Patience in Photography

The setting sun illuminates the rolling fog over Shenandoah National Park.

When it comes to photography, there are a lot of things you must pay attention to if you want to create a beautiful photo. What shutter speed should you use, what aperture does the scene require or how high do you need to crank the ISO or how high you are willing to go. These three things are just to get the correct exposure for your photo. Then you also have to think about your composition, do you want a foreground element, or do you have leading lines. Do you have any distracting elements in the foreground? The background? Plus there is so much more that you have to worry about to make the image including how you’re going to edit the image. Before any of that, you also worry about what gear you have and what gear you want to buy that you think will get you to that next level.

The one thing that barely ever gets talked about is patience. Patience is a hard mindset to attain. We are always looking for that instant gratification to feel good now. But with some self work, patience can be achieved and it will pay off in your photography. Without patience, you may never get the best light on the landscape. You may never get the perfect crashing wave on a rocky beach. You may never get that once in a lifetime moment that makes the image amazing. Patience is the final ingredient needed to take you from a snapshot to a piece of art. Being patient will allow you to explore the area and find the perfect composition. It will allow the perfect moment in time to come along. Being patient when you are doing a long exposure will allow you to find that perfect shutter speed to make a waterfall look dreamy but still detailed. And yes, being patient will help you get the best light on your subject.

In my photo of the fog rolling over the mountain top in Shenandoah National Park, I spent over an hour waiting for the right light as the sun made its way down for the day. If I would have taken the photo when I got to the scene, the photo would have been ok with blue skies and white fog. Having the patience to wait that hour for the sun to illuminate the fog made this photo so much better. Also, the way the light is hitting the dead tree helps give the photo a more three dimensional feel. Having that extra time allowed me to examine the scene and find where I wanted to set up my tripod. It wasn’t the first, second or even third place I set up, but I’m happy with the final composition because I stayed patient and searched until I was satisfied.

A rock squirrel explores the ground for food along the edge of the Grand Canyon.

If you are a wildlife photographer, patience is even more important it feels. You can just walk up and take a photo of any wildlife but that isn’t going to be a great photograph. To make a great wildlife photo, you must have patience. Whether it is waiting for the animal to give you that special look that lasts a split second or the animal interacting with it’s landscape or other wildlife. Maybe it’s waiting for the sun to light up the eye to help give the animal life in the photo. Sometimes that special moment never comes but the time you spent waiting is also time you spent learning your subject and learning behavioral habits that will help you in the future to get the photo you want. You can never underestimate the power of knowledge and understanding the wildlife you are photographing. It may help you get a great photo or in a dangerous situation, it may help keep you safe because you recognize the signs of an agitated animal and know to back away. All of this just because you were patient in the first place.

My photo of a rock squirrel along the Grand Canyon is a great example of using patience. I took a lot of photos of the squirrel searching the ground for food but none of them were interesting. But I had the patience to wait for the photo that I knew I wanted. After about 30 minutes of working with a couple squirrels, I finally had one pop up exactly where I wanted. By having the Grand Canyon as the backdrop, this squirrel photo is now a lot more interesting. The squirrel has an easily recognizable home and the viewer can relate to when they were at the Grand Canyon or dream about being there if they haven’t been. That extra hook to the viewers emotions is what it takes to get a like on instagram or even better, for someone to buy your print because you made them feel.

So next time you’re out doing photography, remember, slow down and be patient and a portfolio worthy image may come your way because of it.

About the photo: Mountain Bluebird

Last year I was trying to come up with where I wanted to go on vacation. As I was talking to my parents about it, my mom mentioned how she always wanted to see Yellowstone National Park. I decided that I would take her so she could check it off her bucket list. I had been to Yellowstone before in 2018 and absolutely loved the wildlife and geothermal features of the park so of course I was more than happy to go back again. After a couple months of planning, it was time for our trip. The day was June 4th and we departed on our five hour flight into Salt Lake City. We landed and hopped into our rental car where we drove another five hours up to West Yellowstone to our hotel at the White Buffalo.

 

Canon R5 with Canon 100-500mm Lens f/7.1 1/500 ISO 2000

After getting settled and getting some dinner, we had to make our way into the park to get a little taste even if it was for only a couple hours. It was overcast with spells of rain on the way into the park. While driving along the West Entrance Road we saw our first bison of the trip. We stopped on the shoulder and took it in for a minute before heading further into the park. We made our way to Madison Junction where we decided to head south. We pulled into the Firehole Canyon Road to drive the one way road and check out the views. We spent a minute or two at Firehole Falls before heading back out to the main road. We headed a little further south as the the rain picked up and the sky grew darker.

We pulled into Fountain Flat Drive and drove to the parking lot at the end of the road. There was a bison that I was trying to photograph in the distance when this beautiful mountain bluebird caught my eye. He kept flying around and wouldn’t set still as I had trouble keeping up with where he flew to. As I was about to give up and leave to go back to our hotel, he landed on this beautiful broken tree. I stepped out of our car and fired off a handful of shots before he flew away to not be seen again.

I love how this photo turned out. The pose of the bluebird is nice with a nice side profile shot and him being on the top of the broken tree. The cooler colors of the bird and background contrast nicely with the warm tones of the burnt broken tree. The thing that really puts this photo over the top for me is the rain streaks I was able to capture even with a fast shutter speed.

Let me know down below what you think about this photo or if you have any questions.

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