Wildlife Photography_ From Snapshots to Great Shots - Laurie Excell [12]
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Tip
Most cameras have an illuminated display to help you see the settings, but a flashlight is useful for finding the buttons and dials in the dark.
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Chapter Assignments
Now that you have all your gear, the following assignments will help you become more familiar with your equipment and accessories.
Get to Know Your Equipment
Take time to get to know your equipment. Set up your tripod and focus on the same subject. Shoot each of your lenses at their widest angle and then their longest focal length. Move in to minimum focus distance to see just how close you can get to your subject with each lens. Try filling the frame with your subject using different focal lengths to better visualize the difference between moving in tight with a shorter lens as opposed to staying back a bit with a longer lens.
Take Inventory Now So You Have the Right Equipment on Location
Go through your bag to make sure you have all the items you might need in the field. Do you have quick-release plates for your cameras and lenses with tripod collars that fit your tripod head? Do all your lenses have protective UV filters? Do you have enough media to get through an entire day’s shoot? With a little planning before you leave for a shoot, you won’t have any unpleasant surprises when you arrive on location in some remote area and find you are missing a key accessory or part.
Go Ahead, Clean That Sensor
Many people break out in a nervous sweat when they think about cleaning their camera’s sensor. Relax; it’s not that hard. If you don’t have a basic cleaning kit, now is the time to invest in one, so that when you are on location, you don’t end up with a dust storm on your sensor that shows up in your photos. It’s not realistic to think that you will never get dust on your sensor. Be prepared!
Share your results with the book’s Flickr group!
Join the group here: flickr.com/groups/composition_fromsnapshotstogreatshots.
2. Camera Settings and Shooting Techniques
Getting It Right in the Camera Is the First Step to Making Great Shots
With patience, persistence, and practice, wildlife photography can be a rewarding endeavor. You’ll encounter long periods of waiting and brief bursts of action. Being on top of your game makes the difference between getting the shot or not. Taking the time to learn the buttons and dials of your camera and optimizing it for wildlife photography is an important step to making great shots. Instinctively knowing where the buttons and dials are allows you to make changes quickly, capturing peak of action. Practicing proper shooting techniques will enable you to capture sharp images whether you are handholding your camera or photographing from a tripod. The time to learn your camera’s settings is now, not in the field. When the action is hot and heavy, you don’t want to be fumbling with the buttons and dials on your camera and miss a great shot.
Poring Over the Picture
We watched from the shore as the drama of two bears pursuing a sow unfolded on the mudflats. When the boars got too close, the sow would take off running, spraying water and mud in her wake. Understanding my camera’s buttons and dials and having the skills to track a moving subject enabled me to capture a wonderful sequence of images.
Poring Over the Picture
Photographing from a moving boat introduces several challenges that if not met, can impair the quality of my images. Knowing my camera’s capabilities and using proper handholding technique enabled me to make the appropriate adjustments and capture sharp images of a harbor seal with her young pup.
Camera Settings
Now that you have your digital camera, have taken it out of the box for the first time, and have really looked at it, you’ll find more buttons, dials, and menus than you’ll know what to do with. Do you just turn on the camera and start shooting,