What Is The Journal of Wildlife Photography?
The Journal of Wildlife Photography is a community where wildlife photographers can share their knowledge and learn from an abundance of available educational resources created by professional wildlife photographers. This includes wildlife photography courses, eBooks, articles, free monthly photo contests, and a quarterly digital magazine that contains in-depth articles covering every aspect of wildlife photography. It is one of the best communities to be a member of for aspiring wildlife photographers wanting to learn how to produce powerful award-winning photographs.
Since 2018 until now the Journal of Wildlife Photography has been a quarterly digital magazine. The vision was always for the Journal to be so much more and so in March 2023 that vision is becoming reality.
New Community & Offering In 2023
Below is a video with co-founder Jason Caruso announcing the Journal’s new community and what subscribers can expect moving forward. Subscribers of the Journal will have instant access to this community and all that it has to offer.
Survey Says…….
Camera settings and birds in flight…
With all of the new and exciting initiatives happening behind the scenes at the Journal, they decided to survey their subscribers to see how what type of content they wanted more of.
Can you guess what the most requested topic was from wildlife photographers? If you guessed “camera settings” you’re right.
In his presentation, “Wildlife and Bird Photography”, YouTube star, Simon d’Entremont talked about the different camera settings that he uses for capturing static birds and birds in flight.
For example, what are the best shutter speeds when shooting smaller birds vs larger birds in motion?
He even shared a tip about what he calls the “Emergency Button” which helps him capture those unexpected “oh crap” moments that are so easily missed because we’re fumbling with our camera settings.
Free Monthly Trainings
The Journal of Wildlife Photography will be offering a free training like Simon’s every month. All training’s are recorded and can be accessed from the Journal dashboard so if you are unable to make the live session you can watch the recording at your leisure.
Here’s a look at the trainings that are already scheduled for the next few months.
Name |
Date |
Topic |
| Tamara Blazquez Haik | March 30, 2023 | Conservation Photography |
| Steve Perry | April 13th, 2023 | Secrets to Stunning Bird-In-Flight Photography |
| Brad Hill | April 20th, 2023 | The Creative Side of Wildlife Photography |
| Brad Hill | May 11th, 2023 | Digital Workflow for Wildlife Photography |
| Simon d’Entremont | May 18th, 2023 | Sharpness and Image Quality For Wildlife |
| Michelle Valberg | June 8th, 2023 | Approach The Scene Like a Professional |
Birds-In-Flight Photography: Settings For Success
- How to always choose the appropriate AF area.
- The AF areas that are my home-run hitters.
- Secrets for getting the most from subject detection.
- AF tips that can supercharge your BIF keeper rate.
- How to choose the right shutter speed every time.
- Tips for picking the perfect F/stop.
- When to shoot wide open, when to stop down.
- Balancing ISO with shutter speed and F/stop.
- Tricks for knowing when you’ve pushed ISO too far.
- The only two exposure modes you need for BIF work.
- When to go full manual mode.
- My top pick when choosing BIF metering modes.
- The best frame rate for BIF work.
- How to manage your buffer.
If you are not currently a subscriber but wish to participate in the community including the above mentioned free trainings, the quarterly digital magazine and all of other things mentioned in this post you’ll need to subscribe.
When you subscribe to the Journal of Wildlife Photography from this post will receive a FREE copy of an 82-page eBook entitled, Mastering Light: The Essence of Wildlife Photography.
As a reader of Coolwildlife, you’ll be directed to an exclusive page on the Journal’s website. When you subscribe the free eBook will automatically be added to your cart.
Free Monthly Photo Contests
Each month subscribers have the opportunity to participate in a photo contest. There is beginner and advanced category and prizes are awarded to the winner in each category.
Up to now, the prize has been a $250 gift card to B&H Photo.
As entries are added to the contest they are shown in the Journal’s community feed for all to admire and comment on.
Wildlife Photography Essentials Course
Perhaps one of the most exciting initiatives the Journal is working on is a partnership with Simon d’Entremont. Simon has agreed to produce a wildlife photography course with twenty (20) video modules covering everything from camera equipment to post-processing.
The course content is being recorded as I write this post and is expected to be available May 31st.
New Community Dashboard
As Jason mentioned in the video above, the new community dashboard will provide easy and instant access to everything the Journal has to offer.
While this is still a work in progress at the time of writing, the image below will give you a pretty good idea of what the new community platform will look like.
Discover New Groups
A big part of the Journal’s new community vision was creating a place where wildlife photographers of all levels, genres and brands could come together to exchange ideas and ask questions. The number of groups that are possible is limited only by the interests of the subscribers.
You’ll notice from the image above the left sidebar entitled discover new groups. That’s where you’ll go to participate in the groups that are of interest to you. Like any group forum, you’ll be able to engage with photographers who have a similar interest. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn your craft from other members and professionals who are part of the group.
My Connections
There will undoubtedly be members that are your friends or that you strike up a personal relationship with. The My Connections aspect of the platform will allow you to add those connections to your community dashboard.
Much like Facebook Messenger, you can then engage with your connections outside of the groups for a more personalized experience.
Latest Posts
The Journal’s writers are also constantly posting interesting articles outside of those that appear in the quarterly magazine. You’ll be able to view those posts making it into the latest post feed and read any that are of interest to you as you have time.
Digital Quarterly Magazine
The quarterly digital magazine now becomes an integral part of the Journal’s new community platform. With new issues releasing every quarter and five years of back issues, there’s always plenty of articles on a variety of wildlife photography to help you level up your wildlife photography skills.
