1. Be at your subject’s eye level to create an intimate environment. The worse position is shooting down on the wildlife subject. You may need to lie on the ground. Moose Peterson uses a Frisbee disc to slide on beaches to get close to shore birds. 
   
2. Eye connection is important.  Eyes need to be sharp and clear, even if the rest of your subject or scene is not. A Fresnel accessory for your flash (Better Beamer) for fill light will help extend flash distance and allow you to get catch-light in the eyes even if the animal or bird is in the shade. This is the signature of a professional nature photographer.
   
3. Shoot with a wide open aperture – generally one to 1 ½ stop above the max aperture. Need to de-emphasize the cluttered or distracting background that does not add to the image.
4. Remember the basic rules of composition. Rule of Thirds, for example, recommends you place the animal at one of the crossbars, facing into the scene and not away.
5. Look at the light – the quantity, quality, direction and temperature and adjust the time, direction and place of your shoot. Move and adjust. Mid day with clear blue skies usually will not work, but a lightly overcast sky will add depth since the contrast range is within the range of most camera’s capabilities. Early or late in the day (the Golden Hours) will generally be best.If you are planning an African safari, I have a pdf guide to help you plan and then experience the best photography photo safari experience. Email me if interested - from the contact page http://www.judithmphotography.com/contact.html.

I always say you need to know the rules before you break them! But when you do, here are some exceptions:

1. Taking pictures in the Golden Hour around sunrise and sunset.  Requires more stamina and early to wake and late to dinner, but the light is gorgeous and an accepted rule for professional nature photographers.  Mid day is a challenge but the shadows create magical contrast and quiet more intimate scenes. There are lots of ways to counter the harsh light, but that is for another blog posting.  This is also a great time to shoot with an infrared converted camera. Always have your camera at hand, any time of day.2. Rule of Thirds.  This is a good start but not the only guideline for composition. It is essential however to not place the horizon line in mid image.  That is a snapshot, not a photograph. Avoid fly by shooting, where thought is not required. Slow down. Move and reposition. These Orca whales divide the scene but the dramatic back lighting and reflections overcome that restraint. These tomatoes are another example.

3. Trust your TTL (Through the Lens) camera metering. Metering is set to put mid gray in the middle of the tonal range. Therefore, if your image is mainly white, this will be metered as mid gray. Thus, the resultant image will be midtoned and the snow, grey and not white.  For a largely white scene such as a snow scape or fog scene, when shooting in aperture priority, add +1 or more exposure comp.

4. All photos should have a bell shaped histogram and thus average.  Wrong. Every image should have its own shaped histogram depending on the tones in the image. A purely black and white zebra, will only have tones at both ends of the scales.  An image with dark to mid tones, like this cabbage and pepper abstract, will have a left shifted curve. There is NO NORMAL.

5. Always shoot with the sun to your back.  Most of the above images prove that wrong and boring. Nothing is as magical as back light and as revealing of texture as side light. Move and explore the potential of light.

During the winter, when days are short and weather unpleasant, still life photography or painting is a great project. Key elements to consider are:

1. Tell a Story or Create a Mood or Feeling– What is the reason or objective for this still life? Why am I doing this?  Create a plot first. Warm or cool will help set the mood. Create tension or a relationship. Never forget - what is the center of interest? Is it evident? Do you want to emulate realism, abstraction, cubism, expressionism, impressionism?
2. Lighting - You will need to decide on whether you want to use window light, candle light, tungsten light or utilize strobe light such as studio strobes or flash. Diffuse this light with fabric, tracing paper, frosted shower curtain or with bigger lights -  soft boxes or translucent umbrellas. Light and shade are key. Keep light from one direction (like the sun).
3. Composition – This is not a landscape! Express your point of view. Horizontal is peaceful and suggests movement while diagonals suggest conflict. Differential in height is important and a triangular shape to the object in positioning with triangular movement is one way to go. Curved and circular motion is another possibility.  Remember to consider negative and positive space. Lost and found edges will help set a mood. Soft v. hard edges will help establish a relationship in that sharp edges bring out outlines and contrast while soft edges will help enhance these sharp edge effects. Texture is another element to consider – rough, smooth, even, uneven. Remember to simply!
4. Materials and their arrangement – From choosing the background such as a home setting, canvas or other cloth or paper material to the objects you will display and their relationships. Surface qualities such as polished wood or acrylic will enhance reflections, while old wood or tumbled marble will not. Shapes, size and placement such as facing or overlapping, will exhibit a dramatic effect. Odd or even number of objects? Color, dark or light, tall or short, with a pattern or plain, straight or curved, large or small among other qualities, will have great effect. Remember, you are in control and the artist.
5. Traditional v. Contemporary – Traditional still life is horizontal. In times past, homes had high and small windows and artists preferred the light falling from the left. Use only one light source to mimic this traditional look. White foam core can help fill in and soften the shadows. Alter the perspective. The impressionist artist often kept the tabletop skewed.