Capture the Moment!

Here are all my posts on photography, covering techniques, trips, research, exhibitions, talks and workshops. Watch out for my latest article every Saturday.

I’ve also written dozens of articles for Expert Photography and Camera Reviews.

If you’d like to contribute a guest post on any aspect of photography, please email me at nick@nickdalephotography.com. My standard fee is £50 plus £10 for each dofollow link.

Note: Some blog posts contain affiliate links to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

How to Photograph the Big Cats

One of the most popular subjects in wildlife photography is the big cats—including the tiger, lion, jaguar, puma and cheetah. I’ve photographed all of them in the wild, and here are a few tips I picked up along the way…

Mirrorless Autofocus Settings

I’ve been using a Sony a1 for over a year now, so I feel like the time has come to talk about the autofocus settings. I used to have a series of Nikon DSLRs (the D800, D810 and D850), and I’d never used a mirrorless camera before. However, it was pretty easy to learn, and even now I’m still amazed by the sharpness of the images.

Wildlife Photography Workshop

I held my latest wildlife photography workshop at the London Wetland Centre this morning in association with Handmade Workshops.

We had five people, and it was very enjoyable—I hope for them as well as me!

The blue hour

The blue hour is less well-known than the golden hour, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its advantages. The phrase simply refers to the hour just before sunrise or just after sunset when the colour of the light is generally ‘cooler’. In this article, I’ll show you a few of the benefits of this time of day and give you some ideas for the kinds of shots to take.

The golden hour

The quality of light is crucial in creating a great photograph.

The word photography, after all, means ‘writing with light’, so it’s no surprise that a lot of photographers spend most of their time shooting during the ‘golden hour’ either just after sunrise or just before sunset.

Extreme photography

In the quest to help people improve their photography, I’ve written various blog posts, including one on the rules of composition and another on how to stand out from the herd.

Today, I’m going to try a different approach - what I call ‘extreme photography’.

How to improve your photography

When it comes to golf and photography, I’m largely self-taught.

Photography is quite a lonely profession, so I thought I should write down how I’ve learned and improved as a photographer in order to help anyone out there who wants to do the same.

The Slow Pan

I took this shot on an Exodus trip to Kicheche Bush Camp in 2018 with Paul Goldstein.

Paul’s a great fan of the slow pan to heighten the sense of energy in action shots, and I’m now his disciple!

How to do low light photography

Every problem is a fact plus a judgment.

Low light might be regarded as a ‘problem’, but it depends how you look at it.

How to improve your black and white wildlife photography

I don’t take any shots in black and white. And nor does anyone else, for that matter, because modern DSLR RAW files are always in colour. If you want to create black and white images, then you simply have to convert them in Lightroom.

How to Shoot a Bear

Brooks Falls is a waterfall in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, and every July around a million salmon try to jump it in order to get back to their spawning grounds - and the brown bears are there to meet them!

How to Shoot a Lion

Shadows can either be your enemy or your friend - you just have to know how to use them. If you don’t shoot with the sun directly behind you, then there’s a risk that you’ll get more shadows on the animal and that they’ll be a distraction, making it harder to see its facial features and unnecessarily complicating the image.

How to Shoot an Elephant

First of all, I have to confess that the elephant is not my favourite animal. They don’t look very much like us, so anthropomorphic expressions are almost impossible to capture; they spend a lot of time feeding and very little time doing anything else; and they’re so…grey!

How to Shoot a Cheetah

I’ve taken more pictures of cheetahs than of any other animal, so here are a few things I’ve learned along the way…

Getting the most out of game drives

The worst part about taking pictures is knowing you've just missed a great shot. Here, I try to help wildlife photographers learn from 'the one that got away'.