A True Beginner’s Guide to Outdoor/Landscape/Wildlife Photography

Take it from me, a beginner.

Since COVID-19 effectively cancelled most of my work, I’ve been using my unprogrammed time to practice outdoor photography for 1-2 hours almost every day. I’m still a beginner, but I’ve learned a few important things in a short amount of time that may be helpful to you if you’re starting out.

For example, one thing I learned is that robins are a lot easier to photograph than turtles and frogs. Robins almost wait patiently for me to take their pictures, where as turtles and frogs dive under water to hide at the slightest provocation.*

Okay, but seriously, below are some tips you really will find to be helpful. By all means, you should also seek out advice and instruction from real experts, but one thing I’ve found is that many of them forget how far they’ve come, and their tutorials skip over some very basic stuff. That’s why I’m writing this for you!

*The photo of the robin above was taken my very first day of my COVID-19 nature walks. The photo of the frog and turtle was a lucky break after trying unsuccessfully several times to sneak up on and get a decent photo of a turtle or a frog. It still isn’t a wonderfully composed image, but it felt like a success to me! The one below is one of my favorites.

1) Spend lots of time outside taking photos.

Well, duh. Seems pretty obvious, right? But let me tell you, your chances of taking breathtaking outdoor photos go way, way up if you actually just make a commitment to going on regular walks with your camera. For every one photo I’m truly pleased with, I might take 25-50 photos that end up getting deleted. Maybe the lighting isn’t quite right or I don’t get a moving animal in focus. Or, I just don’t see anything that seems photo-worthy on a given trip. None of those losses are a big deal if you know you’re going right back out again tomorrow or next week.

2) Bug Soothers, DEET, and pants will help you take better photos.

May-June in Iowa (where I live) is a bad time for gnats. It takes almost no time at all for them to ruin the experience of being outside. They will swarm your head and even crawl onto your eyeballs, up your nose, and into your ears looking for a quiet moist place to feast on your flesh. I hate gnats with a passion! Luckily, a nice lady named Freda Sojka from Columbus Junction, IA created a nontoxic product called Bug Soothers, which smells wonderful and keeps gnats away. It’s amazing how well Bug Soothers works for gnats. Without it, I might have given up on doing anything outside during the month of May (especially photography, which involves standing still long enough for bugs to attack) . Thankfully, I don’t have to!

However⁠—in spite of what their marketing says⁠—when it comes to mosquitoes, in my experience Bug Soothers doesn’t help much at all. (Too bad.) For mosquitoes, just get a product with DEET in it. Yes, it’s a chemical. Chemicals make me nervous, too.* But DEET has been around since the ‘40s and has been pretty thoroughly tested for safety. The consensus is that it’s unlikely to hurt you unless you drink it or regularly apply a product with really high concentrations. Note, a higher concentration of DEET means it will last longer, but not protect you better. So, unless you plan on staying out all day without reapplying, you should be fine with a repellent that has a lower concentration of DEET.

Another thing that is all over the place in Iowa is poison ivy. You should learn to recognize it, but even if you can recognize it, you don’t always see it until you’re already standing in it. That’s why it’s always best to wear pants if you’re tromping through the woods. I’ve read that most animals and up to 15% of humans are not allergic to poison ivy. Lucky bastards. I’m not one of them, and odds are you aren’t either.

*If you really don’t want to use DEET, you can try a product with oil of lemon eucalyptus, which tests have shown to be the one naturally-derived ingredient almost as effective as DEET.

3) Do it for your mental health, not for attention.

I’ve gotten to the point now that I crave my morning hike more than food. I skip breakfast and get out the door as quickly as I can after I wake up, and it feels fantastic. On the days I don’t hike, I notice myself becoming more cranky and lethargic. I LOVE this new discipline. It’s become an essential part of my life now, and I don’t see that changing even when the pandemic is over.

Do I like seeing people’s responses to my photos? Of course. I’m an attention junkie. I love the little dopamine fix from likes and comments as much as the next person. But you know what really makes you feel good? Walking by yourself through the woods and stopping short to hold eye contact with a deer for several minutes while you take her photo.

4) Start where you are with what you have.

The main thing is to go outside with some sort of camera. I guarantee you if you spend enough time outside with a camera (even a phone camera), you will create images you’re proud of, photos that help you remember what you felt when you were in the moment.

The week after I write this, I’ll take a trip to the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota. I can’t wait to see what I can capture while I’m there. But I’ve taken plenty of photos I love in the last few months without leaving Linn County, Iowa. And I’ve discovered so many hidden gems within a 15-20 minute drive from my home that I never knew about before. Let me tell you, Cedar Rapids, Iowa is not known the world over as a hiker’s paradise or a landmark for Instagram-worthy photo backdrops. But even here I’ve found plenty to capture my interest and stoke my sense of wonder. You could find that where you live, too.

5) Practice first, spend money later.

The first thing to learn is whether you actually like to be outside for long stretches of time taking photos. You might think it sounds fun and actually discover that it’s not your thing. Or, maybe you like it some, but not enough to spend your hard-earned money on it.

I think Americans are especially prone to feeling like we need to go out and buy all the shiny, expensive gadgets and gear anytime we decide we might want to start a hobby. It’s really dumb for a lot of reasons.

A better tactic is to go out and do something, and then if you really, truly like it (for an extended period of time), learn how to go a little deeper. Learn more about image composition. (There are a zillion online free tutorials. Here’s a good one.) Learn some basics about how cameras work, so you understand things like how aperture, shutter speed, and iso affect an image. Learn about the land you’re walking through, the plants and animals you see. Just be curious have fun trying to do things you haven’t done before. Then once you’re hooked for good and know more about what you really want, that’s the time to work toward getting gear that can take you to the next level.

One day I discovered this troupe of theatrical geese rehearsing the opening scene from Disney’s The Lion King.

6) If you really like it, buy a decent camera body and a zoom lens.

Animals are wary. They don’t like it when people get close to them. So if you can zoom in from a distance, you’ll get better photos. However, that doesn’t mean you need to go bonkers right off the bat and spend $5,000 on a super nice camera and telephoto lens. Do I want those things? Yeah! For sure. But I have other financial priorities right now, and so far I’ve gotten by all right with what I have, which is a fairly entry-level camera/lens combo, costing me about $450. (Nikon D3200 with a Tamron 18-200mm zoom lens.)

Someday I’ll get a nicer set up, but imagine what I would have missed out on if I had waited until I could spend a thousands of dollars on fancier gear!

7) Digital editing is magical!

Nothing really fixes a bad photo. (Believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve taken so many photos I wished were better.) However, digital editing can do wonders when it comes to photos where things are a little under or over exposed, or if you want more texture or color saturation. For example, before I did some very basic editing on the photo below, the composition was slightly off, the trees were too dark, and the colors were flat (mainly because I shoot in RAW). I didn’t mess with it too much, but I think the tinkering was worth it.

I use Adobe Lightroom. The basics are pretty easy to learn just from playing around, and if you want to go really deep, you can do learn to do some pretty amazing things in Lightroom or Adobe’s other photo editing software Photoshop.

But they cost money, so you might want to experiment with some free photo editors first. You probably have one on your computer or phone already. If not, just search for one online.

8) Look at other people’s work for inspiration.

Instagram is a wonderful place to follow other photographers from around the world and see how they create beautiful, arresting images. But take this important advice from me: try to see their work as inspiring rather than overwhelming. For example, I was pretty excited about a photo I took of a bald eagle a month or two ago, so I posted it. Then I noticed a guy in Massachusetts named John Blout liked it. I thought, Who’s John Blout? I went to check out his profile and saw some of the most jaw-dropping photos of eagles I had ever seen. And owls and foxes and countless other wildlife. At first I was so discouraged. I’ll never be able to make photos like that! I thought.

But that’s not actually true. Since I’ve been out in nature almost every day for the last month, I’ve seen lots of bald eagles and gotten some pretty decent shots. It helps when you’re out enough to become familiar with their habits and can guess where you’ll find them on a regular basis.

9) Experiment

I strongly encourage you to make time for play and experimentation. Don’t take this stuff too seriously or feel like you have to define your style right away. Can’t see any animals? Take a picture of a bridge or some trees. Color looks weird? Try making the photo black and white. Have a silly idea you want to try? Do it! Make someone laugh! The point is, this is an area of your life where you don’t have to follow anyone else’s rules. If that sounds appealing to you, take advantage of it!

Don’t forget to share!

I don’t know if this one qualifies as a tip. More of a request. I’d love to see your work, and I’m sure other people would, too! So, please share the photos you love, and spread some of the joy it gives you to go outside. We could all use it.

Thanks for reading!