We take portraits of people so why can't we also take portraits of animals? I guess we can. What can we learn from taking portraits of people that can be applied to animal portraits? So what works for making good portrait images of people?

• Great composition

• Emotion

• Much of the success of awesome people's portraits are in the eyes

• Finding a great face with character

• Good lighting

          The composition of animal portraits is just as important as in portraits of people. However, some animals' faces are not as flat as ours. In fact, some of them can have very long faces which creates focus issues, especially when taken with a long lens (as you cannot get close to them). Long lenses have a shallower depth of field.

          Emotion in animal portraits can be just as strong and important. Their eyes can also communicate a lot but they don't listen to your instructions so getting that moment is more difficult and requires more patience. The best lighting for good outdoor portraits is when the sky is overcast. I am not talking about gloomy skies. There should still be a good amount of light, the light just has to be diffused and soft.

Because of the crocodile's long face, it is probably best to take the image from the side to retain focus. You can see that the light is nice and soft. The focus has to be sharp on the eye. If the eye is not in focus the image is trash. What do that eye and face tell you? Do you trust this fellow?

Don't be afraid of going in really closely especially if the portrait is telling a story. The story here is the interaction between the bird and the buffalo. So that needs to be shown and it is best shown by getting in close.

This fellow is tired, tired of life. Once again, I am really in closely. Let your animal portraits say something, communicate emotion, and get close.