You have to understand something when taking pictures of wild animals, they never sit still unless they’re stuffed in a museum and we don’t want to go down that road. Wild animals are naturally nervous, highly strung, twitchy, unpredictable and permanently in survival mode.
There is no such thing as ‘chilling out’ for a wild animal in its natural habitat; it is constantly on the look out for possible danger and does not make an easy subject for a sitting of portrait photography. No matter how professional you are and what state of the art camera equipment you have. Go down to your local Zoo one lazy Sunday afternoon and try to get a great portrait shot of an animal – any animal, not necessarily one of the Big 5.
I can almost guarantee you, if you pop off a 100 frames the chances are you’ll delete 90 of them, and that’s shooting a caged animal that sadly doesn’t have anywhere else to go – a captive audience.
If you’re shooting on a 200mm or longer lens and the light is good you should be able to get a reasonably composed shot of your subject. A geriatric Lion makes the perfect shot because he’s asleep most of his life and every day at 5.00pm somebody tosses a Zebra carcass into his cage – what a life, if he really pushes the envelope he’ll get a Martini as well.
But that is not wild animal photography – trust me. Let’s run a fantasy here.

I want you to visualize the same male Lion 15 years younger sitting in the middle of the Kruger Park with his pride of wives and baby cubs. Instead of reclining with a Cuban cigar and his Martini – this Mutha is on red alert, he’s pacing with muscles rippling and flared nostrils sniffing down wind – he’s not taking shit from no one.
He will kill anything that gets in his way and he’s certainly not going to sit in one spot for longer than a second – posing for some dumb ass photographer.
So, guess what? – holding focus on a long lens with very little depth of field is not easy even with the aid of a tripod, so I suggest you change to a lens with a more accommodating focal length. A 75mm will make your task a little easier and you can still get a great shot.

In Africa it is a great honour to be allowed into the space of a wild animal and one must never take that for granted. If an animal grants you an audience while you’re clutching onto your Nikon and a 300mm lens, rest assured, He is busy assessing why you are there, what kind of threat you pose to his family and how you might taste. You must understand, if he so chooses, he will attack you without warning.
If your heart rate hasn’t doubled by now there’s something wrong with you. Your adrenaline is pumping and you’re trying to anticipate what his next move will be. Which way is he going to run? Will he attack me? Will he pack up the family and leave? Will he send his wives off to pull down a Buffalo for dinner?. Whatever he does, whatever move he makes, ask yourself, am I prepared? – The answer is simply no, you are not.

The most cumbersome stuff you can have around you in a hectic photographic situation is cameras, bags and equipment and the more you try to sort out the gear whilst planning the shot, the worse it gets.
If you’re trying for that one in a million shot – you really only need your eye and a camera..
So, with the African sun roasting your bald patch, sweat burning your eyes and African army ants marching around your crotch – you might be considering changing careers.
Okay, here’s a tip that’ll help you. It does not matter what camera you are shooting on, the end result is entirely up to your creativity, you are the artiste, so capture the subject in the best way possible – grab the moment and don’t get caught up in too much technology.
Don’t worry about the mega pixels or gigabytes – just feel it, love it and get the Goddamn shot before you lose the light.
I would recommend that you use a camera that allows you to override the automatic focus, this gives you the freedom to manually pull focus as the subject moves.
In simple terms if you are panning with a charging Lion that runs behind a clump of trees and you’re not on manual focus, the camera will automatically change focus from the Lion to the clump of trees in the foreground, throwing the Lion out of focus – chances are it is not the shot you want.
Don’t forget, framing, focus and depth of field is all part of an award winning picture.
Hey Bill can you ease up for just a second so we can catch our breath!