Great Nature Photography Forums

One of the best things you can do to improve your photography (beside practice, practice and practice!) is to participate in forum where you can show your pictures and have a look at the work of others.

In a good forum, you will get feedback on what is good about your shot and what you can improve. And by looking at the work of others and carefully analyzing their shots, you will learn a lot about how good images are made.

Beside image critique, many forums also feature discussions about cameras, lenses, field techniques, Photoshop and more.

Here is a list of some great forums where you can show your shots and see how others do it. The websites mentioned provide more than just a forum. Often you will also find great articles and other useful resources there, sometimes including stores where you can buy a lot of useful items for nature photography like blinds or tripod heads.

Naturescapes.Net
My favorite forum. The quality of the images shown there is very high and many of the top nature photographers can be found there. I’ve learned a lot at Naturescapes.Net.

BirdPhotographers.Net
Another great forum with many famous bird and nature photographers. Despite the name, it’s not only focused on birds but all aspects of nature photography.

Nature Photographers Online Magazine
A great website with many interesting articles and a very good forum.

Juza Nature Photography
A great website with many useful articles about nature photography and a very helpful forum. Currently there are less people at the Juza forum than at Naturescapes.Net or Birdphotographers.Net but the number of members is constantly growing.

Rules for participating in a forum

Be sure to read the rules that apply to all members before posting something at the forum. Often the size of the image is restricted (it doesn’t make sense to post a full resolution 21 megapixel file).

The most important rule is to always be friendly. When you criticize another picture, always do it in a friendly way but still telling the other photographer what he or she could improve the next time.

If you show your pictures and someone tells you how you can improve it, be thankful and not upset. After all, you want to learn something.

Keep in mind that some shots don’t work for all people. You may show a picture that you really like and all your friends like but the other nature photographers don’t consider very good. Accept that. Photography is also a form of art. And art is always perceived differently by different people.

If you changed something in the image with Photoshop (beside sharpening) be sure to tell the other members of the forum.
Also show the basic information about how you took it: Location, camera, lens, f-stop, shutter-speed, ISO, exposure compensation, if you used a hide (blind), etc.
Those information is often very interesting to other photographers and will also help them give you advice.

If you aren’t already a member of one of the forums above, I strongly recommend to join one or more of them. You won’t regret it.