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.

Where to See the Big Five

For most people who go on safari in Africa, it’s all about the Big Five: lions, leopards, African bush elephants, black and white rhinoceroses and African (or Cape) buffaloes. Back in the days of big game hunting, those were the five most dangerous beasts, so hunters prized them as trophies to take back home and put on their walls.

What Your Driver can do for you

As John F Kennedy almost said, “Ask what you can do for your driver - and ask what your driver can do for you!”

Drivers and guides are there to help you on safari, and it’s worth getting to know them so that you can benefit from their knowledge and experience—but it’s important to try and give something back.

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’.

Lockdown ideas

Yes, I know that most of you wildlife photographers out there would rather be in the Masai Mara than stuck at home in suburbia, but I thought I’d just make a list of a few things you could do while waiting for lockdown to come to an end…

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!

The exposure triangle

Let’s go back to basics! What is the Exposure Triangle? Why do you need to know about it? How can it help you?

In this article, I’ll answer all those questions - and more!

Selective colour

The advent of digital cameras led to a number of changes in photography, and one of those was the chance to create pictures using selective colour.

The basic idea is to turn a photograph into black and white and then highlight the key area by colouring it in again.

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…

How to Shoot a Tiger

If you want to shoot a tiger with a gun, I can’t help you - in fact, nobody can! - but if you want to use a camera, I may have an idea for you…

Safari Destination Guide

I’ve visited Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe on safari and worked as the Resident Photographer for four months at various camps in Tanzania and Kenya. Here’s a quick overview of the major safari locations in Africa, including a fact file for each country and my personal impressions of the places I’ve visited myself.

How to Stand out from the Herd

When you’re taking shots of wildlife, it’s very easy to end up with ‘record shots’ rather than what a friend of mine calls ‘printables’ - in other words, pictures that you’d be happy to print and hang on your wall.

How do I make money from photography?

The obvious question for a lot of amateur photographers is 'How do I make money from photography?' The answer, unfortunately, is that I don't know.

Basics of photography

When you buy (or borrow) your first digital SLR, everything looks different, and it can be a bit worrying. What are all these buttons and dials for? Why is it so heavy? Where do I start? How do I change the shutter speed? All these are very good questions, and this is the place to find the answers!