Wildlife Photography – manual or autofocus
I don’t really have the proper lens for wildlife photography right now (will be remedied soon!) but even so there are a 
couple of things that I recently learned NOT to do…or that I could do better.
Hiking in the mountains near Calgary give numerous opportunities to shoot wildlife. I was originally mainly looking to shoot scenic but have been able to shoot not so shy mountain sheep and deer numerous times at the side of the road or along a hike. Recently though I was close enough that I could shoot a moose and a black bear with my 70-200 zoom and get some pretty decent pictures. Well, they would have been if I’d known what I was doing.
When I’m out hiking I generally let the auto focus do the work for me. When we came across the moose and the bear the other day this was a mistake as there was too much vegetation. This confused the hell out of the camera and a quick look at the image on the camera didn’t really show that the picture was mediocre. I have taken lots of action as well and I like the ‘continuous-servo’ focus feature on the camera. This allows me to follow the motion without constantly having to press the shutter button half way to refocus.
But again that doesn’t work so well when there is vegetation in the way. So, if you camera has a Auto/Manual button on the lens, switch it to manual.
Narrow or deep depth of field:
Now if you are more concerned about making sure that you get a decent shot of the particular animal then try and shoot with a small aperture. This will more likely put everything in focus including your background but at least your moose or bear will be as well. If you have the confidence in your eyesight and focusing ability then shoot wide open. This will narrow the depth of field and if you try and focus on the eyes of the animal you should be able to soften the background enough so that what you are shooting stands out.
When you run into a moose on the trail 20 feet in front of you it is also good to have someone with you so that you can concentrate on taking the photos while they are prepared to push you out of the way of a charging bull. (That wasn’t necessary this time but…)
