Wildlife Photography_ From Snapshots to Great Shots - Laurie Excell [5]
One very important aspect to consider when purchasing a telephoto lens is whether to go with the speed of a prime lens (fixed focal length) or the versatility of a zoom. Is there a zoom available that covers the focal length you are considering? Your shooting style plays a big part in the consideration of a new lens. Can you handhold a 600mm from a bouncing boat? (Believe me, it’s tough in even the calmest seas.) A smaller body and lens combination gives you more freedom of motion when shooting handheld than a super telephoto will. Will you be walking great distances or shooting from a nearby vehicle? How close can you get to your subject? The closer you can safely get to your subject, the less magnification you need. Which lens gives you the greatest mobility, versatility, and magnification for your specific shooting needs? Is the wildlife habituated to people? If so, you can often move in a little closer and get frame-filling images with shorter-length telephoto lenses without disturbing your subject. The image in Figure 1.5 was captured with a Nikon D3 full-frame body and a 70–300mm VR lens handheld from a boat.
Figure 1.5 The lightweight and compact size of the 70–300mm VR lens enabled me to easily handhold and pan with the Black-legged Kittiwakes from a boat as they flew over my head.
The versatility of a zoom enables you to change focal lengths on the fly as your subject gets closer, preventing clipped wings, cropped feet, and so on. While maintaining focus on a bird’s eye, you can turn the zoom ring to pull the focal length back smoothly as the bird approaches, keeping it all in the frame. Having a zoom range from 70–300mm (Figure 1.6) enabled me to acquire focus and begin firing at 250mm while the birds were farther away and pull back to the wider-angle end of the zoom as they flew right over my head.
Figure 1.6 Proof of the benefits of a zoom range from 70–300mm. A fixed focal-length lens would have limited the number of frames I could make without clipping wings as the bird approached.
When I have the solid feel of terra firma beneath my feet, I prefer to use a stable tripod with a fluid, gimbal head to do the heavy lifting and panning, allowing me to use my big gun for in-your-face, frame-filling photographs of my subjects. A 600mm not only enables me to compose tighter, but its narrow angle of view gives me greater control of the background and the shallow depth of field makes the subject stand out from the blurred background. Although many people think of a super telephoto for bringing a distant subject up close, I prefer to use it as a means to isolate elements within the frame from a relatively close distance (Figure 1.7), which produces tight framing that matches my photographic style.
Figure 1.7 The magnification and narrow angle of view of a 600mm allowed me to fill the frame with the White Ibis as it preened, eliminating the background.
Additional Lens Considerations
Focal length and speed are just a couple of considerations to think about when buying a new lens for wildlife photography. But once you’ve decided on a focal length range, is there more than one lens choice? If so, what are the differences between the lenses? Additional features to consider when purchasing a new lens include:
• AF-S/USM. Silent Wave motors enable quick and quiet focus, and give you the ability to override the autofocus by simply taking control of the focus ring without having to reach for the focus switch. This makes it possible to manually focus on your subject when the camera is having difficulty focusing and still capture the action.
• VR/IS. Vibration Reduction or Image Stabilization allows you to handhold up to four stops slower of a shutter speed than would otherwise be possible without it. VR/IS is a great feature when handholding telephoto lenses or when shooting from a moving object like a car or boat. Stabilization significantly helps you to nail that sharp image when the elements are stacked against you.
• ED/L. Nikon’s Extra Low Dispersion or Canon’s Fluorite glass is incorporated