30 Wildlife Photos Taken In Dangerous Locations

He says that wildlife photography is extremely difficult as the photographer has to have special preparation and a lot of patience, not to mention financial investments in photo equipment and twelve to fifteen working hours in not-so-perfect working conditions. “Professional wildlife photography is a very complicated, specific genre of photography, demanding from the photographer special preparation and a special temperament, especially when shooting wildlife in their natural habitat. It also means considerable financial investment in photo equipment and technology, and dealing with endless bureaucratic procedures when organizing expeditions: long correspondences with officials and the directorships of national parks, purchases of licenses for photo shooting, etc. Apart from that, a wildlife photographer must possess very special knowledge about his subject; otherwise all the colossal efforts in organizing the expedition might go to waste. You must go armed with great patience and caution, because professionally photographing an animal without giving it serious thought is almost impossible. At times, you end up having to spend six or seven months getting ready for an expedition where you’ll only have three or four shooting days. The workday can be as long as twelve to fifteen hours. Be prepared for poor living conditions and a camping-style life: dirt, dust, rain, scorching sun, and traumas will be your unavoidable companions.

And if you spend a long time shooting in the tropics, then a whole bouquet of tropical diseases is practically guaranteed. And when you wake up at four AM several days in a row and realize that you have to go another fifteen kilometers through rain-drenched tropical forests in almost 100% humidity, carrying equipment that weighs twenty kilograms for the sake of a few shots (and sometimes just for a single one), ask yourself one question: 'Do I need this?' If the answer is negative, don’t torture yourself and those around you; after all, in the first stages of work, disappointment will be more common than success.”