Wildlife Photography career?
(B) Amount of training or education required
(C) Related careers
(D) Skills necessary for the position and job description
(E) Hands-on opportunities for students to get experience
(F) Salary expectations (average yearly income)
What happened to (A)? LOL
(B) Successful wildlife photographers need more knowledge on the subject than photography. A basic Photography course will teach you all you need on the Photography side, on the animal side you will need to know their habits and habitat so you can place yourself in the position to take your shots.
(C) Gamekeepers, Veterinarians, Zen priests (you need lots of patience), Boy Scouts (so you can survive in the wilderness), African Tracker (so you can actually find the darn things).
(D) You notice in the last answer the Photography bit is the easiest. You need to be able to handle your camera without thought (autonomously) so plenty of practice. If your photographing Wolves for instance you need to intimately know Wolves, their habits, their location, how the pack works, the hierarchy in the pack, their territory in short you have to watch the wolves for weeks before you even assemble your camera equipment.
(E) Your back garden and a telephoto lens will give you all the experience you need Photographically. It will also show you just how difficult a good picture of a humble Robin is to get, let alone a truly wild animal that is wary of any unusual activity in his area. The Robin is used to you and its still not easy. It all comes back to knowing your subject.
(F) All the wildlife photographers I know (2) are free lance, only the BBC have a dedicated wildlife team that I know of, may be there may be more. So income is difficult till you get known and get published. Then you may get commissioned for a piece which looks after all your expenses and gives you the backing to get into places the general public can't go.
Try studying and photographing an animal close to home (no study has been done on the town mouse for instance, or weasels or stoats), then submit your pictures to a wildlife magazine, if you get published you're on your way.
A wildlife photographer is one of these jobs that sounds idyllic, as with most things in Life the reality is often something else. My daughter was a Stewardess for British Airways for over 10 years, She knew She had had enough when packing yet again for yet another 5 days in Bermuda (or India or Hong Kong or Africa etc. etc.) and feeling low at the prospect of living out of a suitcase yet again. She's now on a degree course to be a nurse and gets much more job satisfaction out of it.
Chris
Goed Bekeken! - de Natuurfotograaf #02
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