Wildlife photography takes on many different forms. The most common type is that epic scene; a lion sitting on a rock during a thrilling lightening storm, a silhouette of elephants walking in a single line at sunset, or of hungry cheetahs chasing down their meal.

Such incredible photos dominate wildlife magazines and photograph competitions. They are what has come to be expected of wildlife shots, especially those coming out of Africa, but if you don’t want to look the same as everyone else when it comes to your personal photography style or if you’ve grown tired of those sorts of images, there is another option that you can experiment with, and that is macro photography.

Getting really up close to your subject is probably not the first thing that you think of when you think about wildlife photography, and that is because most wildlife scenes require you to be quite far away from your subject. When in the bush, animals are almost always going to be seen at a distance, and this is a good thing because it allows you to have enough space to compose a beautiful image.

With macro photography, you are experiencing the exact opposite. You will generally be so close to your subject that composition won’t actually be necessary, at least not so far as the background is concerned.