There is a lot to take into consideration when taking a photograph, and sometimes decisions need to be made fairly quickly, as the moment you are trying to capture is fleeting.  In the wildlife world, you can count on moments slipping away before you have a chance to make a decision.  One of the decisions you have to make is do you want to freeze action with a clear crisp picture, or do you want a some creative motion blur?  What does this mean as far as your camera settings are concerned? 

Let’s take a look at our shutter speed and look at some “rules and tools” to apply when choosing how you want the final photograph to look.  Shutter speed is exactly what it sounds like.  It is how long your shutter is open for light and the image to be recorded on your camera’s sensor.  It is represented in seconds or fractions of a second.  The faster the action you want to capture, the faster the shutter speed setting would need to be to freeze that action.  In addition, you need to take into consideration the length of your lens.  If you have a 600 mm telephoto lens like I have for wildlife, and you are holding it handheld without a tripod, there is a minimum shutter speed you need to have to prevent capturing the movement you will naturally have from muscle movement and breathing.  The calculation I use is Length of lens in mm x 2 = the denominator of shutter speed.  Example: 200 mm length lens x 2 = 400, so you would shoot at a minimum of 1/400 second shutter speed to prevent recording the natural movements of your body when shooting.  If you are shooting with a tripod or monopod, you might be able to get away with a slower shutter speed.  If you would like some intentional motion blur to capture movement, I prefer to use a tripod/monopod to assist with reducing my own movement, and slow that shutter speed down.  If I am trying to capture a panning pic (of someone riding a bike for example) I usually start out at 1/60 of a second and decrease in increments until getting the look I want.  I pay attention and use good panning technique (camera firm against my eyebrow, arms tucked close to my body and smooth upper body movement from side to side). 

When shooting flying birds, I have a rule of thumb that I use depending on the size of the bird.  The bigger the bird, the slower the shutter speed, the smaller the bird the faster the shutter speed.  When shooting ducks in flight I try to shoot at about 1/3200 of a second, and Herons I shoot at about 1/1000 of a second.  Getting to know your camera’s limits and the bird’s behaviors and flight speed are important to capturing sharp flight photographs. 

There are many things you can capture that incorporate movement in a photograph such as feathers blowing in the wind, flight, water ripples, bird behavior/movement, water droplets flying off the animal, action shots of animals interacting and so on.  The sky and your imagination are the limit.  Will you join me next week for the week 3 challenge: black and white?