Wildlife Photographer Johan J. Botha: Mirrorless Cameras Have Erased Barriers in Competitive Nature Photography

Key facts

• Johan J. Botha has been involved in wildlife photography for 35 years, with a slide-photography period from 1993 to 2004.
• Between 2024 and 2026 he served as a judge for photographic clubs and salons, an assessor of honours for PSSA, and chair for PSA portfolios recognition.
• Slide-era success required good light, the rule of thirds, absolute sharpness, a visible catchlight, and full-frame or tightly cropped images, often of a kingfisher on a twig or a swimming waterbird.
• Digital advances included basic autofocus, larger higher-resolution sensors, faster shutter speeds, improved autofocus and reduced high-ISO noise, with ISO 12,800 now far beyond the ISO 50 of high-quality slide film.
• Mirrorless cameras brought subject and eye recognition, extremely fast autofocus and tracking, pre-capture, shutter speeds of 1/8,000 second and faster, 50-megapixel sensors and 30 frames per second or more.
• Club and salon systems accept roughly 20–25% of about 1,000 entries regardless of overall quality, while elite competitions such as the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year select a tiny number from tens of thousands with no quota.
• Botha advises giving the subject space, showing the environment, and treating cropping as an artistic decision rather than a consequence of not getting close enough.
• His example images include a Marabou stork at sunset, red-billed queleas at 1/8000s and f/9 and blurred at 1/20s, f/20 and ISO 50, a high-key black-and-white conversion, ostriches shot by underexposing, overexposing and deliberate cropping, and a secretary bird throwing prey after 90 minutes of tracking.