During lectures about wildlife photography in Africa, people often ask me what shutter speed I use, or what camera settings in general. They kind of expect that I use a wide variety of shutter speeds, depending on the subject. After all, you can easily shoot a portrait picture at 1/125 second or less, but action photography requires faster speeds. My answer may surprise you: I don’t vary my settings during a shoot; I use the same shutter speed for all wildlife photos and usually that’s 1/1000th second. The reason for this choice is because wildlife is unpredictable. One moment you may be shooting a portrait of a rather lazy lion, the next moment she may rush off to try to catch something. Because I would lose valuable time if I had to switch from 1/125th to 1/1000th first, I always shoot as if I’m shooting action.

African Lion

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