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When we go out on a wildlife shoot, and this could be a shoot you've been planning for some time, it might be a trip of a lifetime, it might be your only chance to go and get this kind of photograph. There is most definitely a chance that you will miss a shot, not because of what you're doing with the camera specifically, but before you even lift the camera. So there are mistakes that people make before they even hit the shutter button. So that's what we're going to be looking at today. And this is part three of this four-part series that I'm going through at the moment, where I'm going through different types of mistakes that impact different aspects of your photography. So today I'm going to talk about the mistakes that happen before you even see an animal. Unfortunately, a lot of people do these, and this is a reason why you can go on this trip that you've maybe been looking forward to for months or even longer, and you just miss that opportunity. You miss that chance, and that can put a whole damper on what hopefully will be a really amazing experience for you. So I'm gonna start with mistake number one. We'll work through the five of uh this episode. So here we go. So mistake number one is it's poor scouting, it's poor timing, and that relates to light and behavior. So obviously, light is really important, but there's not much point in having really good light if nothing's going on. So this is where doing your research is really important, and I stress this every time I talk about uh getting into wildlife photography when I talk about introductions to wildlife photography. It is really important to understand when the animal that you are hoping to see is active and what kind of behaviors you're likely to see. Now, from a kind of macro perspective, it could it can even be the time of year. So, for example, as I'm recording this in Sydney in July 2026, we have whale watching season going on because we have humpback whales at this point travelling north past us from Antarctica. They spend the um Southern Hemisphere summer in Antarctica, but as it gets colder, they head up to the warmer waters of Queensland, and that's where they'll mate, they'll give birth, and then once things start to warm up down in the south, down in Antarctica, basically they'll head back to those waters. So that means that if you're on a migration path, which we are here in Sydney, that means we're likely to see humpback whales going past Sydney anytime from mid to late May through to around November time. And because we get about 30,000 whales going by, not all at once, but over that period, they're heading north, and then as things warm up south, they go south again. So we have that broadly speaking six-month window where we'll see whales. So obviously, if you do want to photograph hunt back whales and you want to stay somewhere like Sydney, uh, where you've got a lot of hotels, lots of things to do when you can't go out whale watching, now is the time to do it. But if you were to go out in February, you're going to be really disappointed. So that's sort of a silly example, but it is really important to understand that the animals that you're hoping to see may well be migratory. Uh, that's not just um marine wildlife, but animals on land as well. They might have distinct patterns and areas that they travel through, and it may well be that you might be in an area where those animals aren't for that period. So, another example would be um tigers in India. So um I've been I've shot photographs of uh tigers in Khana uh National Park, and first of all, it's a big park, there are several zones, and you get allocated a zone to go in every every trip. So there are normally two trips a day, except for Wednesday afternoons when the the whole thing is closed. So there might not be tigers in the zone you're allocated on that particular trip, and you don't see tigers every trip, and this is true of a lot of wildlife. So you need to understand that when you go out, you may or may not get lucky. Now, in some areas, yeah, your chances are much better. There's a good chance pretty much every trip you're going to see something, depending on what you're um aiming for. But the main point about this is to really start understanding when the animals are likely to be around. So that's hopefully something pretty obvious. But then going sort of fine-tuning that, what about time of day? So, a lot of predators, if you're talking about mammal predators, so lions, things like that, tend to be active at around sunset and sunrise. Some of them are active at night as well. And if you're so if you're trying to photograph at night, that's really hard because you can't use flash or any um uh uh lighting like that because that will it's it's basically a no-no in parks anyway, and it will just startle the animals, and then it gets very unpredictable. So you don't want to be doing that. So when are you likely to see them? So you could be looking at golden hour rather than midday, and if you don't know, golden hour is that hour, roughly speaking, it's the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. So it's while the the sun is above the horizon, but it's still pretty low in the sky. So you get this low angle, and because the light is going through the atmosphere at that sort of angle, and it's going through a lot more atmosphere than uh when it's directly overhead, uh, you get these beautiful colours. So hence golden hours, so you get golden, gold, reds, oranges, all that kind of thing. Um, now blue hour is a possibility, and blue hour is the complementary hours, so it's the hour before sunrise and it's the hour after sunset. It's actually less than an hour. Uh, but essentially the sun is below the horizon, but there is still light to see things. But obviously, as you can imagine, the light is changing pretty rapidly under those conditions. So that's something I'm going to come back to or talk about next. And then obviously, um, you've got midday light, or when the sun's directly overhead, is or or the highest it gets in the sky, anyway. But if directly overhead, if you're in the um sort of around the equator somewhere, and that's from a photographic standpoint, not a brilliant light to be shooting in, but from a behavioural standpoint, a lot of animals are not active at that time at all because it's too hot. So without going in, and I've already spoken quite a lot on this, uh, probably more than I intended to, but the the point is do a bit of research, understand when the animals that you're trying to photograph are most likely to be doing something that's that you you know you can get a you've got a chance of getting a good shot at, and just make sure that you're around at those times. So whether it's um whether you're organizing yourself or if somebody else is organizing it for you, just be aware that those are the times of day to get out and get your photographs. So it might mean getting up early, skipping breakfast and getting a like brunch or something, something around midday, but just adjusting your schedule so that you you maximize your chances of actually seeing that animal doing something. So that's mistake number one. It's just I'll call it poor scouting, um, but it's actually just not understanding the behavioral patterns that you're likely to uh to come across. Now, mistake number two is the wrong camera settings, and that and they're left over from the previous shoot, or it could be half an hour ago. So typically uh what I do when I finish on a shoot is just to clean the camera up, download all my images, all that kind of thing. Uh recharge batteries, so I'm ready to, if I can recharge them, I'll recharge. So I'm ready to go next time, which probably the following morning, or if it's um where I'm heading out in the morning and then out again in the afternoon, I'll sort of do the same routine each time so that way I know that my memory cards are clear or have enough space on them to uh store everything that I need. My batteries are fully charged, so I'm good to go there. And things like there's no dust on the lens, there's no I don't have any problems like that when I'm going, or the you know, the lens is clean, all that sort of thing. So that's just kind of just general um housekeeping on the camera, but I'm also looking at the settings, so I'm just making sure that the settings start off roughly where I want them the following day. So that might be just setting a slightly high ISO if it's if I'm heading out early in the morning, so a slightly higher ISO than I would normally use. Uh, generally, though, I'll set my aperture somewhere in the middle, maybe F8, and then if I as I'm on F aperture priority, usually, um I'll just check that I all my settings are good and I don't have any um exposure compensation on anything like that. But I just do a quick reset of everything on the camera to make sure it's in a sort of starting position, which will be sort of a little bit neutral because I'll just change the settings as I need to in the moment when I start shooting. So, having said all of that, it's also important to remember that the settings you used five minutes ago may not be the best settings for where you are now, and that's particularly true of the time of day, and I've just been talking about golden hour and blue hours. And because the light changes very quickly, and you may not notice it because our eyes and our brains work really well at adjusting um how open our iris is to actually let light in, but obviously the camera's not doing that particularly. So you need to stay on top of that and particularly be aware when you're in situations where the light's changing rapidly. That could be so it could be time of day, it could be cloud cover coming in and out, it could be you're moving in and out of forest situations, that kind of thing. So just make sure that when that happens, you are adjusting your settings as you need to so that you're ready to shoot in that moment. Because if you just shoot and you're using settings that you had, let's say half an hour before, they might be completely wrong for the situation that you have right now. And you might even want a very simple checklist to go back to, maybe just basic settings that if you know, if you're kind of neutral settings, just to go back to each time so that you're starting from a known point. Okay, so that's mistake number two. Mistake number three is getting too close or just moving too fast. So if you are responsible for your location relative to the animal, how quickly you're moving, just remember, I mean, these are basics. So make sure you're dressed in a very neutral way. You're not wearing bright coloured Hawaiian shirts and making a racket every time because that's really not conducive to good wildlife photography. Um, move slowly. Obviously, you will want to stay downwind of animals if you're on foot, because you ideally don't want them to know that you're there. Uh, however, there are situations, and I'm gonna give you just a general just as an example, because if you are in situations where you're tracking animals, if you don't know what you're doing, you need to have an experienced guide with you because your life can depend on it, and and that's that's um very serious. But um, so in the case of elephants where I've been really camping and there might be elephants about, particularly at night. Uh, if we saw an elephant, obviously I'm keeping an eye out, so I'm generally wearing my head torch, I'm looking for reflection from retinas, so it you know, it's moving my head, keeping an eye out so I know what's there. But if it is an elephant, I'll just clap three times very slowly. And that's just to let the animal know that I'm there, because there have definitely been situations that I know of where people have been killed because they didn't make themselves known. Maybe they didn't see the elephant there. The elephant was startled because they've got quite bad eyesight anyway. And when an animal is startled, it becomes unpredictable, it might run away, but equally it might stand its ground and it might attack you. So wherever you're going, just make sure that you have a good guide, that you're fully briefed, you know what to do for the situation that you're in, and you don't do silly, you don't break those rules. So, for example, if you're in a four-wheel drive vehicle, you don't stick your arms and legs out of it. Uh, you keep those inside the vehicle. So, having said all of that, if you follow those guidelines and you move slowly, and also you are ethical in the way that you're approaching animals, so you're not doing anything to startle them, you're only leaving footprints, you take everything with you, all that kind of thing. You respect where you are, it's their environment. If you're patient, then that will help you a lot. If you rush things or you you move very quickly, you can startle animals. So I was on a walk um in Sydney um a while ago and I was on a just a footpath, but it was in Bush, and there was um an Eastern Valley water dragon there. And I saw it soon enough that I didn't startle it. It was aware of me, but I just stopped, I had kind of got down lower, sort of sat down, slowly got my gear together, took a few photos, gradually just moved slower and slowly towards it to try and close the gap without starting it, but made everything really slow. And that allowed me to get some really good photographs of it. But if I had rushed, uh unfortunately nobody else came because what had happened at the end of that, somebody came from the other direction was making a lot of noise, and this this lizard just took off. So just keep those things in mind. Um, so how you approach animals is also really important. Um, number four is um so it's not tracking um both wind sent sun direction. So I spoke about staying downwind. Also, as photographers, we need to be conscious of the light because we might be able to get into a position where we're downwinded the animal and we've been really quiet, but the light's really awful. And in those circumstances, it's a question well, what you know, what are the variables here? Can I move? Is there can I sort of quietly move somewhere else where I've got a better shot? Um, is the light likely to change? But it's about observing what's going on and taking the appropriate action. The important thing though is to always keep it safe. Obviously, for yourself, you you want to have an experience that is memorable for all the good reasons, and also you don't want to startle the animal because they might take off, as I said, they might go towards you, which you don't really want. Uh, but if they take off, then you're not going to get anything at all, and it might be might not be possible to sort of track them again if you're on foot. Um, the same thing in a vehicle uh of of any type, uh, whether you're at sea or on land, whatever. Um, what's the sun direction like? What can you do with that? So you might have, I mean, possibly overhead some, which you don't really want. You might have the sun behind your subject. So, can you make use of backlighting to get um what you know a different kind of image? Um, I'd always give it a try. It's better to have something rather than nothing, and you never quite know how things like that will work out. Um, so whatever the sun position is, whatever the lighting situation is, just be prepared for that. So this comes back down to practice, it comes down to knowing your camera and being able to just adapt what you're doing to suit the circumstances. So that's that's mistake number four. And then finally, mistake number five, which is overpacking or just bringing the wrong gear for the conditions. So um you obviously want the right lenses, first of all, and um you know, just making sure that you're in a uh you've got the appropriate gear to try and get the kind of images you're going for. And um, I'll be up front, I made a mistake. Uh, the first time I was going to see gorillas, I didn't really know I knew we'd be in forest, but I didn't know what the light situation would be because I knew we'd be in bamboo, uh, we're on the edge of forests, so there were definitely open areas around. And I decided to take my normal lanes, which is a 100 to 400, because I thought that would give me um some good flexibility in terms of just getting really tight shots of the animals without having to get too close to them. And also took a short wide angle zoom, which was a 25, I think it's 24 to 105. And um the thing is, though, for one thing, I had to hike three hours to even get there, and this is through they're called mountain groathers for a reason. This was through the sort of lower hills of a mountain. So there's a lot of it's very wet because it's wet season, uh, it's hacking through sort of bush and undergrowth in different times. So it's yeah, you know, this isn't a a walk down um a nice flat path or anything like that. Um, I and I'd actually hurt my back a few weeks earlier, which wasn't the ideal situation. So I was carrying all of this stuff in a backpack, and when I got there, I realized that the light was just too low for the lens I had. The lens isn't that fast, and um, in the end, I shot everything on the wide angle zoom because that was much, much better and and frankly easier to use in that situation. So essentially, I I lugged quite heavy lanes with me for six hours, sort of unnecessarily, plus the time I was with the uh the gorillas. So, you know, we don't always know what we're gonna be coming up against. Um, so in that situation, as I've said, I didn't really know what the situation was likely to be. I prefer to use that 100 to 4 because it gives me a good reach, but as I've said, it just wasn't fast enough for that um for the lighting situation that I had. And plus, because of those situations, I was always having to carry um other gear. So we had always carry water, uh, carried some snacks, I had waterproof stuff because um in those in that area of um southwest Uganda at that time you can have rain coming very quickly, even if things look quite clear when you start out. So you've really got to be prepared for everything. So I did have a fairly full backpack, and also it's quite muddy there. So um I needed a stick and things like that. Um, and in fact, somebody in our group slipped on on one of the few footpaths we were on. Uh, she slipped over on it and and actually um broke her wrist. Uh so yeah, it's so I so the bottom line on all this is really think through, make sure you've got um what you need to protect yourself and your gear, uh, but also you know, have a good think about exactly what you're taking because you may end up in a situation like that. I didn't know I'd be hiking for that long, we just knew that was kind of worst case scenario. But unfortunately, the grillers have wandered off from where they'd been the day before, and they were now uh pretty much on the edge of where we could go. So have a think about all of the things you've got to take, and it may be that you just drop a lens that or something that might be ideal, but when you start looking at the weight of what you've got to carry in that um um situation, uh that that could be a deciding factor. There's also decision fatigue. Um, if you if you have too many options, that can actually get quite tiring, and you start to second guess yourself. And we want to come away with great photographs, but you you can get too caught up in getting the perfect photograph, which is something I've spoken about before. And often it's just better to get a photograph uh rather than nothing. So that that's the the other thing. But if you if you get that wrong, it can make I mean I got there, I was really tired, and I was having to really force myself. And and honestly, when I got there and we're having the final briefing before we we we sort of went across uh while we were just really a few metres away from where the grillers were, and we had a final briefing, and um at that point I would have given good money for just 20 minutes, sat down in an armchair to rest my back and everything else before I got into the gorillas. Because once I was there, I was obviously being aware of where they were, being very quiet and gentle in my movements, I was crouching down, I was all doing all of that sort of stuff, and I still had my backpack on. And um, yeah, that that was um that was tiring, and and and when you're tired, you don't always make the best um decisions. I I think what I got was okay, but um you know, this is the thing if you're tired, it's not so enjoyable. So that those are the five mistakes that I wanted to cover on um this podcast. So just to recap, mistake number one was poor scouting or poor research and not getting. Timing right. So again, if you are in a position where you are tracking wildlife or in a four-wheel drive, if you don't know what you're doing, I strongly recommend you get a good guide because they they make all the difference in first of all just being able to track animals and find them and then keeping it safe for everyone, which is really really important. So anyway, mistake number one, not doing your research essentially. Mistake number two was not staying on top of your camera settings. So that's where you forget to check um what you're shooting. Uh so you might be end up shooting with a very high ISO, you might be overexposing actually and doing things like that unintentionally. So do keep an eye on your settings and make sure that you are using the best settings that you have available for the situation that you're in, and and particularly when the lighting especially is changing rapidly. So that was number two. Number three is getting too close or act moving too fast. So again, take your time. One of the key things about wildlife photography is to just be patient, it's to evaluate what's going on, look at the lighting backgrounds, all of those things when you arrive, but then take your time with the animals and be patient because things do happen sometimes. Sometimes they happen without warning, and if you're not ready, you're going to miss it. Uh, sometimes they don't happen at all, and this is just part of uh wildlife photography, unfortunately. Um, so that was number three. Number four is not tracking uh both the wind, it's scent, it's or being aware of scent and sun direction. So, this is about how you position for the light, how you position yourself to avoid alerting the animal or alarming it. And that's obviously to keep you safe as much as anything else. But it's also about being ethical and not stressing animals. We really want to shoot animals in their natural environment, doing the things they do naturally, and if they're reacting to us, that's not a natural uh a natural uh behaviour. And then number five, the last one was just overpacking or just bringing the wrong gear for the conditions. So it is really important that you are aware of the conditions you're going to be in. It might be rainy, like I suggest, or it might be really hot. So again, um sunscreen, shade, um, lots of water, all those kind of things, and be very aware of insects. Uh, I'll often wear most of the time I wear um I don't wear shorts often when I'm photographing. I wear very lightweight, full-length um trousers. Um, I wear normally long sleeve shirts just to protect my skin from sun, insects, all those sorts of things. Um, because that allows me to then concentrate on the photography. And I also have like a froppy uh rimmed, full-rimmed hat, which again helps keep the sun off the back of my neck, off my ears, those sorts of things. So that is it. Um now I hope so. I hope you found that useful, first of all. And then finally, so I've spoken about mistakes that people make before they press the shutter button, and in the final part, in part four, I'm going to take you through five mistakes that people make after they press the shutter button. And um, then that that will round up this um this series of podcasts. So I hope you found that useful. Please remember to like, subscribe. Hype if you're on YouTube, if you have that available, you're welcome to support the uh support the podcast. Um that's always very helpful. Helps me to keep on doing these. And um thanks for listening. I'll speak to you next time. Bye for now.