Wildlife photography is a genre of photography that covers animals and their habitats. It can be challenging to capture the perfect photo of an animal in the wild, but the results can be stunning. Many amateurs have felt tempted to do so, but not all of them succeed.

However, the Crap Wildlife Photography Facebook group is not criticizing the failed attempts, but on the contrary, celebrating them for how entertaining they are. The group’s description states: “This group is for all those photos that you took that didn't turn out quite right. Maybe you chopped off that pigeon’s head, or maybe that lemur ran up the tree and you only caught its tail.”

Today, the Crap Wildlife Photography community is home to a whopping 451.2K members and it seems nowhere near stopping.

We suspect that it takes talent, skill, stamina, and everything in between to take a pitch-perfect shot, but the professionals know it best. So in a previous interview, Bored Panda spoke with Marina Cano, an award-winning wildlife photographer and Canon ambassador whose work has been on the covers of National Geographic, and in 2015 she was a finalist of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. If there’s someone who knows what it takes to get that golden shot, it must be her.“It lies in how unpredictable the animals can be,” explained Marina, “but that’s also the most exciting thing about capturing the one perfectly timed photo.”

Marina argued that the most important thing to know before taking a camera is that whatever happens that day, you will come back home happy to have been in the wild. On top of that, you need to be passionate, because that way, “you won’t blame anything and just enjoy it.”

A day in the life of a wildlife photography professional looks “more or less like a normal job,” except when you shoot in the bush, Marina said. “The days in the bush make this job the most enjoyable profession on Earth.”On one such day, Marina wakes up at around 4:00. “I have the rest of the daylight to spend in nature, to be witness, and to expect, if lucky, to capture the most extraordinary action out there.”

The health benefits of being in nature are nothing new. But they became more evident than ever before during the pandemic, when countries around the world implemented lockdowns with varying intensities. Researchers have noticed that there’s been a direct link between lockdowns and deterioration of mental health, including post-traumatic stress symptoms, anger and anxiety.

For a long time, it’s been evident that interacting with nature reduces stress, but it was not clear how long and how often the engagement has to be. It was also unknown what kind of nature experience would bring the best results. But in 2019, an illuminating study was published in Frontiers in Psychology that showed some very interesting findings.

After running an experiment, the scientists found that spending at least 20 to 30 minutes immersed in a nature setting was associated with the biggest drop in cortisol levels. According to the report published in Harvard Health Journal, “after that time, additional stress-reduction benefit accrued more slowly. Time of day and specific settings didn't affect stress levels. So the next time you need to de-stress or just work on your mental well-being, find a nature setting you enjoy and spend some time there.”