By Alex Moss

Steve Bloom is a world renowned photographer with an illustrious career photographing people and wildlife on every continent on the planet. For Life caught up with Steve to find out his top tips for aspiring photographers.

1. Always try and shoot from the heart. Try and be original. If you see something someone else has done don’t try and copy it exactly. Look at it from another angle. If you photograph like you feel when you listen to music or read poetry, very interesting and magical things will happen.

2. Don’t spend too much time analysing what’s on the back of the camera because while you’re looking at the back of it, you’re not looking at what’s around you. You can look fleetingly but try and spend time looking and feeling what’s around you.

If you photograph like you feel when you listen to music or read poetry, very interesting and magical things will happen.

3. With photography less can be more. Try and take fewer photographs and try to see better.

4. It’s something I learned while working on the book Living Africa. Too much equipment can lead to missed opportunities. These days you can get so much good quality in a compact camera and it intrudes less on the subject.

5. Maybe I’m a bit old-fashioned but I think a viewfinder is very important. To actually compose your shot while looking at your camera rather than through the camera inhibits your ability to compose accurately and take a good photograph. But that might be because I’m not used to it.

Don’t go in like some kind of imperialist who owns the world.

6. If you’re photographing wild animals be mindful that you are an intruder in their territory. Don’t go in like some kind of imperialist who owns the world — otherwise you’re going to get attacked or they’re going to run away.

7. Do your research. If you want to photograph a particular type of animal behaviour you might find that during the winter months they hibernate. So do research to get timing right.

You can follow Steve on Twitter, Facebook as well as finding all his books online and Elephants from Thames & Hudson