very often get into a rut. Every other photograph starts looking like the previous one. At such a time, it is very important to start playing around with your shutter speeds. Backgrounds can be blurred for fast moving subjects by panning with shutter speed as slow as 1/30th or 1/60th of a second.Anything slower will result in the subject being blurred too. In some cases like very still crocodiles at a river, a little more life can be brought to the picture by slowing down the shutter speed and letting the water flow through the frame, giving it a feeling of motion.

Blur backgrounds by panning with a slower shutter speed

Basically, as in all other spheres of photography, it is very important to keep experimenting. Just because you change the way your photographs look, it doesn't mean you are going to lose your individuality as a photographer. In fact it is just the opposite. There is nothing worse than being termed as stereotyped. So don't let the fun go out of your work and it'll show in your results.

The equipment you need to purchase to get into wildlife photography can range from very basic in the beginning to very extensive and expensive. The camera you choose should have a good balance between good optics, features and sturdiness. An excellent but delicate camera isn't going to be much good by the time you climb that tall tree or scale that cliff, during which it invariably takes a bump or two. It should preferably have the option of switching to auto-focus. Although auto-focus isn't much use when photographing an animal in a bush or among tall grass, it does save precious time in cases where this feature can be used. An infrared range finder on the camera for night photography is also a useful feature.

You might require high powered lenses for bird photography

The choice of lenses depends on the kind of animals you are photographing but I have found a 300mm lens to be more than satisfactory in most cases. The problem comes in when photographing birds. Bird photography requires much more powerful lenses as it is a lot more difficult to get in close to them and the subjects themselves are much smaller. A minimum of a 600mm lens would fit the bill.

Tele-converters fitted to less powerful lenses are a less expensive alternative but one has to be very careful while selecting a compatible one. These days a lot of big lens brand names are bringing out lens specific converters and it make sense spending that extra amount on them. An incompatible converter can degrade the final result by as much as 30 - 50 %. It is important to understand the pros and cons of converters other than the loss of quality before planning to invest in one. For example, fitting a converter would also means aperture settings would have to be read differently. An aperture setting of 4 should be read as 8 with a 2X converter. Also many camera auto-focus systems stop working when fitted with a converter. An external hand held light meter is also advisable. Try and choose one whose meter can be easily read in poor light conditions too. As a professional, in the long run it is cheaper and more time saving to purchase your own accessories such as a photograph and slide scanner. There are innumerable accessories one can pick up from the market for this line but it all depends on your budget. The very basic SLR with a normal lens and a 75 - 300mm zoom can do very satisfactorily for a start. A tripod or a monopod would also be an intelligent investment.

If you're planning to get into wildlife photography as a profession, you must plan ahead in terms of marketing yourself. Contact magazines, websites, agents, exhibitors, photo-agencies, etc. Do not concentrate so much on earning initially as you should on getting known in the market. Once you get known, the remunerations will follow automatically. Another skill that will help you a lot in this line would be if you could combine your photography with some writing ability. Once you are a little more "settled" in the line, it is always better to work on a specialized topic and for a purpose. The purpose preferably having something to do with giving back to nature what it has given to you in such abundance.

Finally, you have to ask yourself just one more question. Is it all worth it? There will be obvious risks attached. Major risks. Do you want these life threatening incidents to be a part of your profession or just adrenalin-pumping vacation memories? Much as it may sound trite, you are bound to have experiences, probably at the very outset, which will compel you to ponder this over.

At times these are dramatic experiences, such as the time when two of us were surrounded, in the middle of a full moon night, by a herd of around fifty very aggressive elephants. These elephants were thirsty for blood as one of their infants had just been killed by a tiger. At the time when it is all happening, it feels like you've become part of an adventure story but it's only later that the probable consequences begin to sink in. These stories don't necessarily have to have happy endings!

At other times they creep upon you when you least expect them. Like the New Year's morning at Corbett when a friend and I walked down to a stream below our forest rest house in Malani, to fill buckets of water to do dishes. We heard the deep growl of a tiger from the tall elephant grass across. It couldn't have been more than ten feet away, which I'm sure it could have covered in half a leap. Every time one of the metal buckets struck a rock, it growled louder than the time before. Our buckets filled, we backed all the way up the slope to our rest house. The escapade was all the more nerve-racking as, even with the growls getting louder by the second, we could not see the beast.

It is after experiences like this that you have to sit down and ask yourself "the" question. Then, if you're back for more the very next week, you definitely have what it takes! If not, hey, photographing animals at the zoo isn't so… bad for a hobby!

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