Are you dissatisfied with the images you shoot of birds and other forms of wildlife? If so, you’ve come to the right place today. The video below provides a handful of pro techniques that are guaranteed to up your game—regardless the gear you currently own or the level of your skills.

This helpful lesson comes courtesy of our friends at Pangolin Wildlife Photography, a group of passionate photographers and guides based in Northern Botswana. The good news is that you needn’t travel to an exotic location to take advantage of the straightforward techniques, because everything you’ll learn will prove equally valuable when shooting at a nearby park or local wildlife sanctuary.

Photographer Sabine Stols spends much of her time in the wilds of Africa teaching workshops and leading photo safaris for guests who’ve traveled to Africa from across the globe, so she knows whereof she speaks. She promises that her easy-to-follow advice will “elevate the skills of all wildlife photographers who are  keen to improve their craft.”

Today’s episode covers a lot of ground in barely seven minutes, and Stols’ first tip is to “chase the light, not the subject.” We all know that the most dramatic light occurs at sunrise and just before sunset, and this fact is particularly important to wildlife shooters because many animals are most active while feeding during Golden Hour.

In other words, “a photograph of a common subject in great light is better that a less-effective image captured in harsh midday light” when it can be a frustrating  waste of time to be trudging around in the field. One technique that she recommends for Golden Hour photography is to shoot into the light rather than positioning it behind you.

Another technique that delivers compelling results is to capture photos that showcase animal behavior. This is why all accomplished wildlife photographers do their research and spend time observing subjects so they have an informed understanding of exactly what to expect when animals are feeding or engaged in everyday social behavior.

It’s also essential to develop your composition skills, especially when photographing subjects in motion, and Stols has some great suggestions on this topic. These include experimenting with different camera angles, as well as “treating the background of a scene with importance.”

Stols offers other suggestions for enhancing your wildlife imagery—whether the subjects are exotic big cats in the African bush, or interesting backyard birds that visit your home every day. In either case, you’ll be able to make the most of a situation by following her advice.

There’s much more to learn on the Pangolin Wildlife Photography YouTube channel, so be sure to pay a visit when you have time to explore. And don’t miss the tutorial we featured with another accomplished pro who explains why you should ignore the “ISO 100 myth” when shooting nature, wildlife, and landscape photographs.

Regular maintenance of your photo equipment is a crucial but oft-ignored task if you don’t want to suffer a malfunction when shooting far from home, and the process involves more than superficial cleaning. This tutorial from the Be More, Do More, Have More channel is a very helpful guide for giving your gear the delicate care it deserves.

Instructor Shawn is a professional photographer based in Bristol, UK who is very passionate about travel; hence he’s developed a list of best practices for maintaining his gear so he doesn’t have to worry about a breakdown while he’s on the road. He also likes keeping his equipment looking like new, and this is a secondary goal of the 15-minute video.

Shawn’s advice is based upon 12 years of experience, and he kicks off the episode like this: “Whether you’re a beginner of a seasoned photographer these practical tips will help prolong the life and resale value of your beloved camera equipment.”

Keeping a camera in tip-top shape should be your primary concern but Shawn doesn’t want you to ignore lenses and other accessories that must also remain in perfect working order. He covers the gamut from banishing dust with a blower and the safe way to use a microfiber cloth, to protecting lenses with lens caps, filters and hoods.

The thoughtful discussion even delves into the best way to organize your gear in a camera bag or backpack so that nothing gets damaged in transit or while you’re scrambling in the field. Shawn begins with basic camera and lens care, and then turns his attention to the camera’s all important sensor.

Shawn provides a variety of other common-sense tips that you definitely don’t want to ignore. And here’s the deal: These recommendations are super important, whether you just bought the mirrorless camera of your dreams or you’re shooting with the trusty old DSLR that been a faithful companion for years.

We also suggest watching the tutorial we posted earlier from the Be More, Do More, Have More YouTube channel in which Shawn demonstrates how to restore ugly, degraded rubber on the barrel of a lens that’s faded, white, and chalky.

Landscape photos with overexposed highlights are a common problem with scenes that include a wide range of tones that exceed the dynamic range of your camera. This tutorial from the Photography Explained YouTube channel  provides a handful of simple tips for avoiding “those annoying big white patches in your images that are totally devoid of detail.”

This problem is particularly acute in scenes with overly bright skies as compared to the darker foreground and midrange in the frame. Today’s unnamed instructor kicks off today’s lesson like this: “Don’t worry because I have five tricks that will help you tame those wild highlights and make the most of your camera’s dynamic range.”

Put simply, the term dynamic range describes the variations in tones from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights that a camera is capable in a single shot. Here’s the key point: our incredible eyes have a dynamic range equivalent to about 20 stops, while cameras lag behind with only 10-16 stops. Hence, the difference between what we see and what a camera’s  sensor can resolve.

The first step is to develop an intimate relationship with your camera’s histogram and know how to interpret this simple graph to evaluate the tonal range within the frame. Only then can you adjust other key variables appropriately. The right side of the histogram represents highlights, the left side denotes shadows, with all other tones falling somewhere in between.

Another key consideration is the ISO setting you choose in these situations, and you’ll learn why our instructor suggests keeping it low. This variable determines how sensitive a sensor is to light. So “the higher the ISO the more the signal is amplified, which means you can shoot in darker situations. But there’s a catch, because by cranking up this setting you’re also reducing a camera’s dynamic range.”

Embracing HDR is another method that’s useful for avoiding photographs with blown highlights, and this approach requires a bit of post-processing. Here you’ll capture multiple shot (three is usually enough) of a scene, each with a different exposure setting. Then they’re blended together to achieve one perfect shot with maximum dynamic range.

There are two more tips left to go, and they’re just as easy to understand and put to use as those mentioned above. So watch until the end and improperly exposed landscape photos will be  thing of the past. Then pay a visit to the Photography Explained YouTube channel for more instructional videos that will definitely expand your skills.

We also recommend watching the tutorial we featured last week with an image-editing expert who demonstrates a two-click Photoshop technique for enhancing photographs captured in boring light.

What can focus on its prey better – the American Harris’s Hawk, the European Golden Eagle, or the Japanese Nikon D6? And how does the new Nikon Z 35mm f/1.4 perform in the field? I sought answers to these and other questions while photographing birds of prey yesterday. I’ll share my findings with you soon. In the meantime, here is a small sample photo, and, most importantly, another weekly roundup of photography news.