I am looking into animal photography, what do I need to know?

Hey!. Well, I am not sure what I want to do as my career and I still have a few years to decide. I was thinking the other day on what I was interested in, well I am interested in animals, photograpy, and the medical field. What do I need to know for animal photography, as far as how many years of school does it take to become an animal photographer, how much do you get paid, what are the advantages and disadvantages of it, etc.? I would appreciate some help! Also, if you think of something that I would be interested in that pays good and would be somewhat enjoyable, please do tell me so I can look into it. Have a nice day folks!

W.C. Fields knew what he was talking about when he said "Never work with children or animals." Of course, he wasn't talking about photography, but I think it's still good advice!

A place like your local zoo or animal theme park like Sea World will put your skills to work ... that is for sure and you will be able to work with the scientists who work there and learn the same skills you will need to do medical photography.

In a contained environment like a zoo, you will only need a 200mm, macro and some kind of wide angle (24mm or 20mm) if shooting 35mm. You can do the math if using a DSLR

If in the wild, you are looking at 400mm and 600mm lenses ... Those are better supplied by who you work for, since they are about $6,000 and 12,000 respectively

At the time I worked for Sea World, most of the photographers were Brooks graduates.

http://www.brooks.edu

There are many types--cat and dog shows have photographers set up to get head shots or full body shots against plain backgrounds. Horse and cattle shows do professional photography of individual animals in the show ring (VERY specific in the case of cattle!!!), and for insertion into breeding ads and horses for sale ads as well as farm promotion in publications. There's also the jumper shots of horses going over fencing for the riders to display.

There's general wildlife shots in a staged environment for local Audubon/rehab work, also sent to newspapers. There's calendar work (12 good shots, same theme). There's the old Xmas Santa with pets work. There's the individual dog breed festival events where people can get pictures taken of them and their dog. There's stock photography of any species plus fish & birds.

Etc.! LOL.

Have you tried getting the book Photographers Market 2008? The local library may have a previous year available in their reference section--or go to Barnes & Noble or Borders Bookstore to find a copy to page through. That will give you suggestions on who's looking for what for their publications.

Some people with cameras have done books--remember that one about the snowman and deer that came out a few Christmases ago? It's been reprinted--I think it was called A Stranger In The Woods. That was lucrative for the photographer.

There's a magazine called Birds & Blooms which looks for bird photos. The list can be pretty endless if you have a wide range you're 'open to'.

Well it depends on what kind of animal photography you want to do, if you want to do wildlife photography, then you definately need to know not to use a wide angle lens to photograph a grizzly bear.

Seriously though, if you are talking about animal portraiture, you need to know the meaning of patience. A single sitting that would take maybe 15 minutes with a person could take an hour or more when you get an animal involved. I do mainly human portraiture, but if someone wants their pet included in the photo i allow it. A friend of mine does strictly pet photography and I send anyone wanting pet photos to her.

If you are talking about wildlife photography, then biology would be a great class to take. Especially if you plan on selling your pictures to magazines. Most specialty mags want a small caption to go along with the photo and they usually want the Scientific name of the animal included.