Disclaimer: my wildlife photography skills were basically zero in February, and I have only come a short way in that time, but given the starting point it feels significant to me. There is still a massive hill to climb, and I am aware I am still at the base of that hill.
Finding critters to photograph
I walk far more slowly than I used to, and when I hear something I stop, and I wait, sometimes for many minutes until I am sure there is nothing nearby before moving on. At Zealandia the bird life tends to stick together, often one bird or type of bird is not far from others. I am also learning to look at things a little differently.
Technique
- patience, lots of it. I am getting a little better at waiting and giving things time. I think when I started I would get bored and leave situations that were rich with subjects to rush off to the next thing. However, too many shaky bad photos and missed opportunities has been a great teacher.
- settings, lots of refinement and increased awareness of what my settings are. Initially I was doing really goofy stuff like trying to shoot with really low iso, or -2EV, or shutter speeds like 1/80 or worse. Checking shutter speed and aperture is slowly becoming second nature and my keeper rate is slowly increasing – although just a little.
- movement, and thinking about how I should move around the subject to maximise the opportunity instead of staying completely immobile.
- autofocus, lots of learning. While the Z 6 is not the first choice for wildlife photography, it really is so much better than YouTube reviews would have you believe. Sure, a Zf, Z 8 or a Z 9 is clearly going to be a much better choice in terms of autofocus, but learning to live within the limitations has enabled results I would not have imagined were possible.
Gear
The Nikon Z 6 can achieve outstanding results with its first generation mirrorless autofocus. I am now attempting to manually adjust the focus more, especially when shooting through a web of twigs and leaves.
Customising the camera controls has been well worth it. The record button is now the AF adjust, a custom function button is playback, allowing eyes on the viewfinder while previewing and continuing to hold the long lens. I notice the Z 8 has moved all buttons to the right so that less customisation is needed to get the set up I have.
The Z 6 is a solid all rounder, and wildlife photography in NZ bush with small and fast moving subjects is so far outside its intended usage parameters, but is still performs very well.
A lot of that is about perseverance, but that’s the same regardless of gear. Initially my technique was so poor a Z 8 or Z 9 would have made very little difference. While I could be at the point of diminishing returns, there are still tweaks to be made to get further improvements from the equipment.
It has proved to me that you can always get more out of your gear than you’d expect.
