Tips From a Local Wildlife Photographer on how to Get a Perfect Shot
Editor’s note: This is a guest column from Gavin King Regan, a 15-year-old local wildlife photographer.
Have a camera that’s been rotting in your closet because you just can’t figure out how to get a sharp photo? Just got one, but all your photos look too dark or too bright? Do you just want to get off automatic mode? Here is what you need to know to take the perfect picture and the best places locally to get a shot!

First, you need to understand the basics, which are actually much simpler than you might think. What do I mean by the basics? Generally, the most fundamental parts of a usable image are shutter speed, aperture and ISO. All other factors are secondary. These are collectively known as the exposure triangle, because if one is adjusted, another must be changed in order to have the right amount of light in your photo.
Shutter Speed – Shutter speed is how fast the light blocking curtains in your camera move which, in turn, determines how long your sensor is exposed to the light bouncing off whatever subject or scene is in front of your camera. This is known as the ‘exposure.’ The longer your sensor is exposed to the light, the brighter your image is going to be. The downside is that if you or your subject is moving, a long exposure can introduce blur to your image. A good rule of thumb is to try to keep your shutter speed at least the focal length of your lens. For example, if your lens is zoomed in to 300mm, 1/300 of a second should be sufficient to prevent blur caused by camera shake, but you may need to increase the shutter speed depending on how fast your subject is moving. Now, if you want to use a shorter exposure than your focal length, it may be prudent to use a tripod or to rest your camera on a solid surface to compensate for the longer exposure.

Aperture – This is the circular collection of small blades inside your camera that open and close to determine the amount of light that reaches the sensor. It is controlled by the number with the ‘f’ next to it on your camera’s display. The higher the f number (or f-stop), the smaller the aperture gets and the less light will reach your sensor. But you will have a greater depth of field (the amount of the picture in focus in front of and behind what you focus on). The smaller the f-stop, the wider the aperture gets and the more light will reach your sensor, but you will have a smaller depth of field. This may seem confusing at first, but it’s pretty easy once you can remember what increases and what decreases.

ISO – ISO determines how sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light. Increasing ISO will make your pictures brighter but it will also cause them to be noisy (grainy) and lessen the sharpness of your image. Think of it as artificially making your image brighter. The higher the ISO, the more noise, so try to keep it as low as possible without compromising the shot. What do I mean by that? I’m saying don’t sacrifice the needed shutter speed to freeze your subject just because you’re trying to shoot at a low ISO level. This photo of a spider on an apple sapling was taken at ISO 1600, the highest my camera will go, and it looks fine. Just be sure that you expose your shot properly as noise is most apparent in the darker areas of your photo.

There are other intricacies to the wide world of photography that I am unable to explain in one article. To the beginner wildlife photographer, I would say get a camera, get outside and get close. The amount of wildlife inside your house (bugs, mice, etc) pales in comparison to the great outdoors. But where to go? With the many natural parks, ponds and places in the greater Lansing area it can be difficult to narrow down any one location to find a suitable subject to photograph. To that end, I have put together a list of a few good places to turn your lens and some of the birds you might get to shoot there:
Hawk Island Park is a very popular recreational area, which also offers an array of wildlife photography opportunities. The small lake at the park is a habitat for several species of waterfowl, including Canada geese. In fact, this time of year is one of the best for seeing waterfowl in Michigan.
The Lansing River Trail, specifically the part of this trail that goes right through Scott’s Woods Park before running into Hawk Island, is a good place to get some great shots! This shot of a house sparrow backlit by the sun was taken on one of my favorite points on the trail where it opens up by the creek. You can also see several species of shorebird and get quite close to the song sparrows as they sing their beautiful bubbling song in the bushes on the bank. I also spotted some signs that beavers live here just recently, for the first time in all the years I’ve walked the trail.

Fenner Nature Center has 134 acres of land and over four miles of trails featuring various habitats. The park and trails are open everyday from 8 a.m. to dusk. The nature center has several observation decks and a bird viewing blind but visitors are asked to stay on the trail, which can be a serious drawback for a wildlife photographer.
The upside to a nature center like this is that visitors are more likely to meet birders or other photographers who may be able to point them to an interesting subject. This does, however, bring up a very important point in photography: it’s not the subject that makes a good photo, nor is it the camera. A shot of a bird high up in the canopy in a tangle of branches against a plain blue sky with the light of the midday sun is still a bad shot whether it’s a duck at fifty megapixels or a dunlin at five. This shot of a common gray squirrel was taken using a 250mm camera setup with just six megapixels but thanks to good composition and technique, it’s a great shot. If you don’t live by anything especially intriguing, you can still take extraordinary pictures of ordinary subjects.

Lake Lansing is another promising destination. Over 150 species of bird can be seen here (depending on what time of year it is), including blackbirds, warblers, herons and waterfowl such as wood ducks and Canada geese. The water itself is a pretty good opportunity to get some photos, but the area also features an expansive park on the north side of the lake that could offer some top-notch photo opportunities.
While I did focus on avian life in this list, also note that in all of these places you can also find various other animal species including whitetail deer, skunks, foxes, garter snakes, frogs and turtles. Finally, remember that the best camera is the one that’s in your hands right now, whether that’s your phone (which nowadays are actually rather impressive) or an $18,000 camera and lens setup (yes, that is a thing). This is the best shot I have ever gotten of a garter snake. It was taken with a Nikon Coolpix B500 which can control neither shutter speed, nor aperture.

I’m not saying go out and try to get good shots with a bad camera (if your camera cannot control shutter speed or aperture, I would suggest getting one that can), but I am saying that if you’re not getting good shots, it’s most likely you, not your camera.
Want more tips and tricks to improve your photography? Follow me on Instagram (@Gavinkingphotography) where I post weekly photos and pro tips on how to get your own! Or you can go to kingwildlifephotography.com to sign up for my email list where I share deals, discounts, and ways to become a better photographer. And now that you know how to get the shot and where to go, it’s time to get your camera, get out and take your first great photo!