How to win

It's the competition every wildlife photographer wants to win, but what is the secret of success? Chairman of the judges 2005 and 2006, Mark Carwardine takes a behind-the-scenes look at the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition and reveals how you could improve your chances of victory. Read his ten top tips to improve your wildlife photography.

How important is good equipment?
The best way to irritate a professional photographer is to ask what equipment he uses to take his prize-winning shots. It’s a bit like asking a writer what computer he uses to write a bestselling novel. Even the world’s most expensive camera doesn’t actually go out on its own and take pictures.

You don’t need expensive equipment to take great wildlife photographs. A photographer with a £5,000 camera and a clutch of top-of the range accessories may have a head-start, but falling prices and recent advances in digital capture, auto focus systems, lens technology and motor drives have brought high-quality cameras within reach of almost everyone.

Use equipment properly
However, even with every technical advantage, it’s surprising how many pictures entered in the competition aren’t technically perfect. The reason, in many cases, is because the cameras aren’t being used properly. A professional photographer’s camera is like an extension of his arms and hands: he uses it instinctively and understands every button and switch intimately. Yet I’ve forgotten how many times I’ve seen people miss fabulous photo opportunities because they’re still trying to work out which button to press when.

It doesn’t matter whether you use Nikon or Canon, Pentax, Olympus or Minolta. You can still take a great picture. But you do have to know exactly how the camera works in the first place – it has to be second nature. And the only way to achieve that is to get out there and practise, practise, practise.

What makes a competition-winning photograph?
There are no hard and fast rules that mean one photograph wins a competition and another doesn’t, but there is one key ingredient – originality. The judges are looking for something that stops them in their tracks, something really creative, fresh and surprising.

One mistake many people make is attempting to copy previous winners.That’s a bad idea, and simply increases the chances of your hard work being put straight into the ‘seen it all before’ file.

By all means, look at past winners for inspiration. Every professional wildlife photographer I know delights in analysing
other people’s pictures in competitions, newspapers, magazines and books. Flick through fairly quickly to see which pictures stand out – and then analyse why. Seek out pictures by the big names in wildlife photography and ask yourself what makes their work special.

Incidentally, there are no special tricks to get your pictures noticed. Some photographers try mounting their 35mm transparencies in extra-large mounts that won’t fit in a projector, in the hope that they’ll face less competition on the lightbox. Honestly, this does not work. If a picture is good enough, it will be noticed, and if it isn’t it won’t.

What are the best subjects?
It’s not what you photograph – it’s the way that you do it. Pictures of common and familiar species stand just as much chance of winning as pictures of rare and unfamiliar ones. In fact, I’d argue that they stand a better chance because familiar species tend to be taken for granted and so there is more opportunity to surprise.

Popular subjects, such as lions, tigers and elephants, demand extra effort. Anything too obvious will have been done before and probably by hordes of others. In the 2005 competition, for instance, there were hundreds of pictures of Japanese macaques (at least, there seemed to be hundreds because they were all remarkably similar). The vast majority were sitting in steaming baths with bright red faces and, sometimes, with snow on their heads. They were perfectly good pictures, but nothing special. Then, suddenly, there was a beautiful image of a Japanese macaque eating cherry blossom (BBC Wildlife, October 2005). It was undeniably different – the photographer had taken an alternative approach to a popular subject, and it worked.

With this in mind, experienced photographers work hard at their photography. They get down low, climb high, move backwards and forwards and from side to side, think laterally, get up early and stay out late. They wait patiently for hours, days or even weeks for exactly the right light or for the moment when the animal they’re photographing yawns, stretches, sneezes, runs or jumps.

Making the final selection
One of the biggest challenges in entering Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year is choosing what to send in. It’s almost as important as taking the pictures in the first place.

You have to be honest with yourself and edit ruthlessly. It’s all too easy to become emotionally attached to certain images and this is when people tend to enter ‘almost’ shots. Resist the temptation.
Just because a picture shows an endangered species and was taken on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday at 4am while you were waist-deep in mud doesn’t mean it’s any good.

There’s an old joke that the difference between a professional photographer and an amateur is the size of the waste bin next to the lightbox (or on the screen). In other words, professionals tend to be more critical of their own work and keep or enter only their very best shots.

The trick is to make an initial selection – ideally two or three times as many as you are allowed to enter – and then get other people to have a look, comment and even make the final selection for you. They don’t have the emotional attachment that makes it so hard for you to separate the fun and challenging shots from the really good ones.

And finally...
This may seem like stating the obvious, but you really have got to be in it to win it. I know many people who never get around to entering, or panic the night before the competition deadline and spend the early hours knee-deep in pictures. Plan enough time to do it properly.

And next time you wander round a Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition and catch yourself proclaiming: “I could have done better than that,” why don’t you go out and do it? Even if you don’t actually win, your photography will benefit from the entire process and will improve as a result.

Ten top tips
1. Light up
Make the most of the special light at the beginning and end of the day. Move around for different effects and try shooting into the sun for dramatic backlighting or to give your subject a ‘mythical’ appearance.

2. Fill-flash
Don’t be afraid of flash. While there’s no substitute for delicate
natural light, subtle fill-flash can fill shadows and add colour and punch. A well-lit subject against a dark or subdued background can look stunning.

3. Shoot tight
Wildlife snapshots are often trapped in a ‘no-man’s land’ where the subject is fairly big but not big enough. Grab the viewer’s attention by getting in really close to show expression or fine detail.

3. Shoot wide
If you can’t get close, pull back and put the animal or plant in the
context of its environment. Good composition is critical if a shot like this is going to work– especially if the subject is very small in the frame.

3. Simplify it
The simpler the image, the greater its impact. Compose your shot to remove as much clutter as possible and check all around the viewfinder for distracting branches, twigs and leaves.

3. Be patient
Wait for the defining moment. Transform an ordinary animal
portrait into an eye-catching one, for example, by waiting for your subject to do something interesting. You need quick reflexes to get the shot.

3. Hold steady
More wildlife pictures are ruined by a lack of sharpness than by
anything else. Work hard to hold the camera steady with a tripod or monopod, or even by resting your elbows on a fence post.

3. Get down
Looking down on animals from human height gives them lesser
importance, so treat your subjects as equals by getting down to their eye level, or even lower. Your pictures will have a much more intimate quality.

3. Get out
The best way to improve your photography is to practise. Whatever the weather, get out and take pictures. Set yourself projects and take inspiration from stimulating pictures in magazines and books.

3. Wildlife first
Put the welfare of the animals and plants you are photographing
above everything else. Be aware of how your presence might be affecting them and back off if they appear stressed.