
With sensitive subject matter, always ask permission
Photographing a funeral or cremation? I would never dare enter this very private moment or photograph this final farewell without permission or a direct invitation from the family first.
Photo by Jon Nicholson
Photographing the London Olympic and Paralympic games during summer 2012 rekindled my love of the long lens, an essential when photographing tigers from the back of a jeep.
Shooting sport is simple with the quality of autofocus we now have, but nature is a lot harder. When using a 600mm plus teleconverter that brings a lens to 840mm, a single blade of grass in the foreground will trick the autofocus and ruin the moment. If the animal moved in the slightest, there would be another blade of grass to contend with.
As I normally work with fixed 35mm, 50mm or 85mm lenses, this was a refreshing eye opener. Photographing tigers at Tadoba Reserve, I had to resort to manual focus to get these animals as they lazed in the long grass. As with shooting people, I was always waiting for eye-to-eye contact, a portrait in a way. You have to wonder what they are thinking when they look at you... am I lunch?
One great advantage is that you can remain unseen. When a group of women walked toward me at Tadoba, with their water jugs on the heads, they remained unaware of me and stayed natural. The long lens also squashed everything up and the narrow band of focus draws the viewer's eye straight to the subject.
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