When learning how to shoot photos of animals, you’ll probably want to start with something that is slow, maybe a tortoise. As your skills improve, however, you’ll want to look for a bigger challenge and advance to shooting animals that can actually move with some quickness, say a hare. Remember, though, slow and steady photography preparedness wins the race. 

Use these tips to find techniques to help you prepare to the best of your ability ahead of time and then have success when photographing fast moving animals.

Keep the Camera Steady

Although many DSLR photographers will want to employ a tripod, especially when shooting with a large, heavy lens, this is basically impossible when shooting fast-moving animals. You need the flexibility to be able to move the camera as needed. Activate your camera's image stabilization to help with any slight movements.

When you cannot use a tripod, it’s important to hold the camera properly, which will give you a better chance of shooting a sharp photo. Use your left hand to cup the bottom of the lens and support it. If you’re using manual focus, your left-hand fingers can turn the focus ring. Your right hand should be holding the camera tightly, with your hand wrapped around the handgrip and with your right index finger near the shutter button.

Additionally, you need to keep your body stance relaxed. Keep your feet a little wider than your torso. Be ready to twist your body for a quick-moving animal, or to take a quick step right or left, forward or backward.

Watch Your Step

Try to avoid chasing an animal while shooting photos, though, as that can be dangerous – both to your body and to your camera equipment – when you’re looking at an LCD screen or through a viewfinder.

You’re in danger of tripping if you try to move several steps while not looking at the ground around you. Don’t move more than one or two steps without looking toward the ground.

Make sure when preparing to shoot this type of photo that you have clear space around you. If you must make a quick step to shoot a photo of a fast-moving animal, you probably won’t have time to look down and make sure you aren’t tripping over an object, so check the area ahead of time.

Have Plenty of Sunlight Available

To help you succeed with this type of photo, you may want to avoid using fully automatic settings. At the very least, use the shutter priority setting on your camera, as a fast shutter is important to capturing a fast-moving animal without blur.

If possible shoot with a large depth of field, which will give you a larger area of the photo in focus. Try shooting at f16 or f22 settings to achieve a large depth of field. It can be difficult to have a large depth of field and a fast shutter speed, unless the exterior light is strong, so you may want to wait to attempt to shoot this type of photo until you have a bright, sunny day.

In addition, consider using your camera’s burst mode, so that you can capture multiple photos in a short amount of time. You might get lucky and capture the animal in the frame perfectly during one of your burst mode photos.

Tips for Proper Focus

One of the biggest problems you may encounter with shooting fast-moving animals is having the camera focus quickly enough. Without a fast auto-focus or manual focus, your photographs won’t be sharp. If your auto-focus is struggling to achieve the results you want, keep reading for some additional advice.

Begin by studying the types of animals you want to shoot. Learn how they move and try to gain a feel for how fast they move. If you can anticipate the speed and direction in which the animal will move, you can pre-focus in the area where the animal will end up, allowing you to shoot a sharp image.

You can pre-focus by pressing the shutter button halfway and holding it there until you’re ready to shoot the photo, which you’ll then do by pressing the shutter button the rest of the way.

Finally, you may want to use manual focus. You might be able to catch the animal faster on your own versus having the camera attempt to focus automatically.