Guest Post: ‘Capturing the Moment’ by Hilton Kotze

I  always find my self helping or offering advice to fellow photographers or novice photographers that I meet along the way on my travels to the remote wildlife areas of our beautiful Africa. So strange as it may seem when I was asked by Gerry to do an article on wildlife and photography, I found my self at a loss as to what should I write about .  For me, the best is going to be to just say it like it is.

I think as  wildlife photographers  or serious enthusiasts we all go through different stages of our wildlife photography .

I would like to talk about  one in particular , one that  we all go through at some stage ,and one that is  extremely irritating to all field guides .It is a stage that propels us and drives us to go back to the African bush again and again until we get that shot. There is an indescribable force that drives us to  spend thousands of rands, that we don’t have, in our quest to  capture the ultimate wildlife shot (or what may seem to be the ultimate shot).  That shot is… THE KILL .

Every wildlife photographer at some stage wants to shoot “the kill” , the actual hit or knock,  as  the lion, leopard or cheetah connects with its prey and the dust flies and teeth and claws rip and the bellow or bleat of the prey is heard for a split second.

There is an art to capturing this shot,  This shot inevitably does not pay the bills but it gives a tremendous  sense of personal achievement  that is very hard to describe or match.

It all starts once the photography bug has bitten. The symptoms are very clear,…..you spend  money you don’t have on a decent camera and a serious lens , ( anything from a 70-200 to a 500 or 600 f4), you have read some wildlife photography books, maybe attended a course or too , you successfully capture the glint in the eye and  you receive some wows , well done  and fantastic comments on ODP.

At this point  you  have mastered the art of basic wildlife photography, but there is this inner drive ,urge call it what you want but it drives you to want to capture that ultimate shot.  All you want now is the hairy scary animals, the  lions and leopards,  and I am ashamed to even say it but you hardly  even lift your camera for impalas and the like at this stage.

It’s a dangerous stage to be in as you loose focus on what photography is all about Thank goodness it’s only a stage and you soon realize that there is more to photography than just shooting the action , the smaller things and beautiful things also count and make good photos too. However its like growing up…. you can’t run if you did not first walk and you can’t walk if you did not crawl.

So to help you through this painful stage here are some tips that might help to capture images like below.

Remember:

• Be prepared to spend a lot of time in the bush (it took me 5 years of going to the bush at least once a moth for 3-4 days to see my first kill)
• Have patience to follow a specific pride or predator for long periods (this can get boring at times)
• Spend time in the same area , lots of time  to get to know the pride and pride dynamics , where they hunt , what water sources they frequent and what species they like  to hunt. Its true that some prides specialise in a specific animal species , they will go for anything if hungry but they do have their favourites. A few years ago the jacaranda pride in the Timbavati specialised in giraffe and took down 18 in one year.
• Very important get to know animal behaviour (if you don’t you should have a guide that does ) you will miss the moment if you are not tuned in to what’s happening  Field guides like Gerry, Marius Coetzee, Chad Cocking and many more , can’t name them all , have great animal behaviour knowledge as they work and see things unfolding before their eyes every day.
• Get your camera setting right before the action goes down.  Set your camera before or when you enter the sighting.
• Stay calm when the action goes down – it happens so fast , at first you don’t know were to point your camera, there is such an adrenaline rush that you can’t think straight, your heart is pumping in over dive mode, you push the wrong buttons on the camera or you  forget to even push the trigger . I have to laugh at myself when I think back of how many kills I messed up because of the excitement and adrenaline rush.
• Practice, practice and practice, and lots of luck ,the only snag is these situations don’t exactly present themselves on every game drive , so cherish them when they do come along once or twice a year. If you are lucky (like the field guides) you may see more but two to three a year is good. Once a gain all relative to the time you spend in the bush.

Once you have been fortunate enough to capture some kills you move on in you quest to acquire awesome images and every time you are presented with the opportunity to shoot a kill you do appreciate it immensely but your day is not spoiled if you don’t get it.

I hope in  some small way I have been able to shed some light on capturing that special moment.

Thanks and happy shooting.

Hilton Kotze

Hilton’s Links:

• Photographic Safaris: Digital-Africa
• ODP Safaris: Book a Safari
• Blog: Hilton Kotze’s Blog
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• Email: Send Hilton an Email