P#3 Q#2: Preparing For Candid Shots
Candid shots and spontaneity in nature photography
A lot of our listeners are concerned about how to be ready to take candid shots. With so much equipment, and the vagaries of light and weather, is it possible to capture a moment without the photograph seeming to be staged?
With so much gear -- not just the camera but also tripod, perhaps flash, etc. -- and choosing the timing for natural light, moon, animals, etc., how do you get the nature shot to look so spontaneous and pristine?
How can you be prepared? Do the same techniques apply to both animal and landscape photos? In other words, how do you bring everything together?
"Chance favors the prepared mind" -- especially to get candid shots
Lewis Kemper: You have to be prepared. Ansel Adams loved to use Louis Pasteur's quote, "Chance favors the prepared mind." You have to be familiar with your equipment. You have to be familiar with the animal you're photographing, or the landscape you're in.
Be aware of light. I tell my students they have to become students of light. You have to learn and predict what's going to happen with light.
A lot of people have equipment they're not familiar with. For years I just had two lenses for my 35mm system, and now I have four. I feel a little overburdened at times.
Learn your equipment so that working with it becomes second nature to you. You want to know it well enough so that you're not thinking about F-stop and shutter speed, and where's this button? or where's that dial? You should become so familiar with your equipment that that part is intuitive.
A lot of it is planning ahead -- getting familiar with a place, when's the best time to be in a location, studying the weather. The things that make it seem spontaneous. It's not always spontaneous. There's usually a lot of preparing that goes into making good candid shots.
Audri Lanford: Do you have any tips for how to plan and predict the light?
Lewis Kemper: You're at the whim of nature and weather. I usually check the weather patterns for a week or so before I go somewhere, trying to find out if it clouds up later in the day, is it cloudy in the morning -- those kinds of things.
Before I go anywhere I haven't been before I go on the Internet and research that location. I look for pictures other photographers have made. I'm trying to see as many pictures as I can from a location. I can get an idea of which direction the light is coming from, when is a good time to be there.
I check maps. I recommend carrying a compass with you into the field so you can have an idea if you come to a great location in the middle of the day, but you realize you want to come back at another time when the light may be better. If you have your compass, you'll know which direction the light will be coming from.
Audri Lanford: That's really interesting advice. I'm completely addicted to hour by hour weather, and I can see where that's really helpful.
Lewis Kemper: Google Earth is a great resource. Before I went to Iceland, I spent hours on Google Earth, zooming into locations and trying to figure out when's the light going to be good to go to locations. Having that 3-D map allows you to figure all kinds of things out.
In summary
Lewis' advice to know your equipment and study the light makes for great candid shots, even when they're not really candid.
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