Pierre Steenberg

Frame-rate and wildlife photography

January 10, 2021 • Leave a Comment

Which of these two images do you prefer? I and the people I show my images to tend to prefer the last image. But why? What is the difference between them? They were taken, literally, within a second of each other. Can one second or a fraction of a second make a large enough difference to make one image better than another? The mud being sprayed by...

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Look-room & choosing a position to shoot from

January 03, 2021 • 1 Comment

In the video industry, they often refer to "look-room." Look-room speaks of leaving enough room for the subject to look into. Photographers would say, "leave more room in front of the subject than behind it." This not only applies to moving subjects or subjects intending to or created to move (such as a car or bike) but to people and animals. We ne...

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Wildlife photography: the myth of always needing to fill the frame

December 27, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Generally speaking, we want to fill the frame with the animal. But doing that can be boring and can miss telling the story. We should not always just fill the frame. We should always ask a few questions: Is there action begging to be captured? Is the animal acting out some animal behavior that should be shown? Is the surrounding landscape in...

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Depth of Field (wildlife photography)

December 20, 2020 • 1 Comment

When photographing wildlife we all want that creamy out-of-focus backgrounds that we always see in award-winning images. A pro would say, "that is easy to achieve, just use f4 on your 600mm lens." Besides, pros will add, "that also gives you a faster shutter speed which is just what you need." Many of you will now want to go out and photograph wild...

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Mixing the abstract with wildlife

December 13, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Abstract photography is usually reserved for a different genre of photography than wildlife photography. But why not combine them. Doves were drinking water at the river's edge. There were small crocodiles nearby and we were told that they often catch these doves. So I backed off on my framing hoping to be ready for some action. That action never c...

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Animal interaction

December 06, 2020 • Leave a Comment

This bird (oxpecker) had a free-range. The buffalo allowed it to go wherever it wanted to go unhindered. But why? Why would you allow a pesky bird to trample even on your eyelid? The poor buffalo had to close its eye in order to avoid injury. These animals have a symbiotic relationship. The buffalo needs to have ticks and bugs removed for its healt...

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Zoom out a bit

November 29, 2020 • Leave a Comment

With wildlife photography, we always want to zoom in close. It is tempting and for good reason as such images are striking. Sometimes, however, there are situations that just beg for a bit of space. Animal images showing them in their surroundings can also be great. Such images are good at telling a story. At other times the scene and what is in it...

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Difficult focusing

November 22, 2020 • 2 Comments

Certain images are just easier for your camera to get in focus than others. In wildlife photography acquiring focus is not nearly as important as the camera's ability to track the focus (keeping your moving subject in focus). Once again, this can be a lot more difficult for certain situations than others. When animals have a clear blurred backgroun...

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Learn body language

November 15, 2020 • Leave a Comment

This Leopard walked around looking for something. It was evident in its body language. It seemed as if it had given up on whatever it was that it was looking for, for it just sat there and posed for us. It got up again and started to "walk." This walk was different from just walking. It was more focused. Its "look" was laser-locked. It was a fast-i...

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Get the shot

November 08, 2020 • Leave a Comment

It was close to sunset. We were driving near Savuti in Botswana. A Leopard was spotted some distance away and we were in a race against time to get there before the sunset. As you can see from the image, we did get there BUT there was no sun and the light was failing quickly. We had to work fast to prevent too high ISO images. Most of our workshop...

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