by Jim Zuckerman
This was taken during a workshop I conducted for Betterphoto™ at the Triple D game farm in Montana last January. I especially like this shot because it’s very unusual to see foxes on thin ice, and the frame-filling intimacy of the shot was a real prize because these animals move so fast – they never seem to stop – that just to be able to get it in focus was a major accomplishment. Even with predictive autofocus and fast shutter speeds, there’s no guarantee that such erratic movements will be frozen with crisp detail. I had to shoot and shoot without stopping until the session was over.
One lesson that’s important to learn in a situation like this is that the LCD monitor on your digital camera is too small to really ascertain whether or not you have critically focused on a subject. The detail just isn’t there. Therefore, just keep shooting and edit the pictures later. LCD monitors are great for checking compositions and exposure, but you can’t know if your images are tack sharp or not even with the ability to magnify them. You may be able to tell if they are definitely out of focus, but you can’t know if they are tack sharp.
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