Capture the Moment!

Here are all my posts on photography, covering techniques, trips, research, exhibitions, talks and workshops. Watch out for my latest article every Saturday.

I’ve also written dozens of articles for Expert Photography and Camera Reviews.

If you’d like to contribute a guest post on any aspect of photography, please email me at nick@nickdalephotography.com. My standard fee is £50 plus £10 for each dofollow link.

Note: Some blog posts contain affiliate links to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Namibia

Until recently, the longest journey I’d ever had to make was 36 hours. That was how long it took to get to Brooks Falls in Alaska to see the bears catching salmon. My trip to Namibia ended up taking seven months!

Webinar: The Essential Guide to Wildlife Photography with Nick Dale

I held a webinar for The Societies of Photographers yesterday, so I thought I’d share the link with everyone. I hope it’s useful.

Camera set-up for Nikon D810 and D850

I recently watched a few videos and read a few articles on Steve Perry’s website, and they inspired me to share my camera settings with you. Thanks, Steve!

My photographic equipment

When I started out as a professional photographer back in 2013, I didn’t even own a camera! I had to spend thousands of pounds building up my current collection of camera bodies, lenses and accessories.

My top 10 birds

I’ve taken pictures of well over 200 birds around the world, so it’s been very tricky narrowing down the list to just ten. In the end, I had to cheat by broadening the definition of ‘bird’ from species to something like ‘genus’ or ‘family’.

Safari Destination Guide

I’ve visited Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe on safari and worked as the Resident Photographer for four months at various camps in Tanzania and Kenya. Here’s a quick overview of the major safari locations in Africa, including a fact file for each country and my personal impressions of the places I’ve visited myself.

My top 10 animals

The hippo is not one of my favourite animals. I just want to get that out of the way right at the start. They spend most of their time submerged up to their snouts in water, and it’s very difficult to get a decent picture of any of them.

What has Lightroom Ever Done for us?

…Apart from cropping images, adding vignettes, changing highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, chromatic aberration, camera profile etc, etc, etc!

Lens Culture Submission review

I’ve just received a free Submission Review by a LensCulture photographic expert. The images are shown above, and this is the review.

2019

If you’d like to know a little bit more about what I’ve been up to as a photographer in the last 12 months, I’ve put together this summary.

Oxford University Society talk at The Athenaeum

I just wanted to thank everyone who came along to my talk and slideshow last night at The Athenaeum.

Guest post: Seven tips that will turn your hobby into a profession

Can you turn your photography hobby into a profession? The fact is that professional photography is in high demand. It’s an exciting time for hobbyists, but before you take the plunge into the professional world, have a look at a few professional photography tips to help kick start your career.

Fun facts on safari

Here’s what I learned about the bush from my guides over the last four months…

Facts and figures from my Africa trip

My trip to Africa came about when I happened to read an online article about a guy who’d managed to wangle himself 365 nights of accommodation in exchange for taking pictures. I thought to myself, “I could do that!”, so I Googled ‘safari lodges in Kenya and Tanzania’, sent off 50 emails and waited to see what happened. After only a couple of weeks, I had 17 invitations!

Cottar's 1920s Safari Camp

Cold, grey and wet. The weather at Cottar’s when I arrived on 28 May wasn’t great, and it didn’t get much better until a few days before I left on 30 June.

Lions of the Serengeti and Masai Mara

I’ve spent the last four months teaching photography at Klein’s Camp, Serengeti Under Canvas, Grumeti Serengeti Tented Camp and Cottar’s 1920s Safari Camp. Here are a few facts about lions I picked up from the guides along the way…

Wildlife sightings

The only question that really matters when you’re on safari is “Will we see X?” Now, ‘X’ may be a lion, a cheetah, a kill or a wildebeest crossing, but the frustrating bit is that you never get a straight answer.

Grumeti Serengeti Tented Camp

My time at Grumeti started off with a few frustrations and disappointments, but it all came right in the end…!

Klein's Camp: Part 2

“There’s a lion fighting with a buffalo!” cried our driver, holding his binoculars and looking round in my direction. “Okay, let’s go!”

Klein's Camp

If I told you I had to ask a guy with a spear to walk me home every night for the last month, you’d probably ask where on Earth I was staying. The answer is Klein’s Camp in the Serengeti in Tanzania.