Tips on taking better Wildlife and Scenery photos

[huntwriter]

A tripod is a must!

While always carry some sort of camera stabilization device it is not always practical to carry them around or use them. I own several tripods in various sizes, camera claps and mono pods, but there are still times when you have to shoot off hand.

Then of course there are people that simply take pictures without wanting the bother of purchasing, or carrying, additional equipment.

Yet you too can get razor sharp pictures.

A.) rest your camera hand against a tree, rock or whatever rest you can find, just like you would with a rifle.

B.) Failing that use the highest possible shutter speed. shutter speeds at, or above 1/125sec. will render very sharp pictures from a hand held camera. If your camera does not let you change shutter speeds in the program mode switch to manual mode or go to a higher "film speed" like 400 or even 800. The overall picture will suffer a bit, but not noticeably - unless you want to sell the images for stock.

Out of focus pictures are a caused by the lens been not focused properly. What you mean is blurry pictures caused by shacking. On that note: Pictures also will turn out blurry if you take the camera out of a warm environment and then take pictures in the cold weather. This is caused by the lens fogging up.

[brian]

1.Learn how your camera reacts to colour, light, and shadow. Which is actually a lot bigger than it sounds.
2.Learn a few simple basics to help out your composition (ie don't just stick your subject matter square in the center of the frame). Artists have been using theories like the rule of thirds or the golden section (there are many more like these) to help them compose pictures for centuries. Learn the rules, then break them and make cool images. Interesting thing about the golden section is it is reproduced in nature everywhere.
3.Good equipment and lenses help you get the picture, but they are not essential and are absolutely useless if you can't take a good picture without them.