Shot lists help you stay focused on trips and come home with the shots you need AND want.

Organizing your photo catalog as early as possible means smooth sailing in the years ahead.

Staying organized and on top of your business is easier when you automate as much as possible. Here are a few tools to help you get started.

When you’re a professional photographer, defending your copyright is part of the job.

Writing a pitch is difficult if you’re not sure what to write and how to write it. Here’s the anatomy of a pitch, with a real-life example.

As humans, we are pre-wired to fantasize about the outcomes and the end goals, and the dream of being a wildlife photographer is no exception. But, I bet not even one of us ever fantasized about which RAID system to buy or what keywords would put our images on the first page of stock agency searches.

Building a professional pedigree is a crucial step toward getting your foot in the door with publications. But there’s a catch. You need a pedigree to begin building your pedigree. In this article you will learn how most career wildlife photographers we know solved this problem.

“To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late is unacceptable.”

I first began my career as a wildlife photographer when I was in college at Appalachian State University. I was one of those weird kids who already knew what they wanted to do with their life. I guess this makes sense given I did everything completely different up to this point anyways. I dropped out of high school but got a scholarship because I scored in the top 1% on my GED scores. But seeing how I didn’t want to be in school at the time, hence the whole dropping out part, I spent a year hitchhiking around the country and hopping freight trains while toting a Canon AE1-P camera with me everywhere I went. Upon returning home with a clear mind and visions of being a wildlife photographer dancing in my head, I enrolled back in college and earned degrees in both environmental history and biology.

I’m in Alaska at the moment, and have been for the last three weeks. Next year, I will be here for 5 months. For now, however, it’s a breakneck schedule. A week living on a boat photographing orcas, humpbacks, seals, sea lions, puffins, and a menagerie of other species. From there, it was float planes into remote and isolated lakes high up in the mountains to photograph bears feeding on sockeye salmon. And as I write this, bags sit piled up next to me ready for yet another bush plane flight to yet another remote stretch of Alaska in search of bears chasing down a different species of salmon: coho. Different fish. Different environment. Different photographs.

But here’s the thing: these days, EVERYBODY photographs brown bears in Alaska.

For professional photographers, learning video is a matter of “when,” not “if.” The latest video marketing survey from WyzeOwl reports that 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. What’s more, people watch an average of 18 hours of video online each week and are twice as likely to share video content with their friends and networks than any other kind of digital media. Cisco predicts that by the end of 2022, video will make up 82% of internet traffic.

As working wildlife photographers, we are always on the hunt for tools to make our lives easier. Sometimes this looks like equipment we will put to use in the field such as waders, snowshoes, new backpacks, and floating blinds (more on this in a future article). Other times, it’s workflow related - such as new features found in Lightroom like the game changing “select subject” option in the masking tool. And every once in a while, it has something to do with how we sell and license our photography.

Licensing your wildlife photography is one of the easier ways to get started in the business, but you have to understand how licensing works in order to make it work for you.

Annalise Kaylor recently wrote a newsletter article for us that discusses just how common practice it is for companies to host “contests” only to retain rights to your images if you enter to win.

So, is this what Outdoor Photographer is doing?

When it comes to selling wildlife photography, understanding color space might not seem all that important. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

“I love your photos. You should sell them!”

"Have you ever thought about selling your photos? They're just beautiful!"

"You're so talented, you really should be selling your photos!"

Raise your hand if you’ve heard any of these, or a version of them, before. This kind of proclamation from well-meaning friends and family is so common, that it's almost considered a wildlife photographer's rite of passage.

But it's exciting, isn't it — the idea that people connect with you and your art enough that they'd like to purchase a print or two for their walls?

Here’s the thing about wildlife and nature photography, it’s just like any other creative market. At any given time, certain styles, certain looks, certain types of photographs are all the rage.

One of the biggest problems we see when coaching wildlife photographers who are breaking into the business is the unspoken assumption that, “if you build it, they will come.”