| Tip 1: Miss the eyes and you've missed the shot. | | | | in a dark setting, but rather to fill in the shadows and |
| Getting the eyes in focus is key to capturing a photo | | | | provide detail where harsh shadows would otherwise |
| of an animal. It's human nature to look at the eyes. | | | | be heavy and dark. It's important to use flash wisely |
| It's how we determine emotion and how we | | | | and here are a couple of other suggestions: |
| connect. When I was in Homer, Alaska, I came | | | | 1. Be conscious of the animal and whether flash will |
| across a moose on the move. Given it was early | | | | scare them and, |
| morning and the light was low I knew getting a fast | | | | 2. There are times where your only shoot is through |
| shutter speed to freeze his movement would be | | | | glass -- using a flash behind glass will ruin your shot. |
| tough, so I quickly adjusted my camera to lock the | | | | The glass will reflect the light back at the camera and |
| focus on his eyes, and took the shot. The majority | | | | you shouldn't be surprised if all you get is a big white |
| of the picture was a bit blurry, but because the eyes | | | | picture! |
| are in focus, the shot was saved. Tip 2: Use a | | | | |
| telephoto lens. Getting closer to the action, yet | | | | Tip 6: Plan for the best light. There's nothing like a |
| staying a safe distance, is the key to photographing | | | | cloudy day to provide soft, even light for wildlife |
| wildlife. By keeping your distance you allow the animal | | | | photography. Clouds act like a giant diffuser to the |
| to be in their comfort zone and are more likely to | | | | sun, spreading the light out evenly and taking away |
| get natural behavior. Safety is also a factor when | | | | harsh shadows that are created by a bright, sunny |
| photographing in the wild. Always keep at least 100 | | | | day. Of course, a cloudy day has its challenges as |
| yards distance from wildlife, for your safety and for | | | | well, such as lower light, which will force you to |
| the well being of the animals. Another good use for a | | | | adjust ISO and shutter speed settings for stopping |
| telephoto lens is a trick not many people know, | | | | action and getting sharp, in focus images. Tip 7: |
| which comes in very handy when photographing | | | | Composition - Framing your shots. Some simple |
| animals in the zoo that are behind fencing. If you | | | | framing advise can go a long way toward improving |
| move close to the fence (keep a safe distance) and | | | | an image, and for those who are computer savvy, a |
| use at least 100mm of your telephoto lens, focusing | | | | little trick called cropping (software technique to cut a |
| beyond the fence, with a wide aperture, you can | | | | photo) can help improve composition that wasn't |
| "focus out" the fencing and take a photo of the | | | | quite right at the time the photo was taken. The |
| subject with no wires! Now, there are some | | | | best way to think about composition is to picture a |
| exceptions, such as, if the fencing is black you'll have | | | | tic-tac-toe grid in the view finder of your camera |
| a much better chance of pulling this off. Regular chain | | | | (I've seen some new cameras that come with this as |
| link fence is gray and semi-reflective, which in the | | | | a feature you can turn on!) and use that grid to |
| sunlight can cause a glare and is often too bright to | | | | organize your shots. There is no hard rule, but the |
| focus out. I've also had some successes at trying | | | | general theory behind good composition is that your |
| different angles, so experiment for your best results. | | | | subject lies in one of the crosshairs of the grid. |
| I often shoot with a Canon 100-400mm IS USM and | | | | Setting up your shot to lead the eye is also a good |
| a Canon 28-300mm IS USM. If you're new to | | | | example of composition. Tip 8: Shoot with two eyes. |
| telephoto lenses, on a budget and not sure what to | | | | This is a tip I'm sharing here, but often have a hard |
| get, I suggest the Tamron 28-300mm or a Sigma | | | | time remembering myself. I can't tell you how many |
| 70-300mm. I've also had great results with the Sigma | | | | shots I've missed because I didn't see the action |
| 50-500 which, as of this writing, I consider to be the | | | | coming. By keeping both eyes open you'll see the |
| best bang for the buck. These lenses all work with | | | | subject in the viewfinder and you'll also see what's |
| teleconverters of 1.4x and 2.0x so you can easily | | | | going to happen next. Tip 9: Anticipate behavior. This |
| extend your reach even further, often while keeping | | | | tip goes well with Tip 8, shoot with both eyes, |
| auto-focus (with Canon L lenses, a minimum aperture | | | | because anticipating behavior is often key to |
| of 4.0 or less will support auto-focus. Above that a | | | | capturing a rare moment, action and unique situations. |
| manual focus is your only option.) Tip 3: Use a wide | | | | Panning the camera to follow an animal can be a tiring |
| aperture. Learning the effects of adjusting your | | | | process, so often I'll study the animal's behaviors |
| camera's aperture will go a long way toward | | | | watching for a pattern and then use some |
| improving your photographs, especially in portrait | | | | anticipatory shooting, and a little luck, to hopefully |
| style shooting. In a photo of a grazing elk I shot in | | | | capture that perfect moment. Tip 10: Use a tripod. |
| Yellowstone, I chose a very wide aperture to blur | | | | Using a tripod is one of the best things you can do |
| out a potentially busy background and bring attention | | | | to improve your photography, and wildlife is no |
| to the subject instead. As you learn to control your | | | | different. By mounting your camera to a tripod you |
| camera you'll also find that adjusting your aperture | | | | reduce camera shake, which is usually the cause of |
| will have a direct effect on your shutter speed. This | | | | blurry photos. To take this a step further, I use a |
| will prove especially helpful when shooting in the early | | | | shutter release cable, which eliminates the need to |
| mornings and late evenings, when animals are typically | | | | touch the camera while snapping shots and thus |
| most active and the light is warm and muted. Tip 4: | | | | removes almost all potential for camera shake. Bonus |
| Adjust your shutter speed to stop/show the action. | | | | Tip: Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. This tip is a no-brainer for |
| When animals are on the move you need to decide | | | | those of us who shoot digital. Shooting digital is cheap |
| quickly on the type of shot you want to take. If you | | | | -- technology is advancing so quickly that, as of this |
| want to freeze the action, you'll need to shoot at 1 | | | | writing, a 4 gigabyte memory card is selling for less |
| 500 or faster and depending on light, that can be | | | | than $100 and you can get A LOT of photos on a 4 |
| tricky. One option, if you're shooting digital, is to | | | | gig memory card. The bottom line of this tip is take |
| adjust up your ISO, which will make your sensor | | | | photos....a lot of photos. Don't be shy. I often take |
| more sensitive to light and give you that needed | | | | multiple photos of the same scene or subject and |
| boost in shutter speed. Now, if you want to give a | | | | then later choose the best from the group. This is |
| sense of motion to your image, try shooting with a | | | | also a great way to learn; by adjusting your camera |
| shutter speed of 1/4 to 1/8 and pan your camera | | | | between shots you can experiment and see the |
| with the animal. Pan steady and remember, keep the | | | | results of different settings of your camera. And, |
| eye in focus if you can! For best results, pick | | | | don't sweat the details of trying to remember which |
| backgrounds that are uncluttered and simple, as this | | | | photo had which settings...another great thing about |
| will make the subject standout in the image. Tip 5: | | | | shooting digital is something called EXIF (Exchangeable |
| Use a flash to fill in shadows. It may sound odd, but | | | | Image File Format). EXIF data is written to every |
| using a flash outside on a bright sunny day actually | | | | photo so that later, upon review, you can see every |
| makes a lot of sense. In this situation, you're not | | | | setting your camera used to take that image. |
| using the flash to illuminate the subject, as you would | | | | |