The destinations you choose make or break your wildlife photography

Get into nature! If you want improve your wildlife photography, this is one of the most important pieces of advice I can give you. The natural habitats of wildlife is where it all happens!

For truly amazing opportunities to photograph Africa's wildlife, I suggest a safari to the national parks and game reserve's in Southern Africa. This region is world renowned for its wildlife and the large areas in which its wildlife still occurs naturally.

For full details on your options, if you decide this is the way forward, please visit my Africa Safaris section.

No Money? No worries… Even if you cannot afford to visit Africa, or do not have the time, you can still identify a few good destinations for your Action Plan.

So, where do you go? I suggest you visit local nature conservation areas. Here you will get hands on experience in being patient and waiting for a good moment to capture your subject. You should find out how many species it is possible to see and how many you are likely to see. Then start snapping and see how many you can tick off your list.

But wait! It is important to remember that your aim is to take pleasing photographs, and not to tick off as many species as you can. This happened to me earlier in my wildlife photography career. Luckily, I realised this and started concentrating on quality rather than quantity again.

Elephant Bull - Chobe National Park, Botswana
Copyright © Dries Cronje

Still no success in getting good destination ideas?

Is it a plane? Is it Superman? No it's a bird!

Bird photography can happen almost anywhere on this planet. Check out areas offering good birding close to your home, or stay at home...

A good place to start practicing might be your back garden (if you have one). This is also a good place for insect and spider pictures. You will need to ensure that your garden caters well for birds (sell that Rottweiler). Feeders and water features is a start. If you feel like doing this, I suggest a visit to aBirdsWorld.com.

They have a good range of products that will enable you to get your garden into perfect bird photography shape.

You should have a number of good ideas for destinations to visit in the next year by now. You can also include a visit to wildlife photography heaven in your Action Plan, even if this extends your time period a bit. Even the pros get excited at the prospect of a visit to countries like Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania or Kenia. You can also visit these places if you add it to your Action Plan and work hard to make it a reality. Good Luck!