Heather Angel

Wildlife Photography

£45
Level: Peer






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The difference between Peer & Expert levels

Both Peer and Expert levels provide:

  • Video lessons led by an expert tutor
  • Downloadable lesson notes
  • Practice assignments
  • Group learning in a 20-student online classroom
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes, and classroom

The Expert level additionally includes:

  • Personalized feedback and coaching from your tutor
  • Private messaging with your tutor
  • Certificate of completion
Level: Peer

Course overview

Professional photographer Heather Angel will teach you how to take photos of animals and birds in the wild.

This course is ideal for anyone who loves animals. Whether you want to photograph them in your back garden or local countryside, a Zoo, Wildlife Park or Nature Reserve or maybe you are planning that once in a life time holiday. This course will give you professional insights on taking photos of wildlife.

Photographing the natural world can be both frustrating and immensely rewarding. Becoming an observant field naturalist will ensure you gain a closer approach to wildlife before they take evasive action.

Whether in your own garden or in more remote locations, learn how to make the most of available light for taking wildlife portraits. Heather will also cover how to meter for high key and low key subjects, and how and when to use flash and how useful fill-flash can be for animals of any size. Learn when and how to get dramatic action shots of animal behaviour using fast shutter speeds and slow ones by panning the camera. Invest time working with baby animals, because although a challenge, it will be very rewarding.

Learn how to use a house as a hide and about hide etiquette in public hides. Tips and hints for getting in close to minibeasts and also for photographing life in aquaria are included - but for the specifics of macro photography join my Macro photography course.

Having found your target species, thought needs to go into how best to compose the shot and to select the most appropriate shutter speed and aperture. Discover how to get dramatic silhouettes at dusk and dawn and how to plan a photo story.

Finally, learn how to edit images and to retrieve them at a later date.

You'll learn:

  • how to approach wild animals in their natural environment whether at home or abroad
  • camera settings to achieve correctly exposed images
  • photography skills to create eye-catching portraits and arresting action shots – from beetles to large mammals
  • taking action shots and using hides

Requirements:

  • Camera with a zoom lens so can stand back to take wildlife. A DSLR is not essential, but it will be easier for action shots because the focusing is faster.
  • For macro shots
  • Some means of getting in close – either with a macro setting on a zoom lens or a true macro lens for a DSLR camera.
  • A flash - either in-camera or a separate flash
  • Camera support - a tripod or monopod is not essential but could be useful if need to set up the camera and wait for wildlife to arrive/ behave.

This course is suitable for photographers wanting to learn to take photographs of nature and wildlife, through to professionals who want to develop their wildlife photography skills with Heather Angel.

Time to complete this wildlife photography course:

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 13 hours 45 minutes to complete including:

  • Video lessons: 1 hour 45 minutes in total
  • Course notes: 30 minutes per lesson
  • Assignment: at least 2 hours per lesson
  • Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson
  • tutor feedback review (Expert level): 15 minutes per lesson

The course includes:

  • On-demand video lessons - presented by Heather Angel
  • lifetime access to the video, notes and interactive class
  • flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
  • downloadable lesson notes
  • practical (optional) wildlife or nature photography assignments
  • access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
  • small interactive online classroom chat online to students from around the world

Ready to get started?

Just add the course to your basket above - choose the 'Expert' option for personal feedback from Heather on your photos.

Any questions? Contact us by clicking on the orange speech symbol - we'd love to hear from you.

Lesson summary

Making A Start
This lesson covers how to approach wild animals using the equipment which is best suited for getting photographs of birds and mammals as well as macro shots of insects.  There is also guidance on metering – including tricky subjects such as white birds in the snow as well as shots with large shadow areas. Examples of different types of lighting – front, side and back, including silhouettes – are all illustrated and explained.  Finally, there are examples of how to best to frame different subjects so as to achieve a striking composition.
Animal Portraits
Taking frame-filling animal portraits, whether large or small animals, requires care and thought about the lighting and composition  We will look at ways to light animal portraits, including using fill-flash to in-fill shadows and gain a catchlight in a black eye surrounded by black fur or feathers.  Your own garden can be a rich resource of wildlife subjects especially if a bird bath and a bird feeder are provided.  If the feeder can be positioned near a window in the house, this makes a handy hide – especially on wet days! Finally, guidance is also given on how to photograph mini-beasts, including insects, frogs and toads.
Action Shots
Taking action shots of birds and mammals – including baby animals – is more difficult than static portraits, but great fun when they work. Baby animals are particularly rewarding – whether playing on their own or with their parents or siblings. Action can be frozen by using a fast shutter speeed and in poor light it may be necessary to increase the ISO. Moving animals can also be captured in creative ways including panning the camera in the same direction as the animal is moving and by using a slow shutter speed.
Nature Tamed and Wild
This final week looks at taking wildlife in cities, collections and zoos as well as in wilderness areas. The pros and cons of taking captive versus wild animals is also covered. Advice is given for photographing animals in aquaria, how to compose images of wildlife in the habitat and points to look for when selecting a wildlife photo tour. Finally, ideas are given for shooting photo stories as well as keeping an open eye for a humorous wildlife shot.

Choose how you want to learn

Expert-level

Develop your learning further with marked assignments and personal tuition:

  • Start the course whenever you like
  • Tutor access for personalised assignment feedback & coaching
  • Certificate of completion and CPD learning hours
  • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
  • Lessons with expert videos & notes
  • Group chat & direct message with tutor & classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom

Peer-level

Get the most from shared knowledge and community study:

  • Start course whenever you like
  • Practise what you learn with your peers
  • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
  • Lessons with videos & notes
  • Course assignments
  • Group chat & direct message classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
Portrait of Heather Angel

meet the expert

Heather Angel

Renowned wildlife photographer, prolific author, and lecturer recognized globally for her nature photography.

Read more

Why choose Learning with Experts?

Start whenever it suits you, and immerse yourself in motivational lesson tutorials with expert guidance.
Enhance your learning and personal growth with lesson assignments. Each course includes an optional assignment at the end of every lesson.
Drop a friendly message or respond to your assignment feedback. Our world-class experts are just a click away, ready to help you!
Stay informed about your own progress and those of your peers, and take joy in celebrating achievements along the way.
Chat and share ideas with passionate communities of learners from around the world.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between PEER and EXPERT levels?

At Peer and Expert level, you get access to the same core content and features:

  • Video lesson tutorials led by your expert tutor
  • Downloadable lesson notes
  • Option to practise what you learn with lesson assignments
  • Group learning within an online interactive classroom of up to 20 classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes and classroom

If you choose Expert level, you get all of the above plus the following:

  • Personalised assignment feedback and coaching from your expert tutor
  • Opportunity to interact with your expert tutor through a private messaging system
  • Certificate of completion.
What is an online classroom?

Our online classroom has been developed to allow you to learn from our experts in a sociable environment alongside up to 20 other students. After each video tutorial led by your expert, you will be encouraged to practice what you have learned with optional assignments - these can be seen by the other students in your class, who are free to share their own thoughts and questions with you.

You will be encouraged to take part in an ongoing class discussion where you can discuss ideas, post images or work, and comment on each other’s assignments. It’s a great way to learn from other like-minded people who share your passion from all over the world.

This means not only do you benefit from people who are outstanding in their field, but also from a close-knit group of like-minded people whom you can learn alongside. Group learning has shown to greatly improve not just the experience of studying, but also how well you retain the knowledge, and we have built our classroom experience around this fact.
When can I start my course and how long will it take?

You can start your course any time within 12 months after receipt of your purchase confirmation email. Once you start, you’ll have lifetime access — meaning you can revisit the lesson videos and notes whenever you want.

Our courses are designed so that you can study at your own pace, some prefer to binge learn while others like to spread their studying over a longer period of time - it’s completely up to you. To give you a rough time frame, each lesson video is approximately 30-40 minutes long, and we recommend that you spend around an hour on each assignment.
How often can I speak with the Expert?

If you opt for the Expert version of your course, the time you have to interact with your tutor is limited to course length. You will have one week per lesson to chat to your tutor and to have your assignments marked, and during this period you can ask them as many questions as you would like.

To find out the length of each course, head to the product page and look at the Course outline to see how many lessons it contains. e.g. a four lesson course assumes that you will have completed the assignments within four weeks.

Your tutor interaction period will start as soon as you enter the classroom. If you find that you are struggling to complete the assignments in the allocated time or you wish to put this function on hold, just get in contact with one of the team via the support button and we will help you out.
Support and full FAQs

If you need any help with a course, be it one you’ve started already, or one you are looking to purchase, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Support email address, or view the full FAQ’s here.

You can also use the orange speech bubble on your page to start a conversation with us.

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Awards and accreditations

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