The National Geographic Guide to Landscape and Wildlife Photography

The essence of landscape photography; fly fishing; influences on Melford's work; three elements and tools photographers need to capture the natural world.

Shutter speed; depth of field; ISO; how these technical concepts work with one another to form the foundation of powerful landscape photos; sketching a shot with a mobile phone.

Inside a landscape photographer's bag; discovering when to use essential tools; cable releases; different lenses; polarizing filters take the haze out of sky and water.

Three elements of a landscape photograph; exploring composition, light and content; compositional aspects; leading lines; frames within frames; four kinds of light; diffused light; incremental weather light.

Colors abound in the natural world; how they mix; how people respond to them; Acadia National Park; Adirondack State Park; how to play with color in photos.

Learning how to shoot the sky during the day and at night; capturing sun-blocking clouds, the aurora borealis and star trails; how shooting the sky requires anticipation, perseverance and patience.

How photographers use water as a subject or compositional element; capturing a waterfall; how ice is a great element for finding abstract patterns; taking underwater photographs without investing in expensive camera housings.

Landscape photography requires research; Death Valley; how landscape photographers decipher where to find the best potential for images; wandering and uncovering little-known gems.

How to click photos while travelling; journeying with Melford to international locales; how to turn impossible situations into rewarding challenges.

Digital photography; capturing a photograph; editing photographs on a computer; how to catalog photos; how to organize them for easy access; how to be a ruthless self-editor.

How photographers use computer editing software; tips, tricks, and shortcuts for working with important development tools; dehaze filter; hue saturation; the histogram; color and contrast.

Five tips for landscape photography; inspirational advice using work from Melford's portfolio to find one's style; surrounding oneself with art.

Skills of wildlife photographers; a journey to the rainforests in search of African hornbills; the practical aspects of a perfect shot.

Photographing wild animals in winter weather; shots of snow monkeys, cranes, and other animals; the technical aspects of shooting outdoors in the winter; honing focusing skills; capturing the drama of a snow storm.

Heading to the Galápagos Islands; photographing wildlife like crabs, iguanas, and sea lions; anticipating an animal's peak moment of behavior; tapping into the power of the golden hour of light; using bad weather to make photos more interesting.

Photographing nocturnal animals like bats, lizards, owls, insects and lemurs; using shadows to add drama to a shot; refining lighting techniques to capture the background and subject.

A trip to the Amazon rainforest; Laman documents birdsn and monkeys; shooting with big lenses; specialized tripods; image stabilizers help photographers capture sharp pictures at low shutter speeds.

Learning about underwater photography as another form of wildlife photography; how light works underwater; why particular shots of underwater fauna work so well; how to be careful using flash.

Shooting in a wet, muddy environment like the mangroves; how to photograph an elusive animal; remote control photography; camera traps.

Wildlife photographers in Antarctica; king penguins on an iceberg; wandering albatrosses in mid-flight; Laman reveals the trade secrets of how he manages to snag these and other dynamic shots in the midst of such a white, snowy environment.

The pros and cons of photographing wildlife from a vehicle; visiting one of the most sparsely populated regions of Australia; following a photographic expedition; the rare Golden Shouldered Parrot.

Encountering orangutans; Laman tries different techniques for capturing images of these animals eating, playing, fighting, and nesting; striving for improvement in wildlife photography.

Laman's project; he attempts to photograph all 39 species of birds of paradise in the wild; one of the most important aspects of wildlife photography is appreciating the sheer joy of the pursuit.

Three different experiences; capturing photos of exotic birds; how various elements of wildlife photography come together to create Laman's best images.