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Wildlife photography is a genre ofphotography concerned with documenting various forms ofwildlife in their natural habitat.
As well as requiring photography skills, wildlife photographers may needfield craft skills. For example, some animals and birds are difficult to approach and thus a knowledge of theanimal's and birds behavior is needed in order to be able to predict its actions. Photographing some species may requirestalking skills or the use of ahide/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.
In the early days of photography, it was difficult to get a photograph of wildlife due toslowlenses and thelow 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 lastQuagga 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] In 1894 wildlife photographersMary Augusta Wallihan and her husband Allan published a book of photographs they had taken of wildlife in the Rocky Mountains.[7][8] Members of theDelaware Valley Ornithological Club (DVOC) captured early photographs of nesting songbirds in the Philadelphia area in 1897.[9] In July 1906,National Geographic published its first wildlife photos.[10] 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.[11][12]
The world's three largest photography organisations, thePhotographic Society of America, theFédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique and theRoyal 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."[13]
Equipment for wildlife photography can be very specialized.
Some other specialized gear includescamera traps, hides,ghillie suits and flash extenders.
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