ANIMAL PHOTOGRAPHY

animal. It’s human nature to look at the eyes. It’s how we determine emotion and how we connect. 2. Use your zoom and get close to the action. Keep your distance to allow the animal to be in their comfort zone and are more likely to get natural behavior. Move close to the fence in order to avoid capturing the fence, otherwise, focus beyond the fence, with a wide aperture so you can “focus out” the fencing and take a photo of the subject with no wires!

3. Anticipate the action. Move your camera where the action will happen and wait for it.

4. Anticipate behavior. It’s the key to capturing a rare moment, action and unique situations. Panning the camera to follow an animal can be a tiring process, so study the animal’s behaviors watching for a pattern and then use some anticipatory shooting, and a little luck, to hopefully capture that perfect moment.

5. Adjust your shutter speed to stop/show the action. When animals are on the move you need to decide quickly on the type of shot you want to take. If you want to freeze the action, you’ll need to shoot faster and depending on light, that can be tricky. Pan steady and remember, keep the eye in focus if you can! For best results, pick backgrounds that are uncluttered and simple, as this will make the subject standout in the image.

6. Use a tripod. By mounting your camera to a tripod you reduce camera shake, which is usually the cause of blurry photos.

7. Composition – Framing your shots. Obey the rule of thirds by moving your subject from the middle. You can also think emphasis. What is the most important thing and make it the largest in your composition.

8. Use a wide aperture. Choose a very wide aperture and create a shallow depth of field to blur out a potentially busy background and bring attention to the subject instead.

9. Consider the light. Clouds act like a giant diffuser to the sun, spreading the light out evenly and taking away harsh shadows that are created by a bright, sunny day.

10. Use a flash to fill in shadows: Fill in the shadows and provide detail where harsh shadows would otherwise be heavy and dark. It’s important to use flash wisely and here are a couple of other suggestions:

a. Be conscious of the animal and whether flash will scare them

b. using a flash behind glass can ruin your shot. The glass will reflect the light back at the camera and you shouldn’t be surprised if all you get is a big white picture!

Bonus Tip: Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.

http://www.dphotojournal.com/ten-tips-for-great-animal-photos/

Video Tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cudgJRqw5VM at the zoo