When I say makeup, I am not talking about mascara, lipstick, blusher etc. Although if you want to put on makeup to go and photograph wildlife then that is up to you but it won’t enhance your ability as a wildlife photographer, in fact it might diminish your hit rate due to the makeup’s smell. By makeup I am talking about what a wildlife photographer has to have within their makeup of his / her body and mind to achieve great photos and increase their hit rate. When I talk about hit rate I am talking about the success in getting great photos and the amount of keepers. In fact there are lots of things required to achieve this goal but the three I am going to talk about are needed before you even start thinking about taking photos of wildlife. You can have all the equipment in the world and it does not matter what make this equipment is whether it is Canon, Nikon, Sony etc. It is not the equipment that takes good photographs, try telling some people this when they say to you “That’s a great photo, you must have a good camera!” but don’t get me started on that one, no it’s the person pressing the shutter release that takes good photographs but if you do not have these three things then you will not take great wildlife photographs.
 

The first of these is enthusiasm.
 

ENTHUSIASM – intense and eager, enjoyment interest or approval.
 

You have got to have enthusiasm mainly for the wildlife or subject you want to photograph and partly for the equipment and technique of the photography part. You need it for the wildlife because this is going to be the main part of your photograph. If you do not have enthusiasm for your subject then you will not put as much effort into the whole photography process but mainly the before part of the photograph. The before part includes picking the subject, learning about your subject so that you can then anticipate an action that you want to photograph, finding out where it is likely to be found, recognisance of the area to find the subject and a good photography position. It could also include the setting up of a wildlife outdoor studio and a feeding station in your garden or on land that you own, rent or have permission to be on. I say partly for the equipment and technique of the photography part because you do not need as much as for your subject. I know several really good photographers that say they are not interested in the equipment as it is just one of the tools of their trade. This cannot be the case because if they did not have enthusiasm for this then they would not know how to take a photograph, getting the exposure and shutter speed right to take the type of photo they are after and what all the buttons, bells and whistles on their particular cameras and other equipment that they use do. As I have stated previously I am a bit of a geek and I have a lot of enthusiasm for my camera equipment. I not only want to know what every button does and why but I also want to know about the differences with other cameras. Therefore I read about other cameras and lenses especially when a new one comes out as I want to know what’s new and would it enhance my photography. I do stop at some point and I am only talking about Canon cameras and equipment as that is what I own.
 

The second is patience.
 

PATIENCE – an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness when confronted with delay.
 

You have to have bucket loads of patience for wildlife photography because once you have done all of the above in enthusiasm you will certainly do a lot of waiting (patience) for the wildlife to appear and when it does finally appear you will then have to wait even more for it to do something, an action, for you to photograph. I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent waiting, in a hide or outside in camouflaged clothing, for wildlife to appear. I got used to waiting years ago as a boy as I used to go sea fishing from the beach, or I should say I used to go and teach worms to swim because I rarely caught anything. During this waiting you have got to find something to occupy your time and mind. I like being by myself when out photographing wildlife and whilst I’m waiting for it to appear I’ve found the time goes by quicker when I’m doing something therefore I always take a book, Ipad etc to keep me occupied. These actually help me not to switch off but bear in mind that these can be a distraction and if you are not careful you could miss the subject and action you are after. The way I’ve lessened this is that I quickly read a sentence and then spend a couple of minutes looking and listening for wildlife before going back and quickly reading another sentence. I never listen to music or audio books as 1, it puts me to sleep and 2, I’m sure it disturbs the wildlife even if you are wearing earphones. I also never watch TV, film, video etc as it is far too distracting. Find something to do but do not let it distract you from the job in hand. Wildlife photography is hours of preparation followed by hours of waiting and then a few seconds of action for you to photograph, but its these few seconds that make it worthwhile.
 

The third is perseverance.
 

PERSEVERANCE – steady persistence in a course of action a purpose, a stake especially in spite of difficulties.
 

You certainly need this in wildlife photography because in spite of everything you do things will go wrong whether it is on the wildlife side of things or the camera equipment side. With the wildlife side it could be, amongst other things, that it does not appear or it appears in the wrong area or behind cover so you can’t quite get a clear view of it. The thing you will quickly discover is that wildlife does its own thing and goes where it wants and you will never change this no matter how hard you try. Always bear this in mind and try and have another plan, if you can, to counteract this. On the equipment side, this being mechanical and electrical it is bound to go wrong and usually when it is the most inappropriate moment. It could be the fault of the equipment or yourself. If the equipment itself develops a fault then that is just down to being unlucky. I have had quite a few cameras and owned a lot of equipment and it has never gone wrong, touch wood, except when I should have done something to prevent it. Some of the things you could prevent basically come down to you looking after your equipment. These include cleaning your camera and lenses, charging the battery, buying a spare battery, having more then one memory card, not putting lenses face down on any surface, switching off the camera and pointing it downwards when changing the lens, putting the lens caps on when not using the lens, not rushing when changing lenses, making sure the surface you put your equipment on is safe, being aware of cold equipment in a warm / hot environment, keeping your equipment in a good bag until it is needed etc. This list could go on but basically think if I do this with my equipment what could happen to it. When things go wrong it could be easy to stop what you are doing, throw your teddy out of the pram and give up. This is when you have got to think outside the box and make a disaster into something to learn from or change your plans and photograph something else. If your camera stops working or you break your only lens then if nothing else use the time to gather information about your subject, or the area you are in, which you can use the next time you are out. As a wildlife photographer you are going to get cold, wet, bitten and most of all frustrated but you must not give up because when it all comes together and you get your shots there is no better feeling.