It might seem silly to have the heading "Capture the Moment" when it comes to a photographic tip, as this is surely the objective of all photography. With wildlife photography most people are too scared to push their equipment to the limit and they often miss that moment. When it comes to action, especially with the cats, it is often difficult to get a great picture because most often the action occurs at night or at dusk and dawn.

This particular photo was taken late in the evening when the light was almost completely gone. I had to push the ISO all the way up to 3200 in order to get a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the hasty stalk that this leopard was making on the impala in the background. In most cases people would freak out with pushing the ISO this high without sporting a professional body. However, with technology moving so fast, it is possible to push the boundaries and use post processing to clean the photo up afterwards. It is my humble opinion that you would prefer to capture the image of the moment even if it is grainy, rather that miss it completely.

This photo was taken with a Nikon D7000 with a 70-200mm f2.8 lens. The ISO was set to 3200 so that I could achieve a shutter speed of 1/200^th of a second with the aperture wide open at f2.8.

Expose your balance

Richard de Gouveia

More Wildlife Photography Tips