Nature photography for everyone

Crocus

How to photograph a chamois? What time of the day is the best to take photos of landscapes? Why you should use a special lens to do macro photography? These and several other issues are worth thinking about before going on a mountain outdoor photography session.

ANIMALS. Wild animals in their natural environment are usually very skittish. In the Carpathians species such as chamois, marmot, bear, deer and fox usually avoid close encounters with people. Watching and photographing them is exacting, but the effort may bring a reward of great photos. The first issue is the choice of the time of the day convenient for animals observation. As a rule, these are the hours of the morning and afternoon, then meeting chamois and marmot is the most likely. The second issue is the selection of the appropriate camera equipment - long telephoto lenses are usually quite heavy, but allow you to shoot without approaching mountain fauna and disturbing it. The third important thing is patience. Sometimes wild animals come up close to a man only when get used to seeing and smelling the man - then you can do a lot of interesting shots.

Fox

Chamois

Sunrise in the Tatra Mountains.

LANDSCAPES. Beautiful colors, interesting chiaroscuro, phenomenal clouds ... each of us has seen breathtaking scenery in photographs available on the internet or on postcards. When they are created? Most people at that time sleeps well or is getting ready to rest. It is no secret that the most interesting landscape shots are made in the early hours in the morning and in late afternoon, during the sunrise and sunset. Outdoor photography session at dawn or dusk requires a lot of effort, but it can bring photographer great satisfaction. In addition to the strong will also a photographic equipment is needed, so that we can easily capture unforgettable landscapes. Firstly tripod - dawn and dusk are the moments when it is relatively dark. It is difficult to take a picture with e.g. half-second exposure - camera tripod will help you do this. Another important thing are the photo filters, especially graduated neutral density filters. They allow you to achieve better illumination of the dark areas of the foreground, which at dusk and dawn often remain in the deep shadow. It is important to provide power for our camera - it may sounds colloquially, but on a frosty morning or even chilly evening camera batteries will be depleted much faster. It would be a shame to lose an amazing shot by our own negligence ...

Sunset in the Tatra Mountains.

MACROPHOTOGRAPHY. Macrophotography is commonly known as taking pictures of objects in a large scale. Pictures of flowers, insects, fungi, water drops, etc. are in this group. To make a really big close-up you should purchase a specialized lens for macro photography. Almost every company offers this type of photographic lenses allowing to fill the whole frame with a small butterfly or ladybug. These lenses for most amateurs have one disadvantage - a high price. An alternative to an expensive brand macro lenses are the old manual lenses fitted to cameras with adapter rings. They allow seeing by the camera as by magnifying glass and can perform almost incredible close-up. With the manual lenses experienced photographers can do as good or even better shots than using expensive brand lenses, it’s just a matter of practice. The owners of compact cameras can also successfully try macro - most cameras is equipped with a special mode called "macro". If the close-up is not satisfying we are using special rings with old manual lenses and shoot pin’s head or tiny spiders. If you use your fantasy interesting shots can be taken with any camera and with many different lenses. 

Macrophotography.

That's the theory - now I invite you to use these tips with camera in your hand!