Michael Rammell of http://www.rammellphotography.com/ and I recently visited Richmond Park in London England for a photo walk. The day was overcast and inbetween the clouds the late afternoon sun provided excellent lighting conditions. I had my Canon 60d with my 100-400mm lens on.

We set out to find a herd and it wasn't too long before we came across some stags and I fancied taking some stills. Trying to keep the ISO at 1600 (or below to maintain low noise) and a shutter speed of around 1/160th at f5.6.

Michael and I starting shooting and got the standard stags posing shots and them looking at me. After a few minutes the stags starting sparring, what a great opportunity to get some action pics and without thinking during the whole shoot, I shot at 1/160th/320th ISO 1600 at f5.6.

The following day I started to process the photographs and within seconds I found out that most of my shots were blurred. A light bulb clicked on in my head, I said to myself, shutter speed!!!!!. Because I set up to take still shots and not the sparring stags I didn't change to a faster shutter to freeze the action, plus shooting on the move I ended up with camera shake and motion blur shots. Luckily I ended up with a couple of good photographs from the afternoon, but I have to remind myself to slow down in future.

As with all photo walks, slow down, assess what you are going to take photos of and get your camera settings correct first, then start shooting and you will not be disappointed by the results...

If you would like details or arrange a photo walk with us please contact : Richmond Park or Royal Windsor. neil@neilgrahamphotography.com michael@rammellphotography.com

Happy shooting..

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Coming soon: A review of a White Wall canvas print.