From their years of experience taking pictures in nature, Konsta Punkka and Erin Babnik share their top nature photography tips and explain how getting the best shot involves a special awareness of your subjects and surroundings. Punkka is intimately familiar with the prowl of a lion or the gliding of a snake across the grass, while Babnik is drawn to the wonders of a wide-open landscape. They’ve honed their crafts and developed nature photography techniques that make them sought-after photographers.
The approaches the professional photographers bring to creating great nature photos are also helpful when taking pictures with your Google Pixel, whether you’ve got a snowy owl or a glassy lake in your sights. There’s beauty and wonder anywhere you go, in the wild or on your own street.

When Punkka travels to the coldest parts of the world, he’s hoping for rare sightings of the animals that live there. On a trip to Lapland, Finland’s northernmost region, he spent days seeking out the foxes and other small creatures living in the snowy landscape.

While he often relies on expensive cameras and lenses to get his images, he’s also taken nature photography with a phone camera. “It’s not about the gear,” Punkka says. “It’s about your mindset. For my work, I need to be patient.”

Pixel is strong enough to get you close to the action. With the 5x telephoto lens on Pixel 7 Pro, you can get right up to your subject. Need to go even closer? Super Res Zoom lets you get up to 30x closer without compromising image quality.¹

Getting up close isn’t the only thing that matters. When you spot an animal, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and want to immediately snap away. Instead, Punkka says, pause for a moment and consider the scene. If you’re trying to photograph something small like an Arctic fox, which averages about ten inches in height, it’s best to get down to the animal’s level. “If you get low and capture from there, that shows respect for the animal, which comes across in your photo,” Punkka adds.

The instinct to move fast is a hard one to kick. But if you do snap too quickly and end up with a blurry photo, Photo Unblur on Pixel phones can help.³ It uses machine learning to find and remove blur and visual noise, helping to turn a spontaneous snap into a masterpiece.

When you’re taking up-close nature photography with a phone, you’ll want to include as much detail as possible. If you want to get some of the smallest details in nature, such as leaves, flowers, and insects, use Macro Focus. But when you’re taking landscape photos, what matters is the feeling of the place, according to Babnik, who is primarily a landscape photographer.

Since there’s so much to absorb in a landscape, Babnik suggests focusing on the important parts of the picture – the elements that create a sense of place and drama. Babnik tends to photograph rural mountains and sand dunes, and balances the grandeur of these natural features with smaller objects like flowers or rocks.

“I want to reproduce what it feels like to be there and the sorts of ideas conjured up for the viewer,” Babnik says.

With Pixel 7 Pro’s ultrawide phone lens, you can span more of the landscape and include things you wouldn’t have otherwise seen in your photos. If you accidentally photograph more than you meant to – a stray bird or a hiker photobombing your pristine landscape – Magic Eraser can help remove it. Just open the Google Photos app on Pixel 6 or above and select the object you want to erase. You can use Magic Eraser on any photo, even if it was taken with another phone.⁴

“In my photos, I try to evoke the feeling of being there and the beauty of the scene,” Babnik says. “That way we can preserve these places for future generations.”