Forums

Observing and communicating with serious amateur and professional photographers, especially those predisposed to offering their time and expertise, is absolutely the best tactic for making headway if you are a beginner. The Web certainly fosters this approach. Forums allow you to ask questions or quickly review what issues are most pressing. We would recommend the following as the best and most progressive for either airing your concerns or quickly adding to your general knowledge:

Nature Photographers Online Magazine Naturescapes PhotoNet

Reviews

If you are not comfortable with online interactive participation, then accessing equipment and other reviews can provide useful information, albiet in a more technical and sterile format. We would recommend the following as a good starting point:

Digital Photography Review

Links

Absolutely the best genre for gaining an immediate grasp of good photography is to simply visit the Web sites of serious amateurs and professionals who offer their output for sale. Many have a specific focus such as avian subjects, offer education classes and field trips or have associations with individuals who are particularly adept at teaching in-depth specialist subjects such as PhotoShop CS3 or Lightroom post processing techniques. This is also a great venue to gain insights into composition and what works. Unfortunately, the number of Web sites is virtually limitless. Although the following is a good cross-section and provides an excellent beginners first impression, it is in no way indicative of the truly awesome photographers that are dedicated to capturing wildlife images:

Alan Murphy - Avian Photography Jim Zipp - Bird, Nature And Wildlife Photography Deb Henson And Jan A. Alinder - Lucid Images Wildlife Photography E.J. Peiker - Nature Photographer Mark Graf - Nature And Wildlife Photography Dave And Carol Clarke - Wild World Photography Brian Small - Bird And Nature Photography Gustav W. Verderber and Robert Servranckx - Sojourns In Nature John Blumenkamp - Teton Trail Photography Phillip Colla - Phillip Colla "Ocean Light" Photography Dennis K. Olivero - Northern Light Nature Photography Jeff Nadler - Avian And Nature Photography Cheryl A. Ertelt - Photos And Phrases Richard Mittleman - Gon2Foto

There are also sites that house thousands of images in a data base or library that amalgamates the work of many nature photographers. Try Elk Meadow Images for an example of this method of marketing output. There are also a myriad of sites built by photographers that are just getting underway. For a particularly good example of output presentation, try a visit to Flagstaffotos in Australia.

You can actually "Goggle" yourself to death here. For a simple starting point, visit the "Portfolio's" section of Naturescapes and look at selected personal output from Forum Contributors.