Arnoud Quanjer Wildlife Photography

One of the most important things about photography is composition. You can have pictures which are perfect from a technical viewpoint but are still not good pictures. There are a number of rules of thumb that I briefly describe on this page may help you get better (wildlife) pictures. Composition however still is a very subjective thing, and often it's the little things that really make a photograph and in wildlife photography catching the small things is part luck and part skill.

Rule of thirds

Most people put the object they're photographing in the middle of the picture. While this may seem an obvious choice as most camera's only offer a center focus point it is not the best position. As an alternative try to divide the picture in thirds both horizontally and vertically and place your object on the intersections of these lines. The lines that make up the thirds can be used for for instance placement of the horizon. If you usually place the horizon in in the middle of the picture try putting it on one of the thirds lines sometime, you'll be amazed at how different the picture will look. The same goes with animals, don't put them in the middle of the picture but put them on one of the four crossings of the thirds lines. This placement of subjects is called the "rule of thirds".

Combinations of threes

Most people seem to like pictures where there's a combination of three animals of the same species in one shot. For instance three zebra's or three lions. Don't ask me why, but pictures with three animals in them generally look better then pictures with two or four animals. Also try to catch those moments where two or more animals are doing exactly the same thing. For instance a couple of zebra's drinking water or some animals with their heads all turned in the same direction. I think these generally are the most difficult photo's to take because you have to either be very lucky or anticipate the actions of the animals.