Nature

Patience and knowledge of one’s subject are most important when photographing wildlife.

The right equipment also helps – a relatively long (100mm or greater) macro lens will minimise the likelihood of disturbing small subjects such as the grasshopper (below) whilst large aperture telephoto lenses allow photography when available light is limited or when the subject benefits from being isolated against an out-of-focus background.

Until the advent of canon’s specialist MT-24 EX Macro Twin Lite I lit macro shots in the field with two manual flashes on a home built rig comprising a modified Vivitar flash bracket and gooseneck arms. Inspired by the early work of Stephen Dalton I also experimented with moderate success using custom-built camera triggers to capture images of insects in flight.

Good landscape photography also demands a thorough knowledge of one’s subject as well as an understanding of the effects of available light at different times of the day and under various weather conditions. My favourite landscape photographs invariably arise when I’ve made plenty of time to understand my subject. Some things in life are not meant to be rushed …