Wildlife photography forces us to make a lot of choices in a short period of time, because we often encounter our subjects unexpectedly and don’t have the luxury of carefully planning all of our shots. When I stumbled upon this Hooded Merganser family (Lophodytes cucullatus) on Monday at Huntley Meadows Park, for example, I had to make a quick choice. Should I focus on the hyper-vigilant Mom or on her ducklings?
It’s hard to resist cuteness, so I initially focused on the babies. As you can see in the first shot below, the ducklings were relaxed and appeared to be preening and playing, while the Mom in the foreground kept watch. After I had taken a few shots, I switched my attention and my focus to the mother. Her more rigid posture is in sharp contrast to that of her ducklings, who have faded a little into the background in the second shot.
I think that my focusing choices cause each of the images to tell a slightly different story and causes a viewer to react differently. That’s one of the cool things I like about photography—our creative choices can help others to see the world in different ways as we gently guide their attention to what we think is important.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Great photos, Mike. I like the second one. Kids playing while mom stands guard. Pretty much the story throughout nature, captured in one shot.
Thanks, Dan.
Wild life photography is way difficult. I had one experience of it. The light, angle and everything has to go up and down.
What settings you normally keep, for my next outing i was thinking to go for auto burst.
Since manual mode can’t be adjust so suddenly. Unless it’s flock of flamingo sitting lame.
I use burst mode a lot. Normally I have my camera set for aperture preferred–I chose the aperture and the camera sets the shutter speed. I also adjust the ISO a lot to make sure my shutter speed is high enough. There are so many things to think about that it can seem overwhelming, but practice helps to make some of the choices second nature.
I too go for burst mode, but haven’t tried the aperture mode.
Next time I will try this technique!
Sorry I forgot which camera you are using?
I mostly use a Canon 50D, a somewhat older DSLR, and tend to use my Tamron 150-600mm telephoto zoom lens and my Tamron 180mm macro lens much of the time.
Is it a full frame or a Half frame one?
It’s a crop sensor. With a Canon crop sensor camera, a 100mm lens, for example, has the field of view of a 160mm lens on a full-frame sensor.
Plus Old is Gold
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