Pierre Steenberg

Animal Portraiture Composition

October 25, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Animal portraits can be as interesting as that of humans. As with human portraits, there are a few guidelines that when followed typically lead to a nice image. Study this image for a while and ask yourself what makes this image pleasing to look at. The eyes or an eye needs to be sharp. Animals may have much longer faces than humans. To get the...

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Follow the Action

October 18, 2020 • Leave a Comment

The rule of thumb with almost all photography is to follow the action. In landscape photography that may be where the color is, or where the drama is. In most sports photography it is where the ball, puck, etc. is. In wildlife photography that may be in behavior, or the teeth. Follow the action to get more dynamic and more interesting images. The...

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Get Creative with Animals

October 11, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Okay, so you already have 21 images of the elephant bathing in the mud or drinking water. Do you shoot 40 more or drive off in search of your next target? Wait, what about a third option? Zoom in really tight and take closeups or abstracts of the animal. What about trying your hand at more creative images? Taking images like this can be difficult...

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Bee-Eaters

October 04, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Bee-Eaters are colorful and make for great images. We were on a photography boat on the Chobe river in Botswana during one of our (with my photography partners Don Smith and Henning de Beer) workshops. We saw this bee-eater and parked the board on the riverbank. The bird flew here and there and did not stay on one perch for long. It seemed too quic...

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Focus and Motion

September 13, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Should all images always be totally in focus? We all know that blurred backgrounds are very nice when shooting flowers, animals, and portraits. However, should the main element in the photograph be fully in focus? Many would say "yes." I would say, "not always." If you photograph a helicopter or a prop-driven airplane it just does not look right if...

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The Crossroads of Image Editing

September 06, 2020 • 2 Comments

It is said that there are two groups of image editors. There are those who enjoy the process of image editing as much or more than actually taking images. These people are good at image editing. They know their software very well. They typically use Lightroom or PhotoShop. Many of them use other software as well, perhaps On1, Topaz, and Luminar, to...

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Intimate Wildlife

June 13, 2020 • 2 Comments

From time to time we have the good fortune to get really close to wildlife. Firstly, always stay safe. Wild animals are wild and can injure or kill you. Secondly, don't go close to wild animals. It is one thing if they know you are there and see you and come to you but don't go to them. Thirdly, don't let predators come close to you. When we have...

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Do wildlife photography from a low angle

June 07, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Drone photography has really taken off and for good reason. Some drone taken images are just wonderful. If you look at really good wildlife images though you will notice they are often taken from eye-level or lower. There is just something about being at the animal's level; seeing things from their perspective. It makes it appear as if you are with...

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Quick takes

May 31, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Sometimes the unexpected happens, even in landscape photography. So we were on Safari, which means that we are all looking for wildlife to photograph. Our whole focus is looking under the bushes trying to search for lions or other wildlife. No one is looking for landscape images. We drove out into a clearing and this is what I see: This is not you...

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The landscape as backdrop

May 24, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Usually, the landscape is our image but have you thought of using the landscape as the background? By now we have our wide shots (see the post from two weeks ago) and we also have our more intimate closeup images (see last week's post) but why stop there? How about finding something in the foreground that is interesting and using the landscape as t...

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