bird photography

Lenses

What Is a Telephoto Lens? A Practical Guide to Using and Choosing One

| September 14, 2026

A telephoto lens brings distant subjects close and holds onto fine detail while doing it. That makes it the obvious tool for sport, birds, wildlife and aviation, and it is easy to assume from that list that a telephoto lens is specialist equipment for people who do this for a living.

It is not. A telephoto lens is just as much at home at a school athletics meeting, at a family portrait session in a back garden, or pointed at a ridgeline from a viewpoint an hour outside town. This guide covers what defines a telephoto lens, the three focal-length bands it divides into, the subjects it suits best, how to shoot with one cleanly, and what to weigh up when you are choosing one.

What Is a Telephoto Lens? Four Defining Characteristics

As a general rule, any lens with a focal length of roughly 80mm or more counts as a telephoto lens. Conventions vary between manufacturers and writers — some draw the line at 70mm, others at 85mm — but the working definition is the same: a narrow angle of view that

Lenses

Nature

Bird Photography in South Africa: How to Choose a Lens and Take Better Photos

| September 08, 2026

Bird photography is one of the few branches of wildlife photography you can start from your own garden. There is real satisfaction in watching a bird long enough to understand what it is about to do, and then catching that moment cleanly. The difficulty is that birds are alert, they keep their distance, and they move faster than almost anything else you will point a camera at.

This guide covers what you need to get going: how to choose a lens for bird photography, the exposure and focus settings that actually work in the field, the compositions worth learning first, and how to approach different subjects from large waders to small garden birds. It closes with field etiquette, which matters as much as technique.