Nature photography can be fascinating and can be complicated. Unlike some other forms of photography, nature photographers don’t always have much control over our subjects or the circumstances when we meet them. There are things that we can control, though, and to get our best photos we should do our best to understand them.

One of the most important things we can control is composition. When taking shots of stationary things like landscapes or flowers much of the composition can be controlled while taking the shot. Remembering things like the rule of thirds and using leading lines while shooting can save time and effort during post processing. Also taking several shots with various compositions will allow the photographer to choose what he likes best. Sometimes it is surprising when we go back and look at our pictures, which ones we prefer.

Things can be a little harder when taking photos of moving things like birds and butterflies. With these subjects, we sometimes have to take our photos as we can before our subjects disappear. In these cases, we can still control composition, but we may need to do at least some of it in post processing. Often simple post processing tricks like cropping out distractions or removing unwanted objects can vastly improve the composition of a photo. Post processing also allows us to experiment with compositions to find what works best for any given photo. Like with many other things, learning how to make a good composition takes practice, so we should never just “settle” if we are not happy with our results.