Tauranga
Wildlife Photography Course in Tauranga
Wildlife Photography is a course in patience, long lenses and ethics, and the Bay of Plenty's wildlife is harbour, bush and open sea: a huge tidal harbour full of shorebirds, ranges of native forest, and a coast where dolphins and whales pass offshore.
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What You'll Learn
- Module 1: Getting Set Up
- Module 2: Mastering Exposure
- Module 3: Understanding Animal Behaviour
- Module 4: Colour, Exposure & Control In Natural Light
- Module 5: Fieldcraft & Ethics
- Module 6: Editing Wildlife Images
- Module 7: In The Wild
- Module 8: In The City
- Module 9: Building A Wildlife Portfolio
Your Tutors

Deb
Head Tutor — Landscape & Travel Photography
Seasoned photographer and educator with a passion for landscape, travel, macro, and food photography. As Head Tutor, Deb reviews assignments across nearly every course on offer, and her feedback consistently comes back to the same principle: strong technical fundamentals are what let a photographer's own style come through, rather than getting in the way of it.

John
Tutor — Nature, Travel & Sports Photography
Experienced photographer with a passion for nature, travel, and sports photography, bringing a fresh perspective. John's own work is shaped by chasing fast-moving subjects and unpredictable outdoor light, which comes through directly in the feedback he gives students working through the same challenges in their own assignments.
Meet the tutors who'll be giving you feedback
Real working photographers review every assignment you submit and tell you what to change.
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Answers to the questions students ask most before enrolling.
Wildlife Photography Course in Hamilton
Studying from Hamilton instead? See this course's own local page.
Wildlife Photography Course in Auckland
Studying from Auckland instead? See this course's own local page.
24/7 Access to Course Materials
Passionate and Experienced Tutors
Self-Paced Study
Flexible Payment Options Available

Practising in Tauranga
Wildlife photography around Tauranga
Mount Maunganui is the obvious starting point — the summit walk gives you a dawn or dusk view over both the harbour and the open ocean in the same frame, and the beach itself is one of the most photographed stretches of coast in the North Island. Papamoa Beach offers the same coastal look with fewer people in frame, and the Tauranga Harbour waterfront is reliable for reflections and boat/marina subjects. Inland, McLaren Falls Park gives you native bush and a genuine waterfall within twenty minutes of the CBD, and the Kaimai Ranges are the pick for a longer landscape day trip.
On pay: New Zealand doesn't have reliable city-by-city salary data for photographers — most job sites (SEEK included) show the same national figure copy-pasted across every region. SEEK's most recent figure puts the average New Zealand photographer salary at around $75,420 a year, though this varies widely by specialisation and whether you're employed or self-employed — wedding, commercial and corporate photographers with an established client base typically earn well above that figure, while it takes most freelancers a few years to get there. A Business Photography Course is built specifically around that gap — the pricing, marketing and client-management skills that turn technical ability into consistent income.
Tauranga Questions About Wildlife Photography Course
Success in Focus
What Our Students Say
“I found the course very informative and really enjoyed how I could do each module at my own pace. Deb was very responsive and provided valuable and encouraging feedback. I especially liked how detailed the Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom modules were and the video resources. The course has definitely given me a solid foundation to build upon and I realise I am heading in the right direction with photography.”
Kylie
“I've just completed a photography course through learning online, the help I got was amazing and the course was extremely good. I learnt so much from this course and I would highly recommend going through them if your looking for a course to study from home.”
Samantha D'Silva
“I have just completed my Professional Photography course. Deb was my tutor and she was very helpful and quick to respond. The course information was very easy to understand and 'the work at your own pace' curriculum was super helpful being a Mum of 2.”
Gabby

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