Being Ready to Capture the Action of Africa
In Africa a pastoral scene can change suddenly to one of panicked flight. To be ready with the right camera settings you need to both read the animal behaviors and be able to quickly set your camera to best capture the moment. Anticipating the action takes practice and patience.
When action is likely, use a fast shutter speed to freeze the action; the higher the better. I really like a minimum of 1/1500, but I prefer over 1/2000, and, if I can get to 1/3000 or more, I’m very happy. Since the best wildlife shooting opportunities are right after sunrise or sunset, having enough light to maintain those shutter speeds is often a challenge. Usually I am lucky to get to 1/250 or 1/400. With my long lenses the accepted wisdom is to not go below a certain level: for example 1/300 on a 300mm lens. In this zone is where I consider Image Stabilization (or Vibration Reduction) to be a must. Since much of my shooting is done hand held with marginal light or in a vibrating vehicle, using IS on my lens in all shooting situations earns me sharper images as a result.
When using IS, I keep the IS on even if I have very high shutter speeds and I always use IS mode 1 (vertical and horizontal). Animals rarely move in just one plane, so the focus will benefit from horizontal and vertical stabilization. I find that even when I’m shooting at 1/3000, camera shake can still have a minor negative effect on sharpness. Do not use IS when shooting from a tripod.
Shooting Hand Held
In my opinion shooting any kind of action works better hand held. If I know that my subject is going to stay in a small area and is not likely to attack me, such as when I’m shooting a chameleon, a tripod is clearly going to be the best way to go, but more typically I am in a safari vehicle or sneaking up on a large animal and setting up a tripod will involve too much movement, time, and noise. Instead I use the vehicle, a monopod, or something like my knee or a rock to support my elbow. A monopod is easy to pack and to use in the open vehicles, it is light and quick to use and I can run with it if necessary, like when an elephant charges.
Shooting hand held makes my body the pivot point. Gaining initial contact with the subject and tracking requires only a very natural movement of my head and eyes, and keeping up requires only a very small, smooth rotation of my hips and/or shoulders. The movement is smoother and smaller than I would get with a tripod, and, thus, my shots are sharper. It takes practice and some muscles to control the big lens, so prior to trips I take some time daily to practice and get in shape.
Anticipating Action and Using Burst Mode
After you have been on a few game drives you will begin to notice how different species react to your presence. Lions and elephants typically look at you then go about their business. Impala herds also ignore safari vehicles, but waterbuck, kudu, and nyala will stop and look at you then after half a minute or so, bolt away sometimes displaying nice leaps. To take advantage of this predictable behavior, I try to take advantage of the burst mode on the camera. I will rarely shoot bursts of more than 3 or 4 shots. When I have anticipated the action and take a burst of 3 or 4 shots, I am amazed at how many subtle changes can take place in a scene in frames taken just 1/8 or 1/10 of a second apart. Often, in a 3 or 4 shot burst, there will be a couple of very nice shots surrounding one really special shot. A kudu captured in mid flight over a bush is an incredibly powerful image with a story. It is one of the rare occasions where the camera captures something that your eyes did not see.
Back
