Top 15 wildlife photographers on instagram

15 best Wildlife Photographers on Instagram for Inspiration

I’ve never been a super good photographer. And by the images used on this website, you can clearly see I haven’t got much of an aesthetic sense. 😉

However, my skills have improved A LOT over the last year. I bought a second-hand (but expensive) Canon camera online. And then I decided to become a super-good wildlife photographer.

Spending time on Instagram is usually a waste of time. Unless you actually follow the right people that can help you achieve your goals. Getting inspiration from top notch wildlife photographers has been extremely helpful for me to develop my skills within photography.

That’s why I want to share this list with you.

PS! If you’d like to see some of my photos, I’ve added them at the very end of this article. They’re not that impressive. 😉

Top 15 wildlife photographers on instagram

Table of Contents

Top 15 Wildlife Photographers on Instagram – who are they?

#1: David Lloyd

Screenshot: Instagram.com

Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/davidlloyd/


Comment: David Lloyd is my favorite. When you look at his photos, you very often go: “Oh, this guy knows his filters and Photoshop!”.

Then you understand none of his photos are photoshopped. And that’s quite remarkable. The way he captures animals is just astonishing.

PS! He is probably best at capturing exotic animals. Most of his shots feature lions, elephants, monkeys and giraffes.

#2: Michael Nichols

Screenshot: Instagram.com.

Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/michaelnicknichols/


Comment: Michael Nichols is not only about wildlife. However, 70 % of his photos are related to animals and nature. The rest? Brilliant portraits of humans.

When you look at some of his photos, you go: “Oh darn, why isn’t this guy famous already?”.

He is.

Nichols is a photographer for National Geographic and has also won Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Impressive.

#3: Nick Brandt

Screenshot: Instagram.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickbrandtphotography/


Comment: By the look of his photos, Nick Brandts’ Instagram feed might look a bit depressive. A lot of his photos are made in “black and white”.

However, you HAVE TO read the text for all of his photos. The caption is the key to understanding him. And when you start to see that he tells an important story for every picture he uploads, you start to understand why he is an “Instagram celeb”.

Powerful shots. Powerful stories.

#4: Neil Aldridge

Screenshot: Instagram.com

Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/aldridgephoto/


Neil Aldridge is a wildlife photographer I’ve been following for quite a time. His name popped up when I was doing research for an article called “Top 5 Environmental Issues Right now”. He calls himself a “conservationist”, which means that he strongly cares about taking care of the remaining animals that can be found on this planet.

The reason why I’m not putting Aldridge on top of this list is that he also creates and publishes a lot of films. To be honest, I don’t really care much about the film on Instagram. I’m more a “wildlife photography type of guy”.

Therefore, he is number four. But I would recommend following him. Not only to see beautiful pictures but also to learn a lot about climate change and biodiversity.

#5: Konsta Punkka

Screenshot: Instagram

Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/kpunkka/


If you’re a fan of high-quality pictures of Scandinavian nature and wildlife: I have good news for you.

This guy captures pictures of woods and wild animals like no one has ever done before. His following base says it all: more than 1,3 million people follow him every single day on Instagram. 🙂

That says it all.

#6: Michael Aw

Screenshot: Instagram.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awtimate/?hl=en


Comment: I’ll admit that the screenshot wasn’t the best promo for Michael Aw.

He’s better than what you see right here.

I am actually quite amazed by the fact that he only got 3000 followers. To me, he is one of the best photgraphers when it comes to capturing the perfect light in animal shots.

This is just one of many examples:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7PRDgTBGoe/

#7: John Cornforth

Screenshot: Instagram.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cornforthimages/?hl=nb


Comment: Probably the wildlife photographer with the widest specter of pictures.

Every time he uploads a picture, I’m interested to see what animal that’s been featured – and on which continent the picture has been taken. 🙂

I wouldn’t say that his photographies are very unique in any way. But they are all of super-high quality and features animals from all over the world. Top notch.

#8: Suzi Eszterhas

Screenshot: Instagram.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzieszterhas/?hl=nb


Comment: The first female on the list! Wohoo! 🙂

And believe me: Suzi is not on the list because she is a female wildlife photographer. She is on the list because she is posting brilliant pictures.

One thing is her great skills in capturing “lively” wildlife pictures. The other great thing about her is that her Instagram is filled with pictures where she takes us “behind the scenes” of being a wildlife photographer.

That’s super cool.

#9: Melissa Groo

Screenshot: Instagram.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissagroo/


Comment: I don’t have much to comment about Melissa.

It’s straight forward. Beautiful pictures of animals. Simple captions.

Keeping it “down to earth” and simple. Yet some of the pictures are so good that I am not surprised she has won an awful lot of awards for her photographs.

Go follow her!

#10: Joel Sartore

Screenshot: Instagram.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joelsartore/?hl=nb


Comment: Joel has a quite unique Instagram account.

It consists of: animal photographs with white or black background. That’s it.

And it might look a bit odd to begin with. But when you start to follow Joel, you understand why he is working with National Geographic. A super talented wildlife photographer that has really “found his niche”.

The ones that almost made the list (5 more…)

I promised you 15 wildlife photographers, didn’t I? 🙂

Here’s the ones that almost made the list:

  • Ami Vitale
  • Paul Nicklen
  • Florian Schultz
  • Morgan Heim
  • Tin Man Lee

Not all of these wildlife photographers do have Instagram. But if you simply go to Google.com and type in “name + Instagram”, you should figure it out quite easily.

Especially Florian got some super nice pictures. Not only on Instagram, but also on other online platforms. 🙂

Other helpful websites/resources

Being inspired on Instagram is, as I’ve mentioned before, super helpful. But I would also like to mention some other resources that I’ve used a lot to become better at wildlife photography:

Wrapping things up

I hope this list was helpful.

Wildlife photography is an extremely exciting thing. And it’s one of these things where you always go: “Oh, I wish I lived in Africa so I could take a photo of the lions!”.

However, the guy in Africa is probably dead jealous of the people that live close to Antarctica and can take photos of sea lions and penguins. So there’s always so much you would WANT to do – and so little you CAN do about the biodiversity close to where you live. 😉

I have honestly gotten a lot better at taking photos of moving objects after I started with nature and wildlife photography.

By the way, if you know some other photographers that post great content on Instagram, let me know in the comment section below. 🙂 I would love to be inspired by some new hidden treasures out there!

1 thought on “15 best Wildlife Photographers on Instagram for Inspiration”

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    thank you for the list. I’m stribing to become a wildlife photographer myself and need some inspiration on my instagram feed 😀

    right now it only consists of hot women and football memes

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