POINT & SHOOT

In photography there are no second chances to capture a photo opportunity(photo-op) since most often than not we are faced with subjects that cannot easily be manipulated to our own liking, save for architecture, or prepped up fashion and commercial shoots. Events, nature and wildlife photographers as well as photojournalists know this firsthand. With often limited time to one's disposal, it is either you make the shot or you don’t. There are no two ways about it, you snooze... you lose. Failing to capture certain moments however is not an option and can prove costly in some situations. In print media for instance, the unwritten rule says "whatever you do... don't go back to the newsroom without the photo." There is a lot that goes behind creating a simple image, especially so when this is done manually and which can result to numerous misses. Right from composition, to focusing and most importantly getting the right light exposure (aperture, shutter speed and ISO combination). With the notoriously limited time available while making most images, a photographer needs to perfect and be able to timely execute the photography basics, without which most of us would be having more of missed out photo-ops than captured memories. In recent times things have drastically changed for the better and capturing memories has become more efficient and less of a hustle due to availability of full automatic cameras, for both professional and home use. Nowadays anyone can be a photographer, and precious time otherwise lost with technicalities is saved. With a fully digitized camera, all that one needs to do in order not to miss a photo-op is just to point and shoot. However, personally I prefer working with manual settings since am able to achieve my desired images without being overly dependent on the automatic settings.     

A bird on a branch. Armed with a telephoto lens the challenge was to make the right settings and stabilize the camera before my subject flew away. 

Camera - CANON EOS 7D

Focal Length - 300mm  
Shutter Speed - 1/125 sec
Aperture - f/5.7
ISO/Film - 500

Category - Nature
Uploaded - September 11th 2013 
Taken - August 25th 2013

Location - Lavington, Nairobi  
Copyright - Stephen Mukhongi