Patience is more than a virtue, it’s a necessity for capturing your best images

 

 

Photographer Nicholas Pappagallo recently did a talk for B&H Photography which covers patience and consistency. B&H put together a roughly 20-minute highlight video of the talk (seen below) but you can see the full 80-minute presentation here.

Besides learning new specific photography skills, what's something else that we can learn to become better photographers? Pappagallo says that patience is key and it is something that you simply have to learn. You need to learn how to put off a "quicker" or "easier" reward and work harder and wait for a "larger reward" such as a better image. There are obstacles to being patient. One of the big ones is becoming frustrated with your gear. A good way to avoid this is by becoming very familiar with your equipment and making sure you know exactly how it works and all of its various options and settings. As Pappagallo points out, this is particularly important when doing night shooting.

Not knowing your physical and mental limits is another way to lose patience in the field. Is there a shot that you really want to get but you just can't comfortably hike all the way there? Don't push yourself past your limit, you'll end up frustrated and unlikely to capture any good shots. For many more tips, watch the highlights video below from Pappagallo's talk below.

In the video above, he touches on wildlife photography and the importance of researching your subject. Patience is also critical for wildlife photography as you sometimes have to sit still for long periods of time. Coincidentally, there was a recent article written by Karthika Gupta for Digital Photography School about tips for beginner wildlife photographers.

 

I had to spend a lot of time in a nearby forest to become familiar enough with the fox kits to be able to capture photographs of them. Research and patience are both important to many types of photography, including wildlife photography.

In the article, Gupta specifically mentions the importance of research and for understanding equipment. Beyond knowing your gear, you need to know which gear will work best for the wildlife you want to photograph. Small subjects such as birds, for example, typically require longer lenses and probably a teleconverter whereas large mammals might require only something like a 200-400mm lens (Canon and Nikon both make excellent 200-400mm telephoto zoom lenses which perform well for photographing bigger wildlife). To learn the rest of her five tips, read the full article here.

(Seen via Fstoppers and Digital Photography School)