Help me fix my timing
QI am keen to shoot more wildlife images, but my early results aren’t great because I can’t seem to time when I fire the shutter to capture the subject doing something interesting. What do I need to do to get a better success rate?
AWildlife is a tricky genre because it relies on oodles of patience when there is absolutely nothing happening and the ability to react quickly when there is. Even those of us who have been doing it for a long time regularly miss ‘the shot’ because animals are unpredictable.
Knowing your subject and being able to predict what it might do is a good start, so whatever you are shooting, spend a lot of time observing its characteristics so you can be one step ahead of anything it does. You can weigh the technical things in your favour, too, by ensuring your camera is set up to react quickly. Have your AF set to Continuous and your drive mode also at its fastest continuous shooting mode. This way you can fire off a sudden burst of images if there’s some action happening in front of you, and within that series of frames, you might get the perfect shot.
Ultimately, keeping your concentration while there’s nothing to see isn’t easy. It’s impossible to keep your eye to the viewfinder at all times and that could even be a hindrance as you want to be aware of what’s happening within the wider scene. Once there is a subject within range, I’ll keep one eye on the viewfinder and the other open so I can pick up any movements that might affect the behaviour of my subject.