Difficulties of photographing bigfoot pt.2

**This is a companion piece to The Difficulties of Photographing Bigfoot pt.1**

Auto focus on with subject at approx. 50 ft.

    As mentioned in part one of this post, the odds of getting a clear, concise photograph of a bigfoot in a forested environment are quite low. In this post I'll touch on another factor that makes the forest such a challenging place to capture pictures: autofocus.

    Nearly every camera on the market now comes equipped with a nifty little program called autofocus. When active, autofocus will approximate the subject you are trying to photograph and move the camera lens so that this subject is in focus. The feature was developed as a time saver, meant mainly for taking photos of stationary objects, groups of people, etc. For the vast majority of picture taking, autofocus works very well. However, attempting to use it in a forested environment creates several problems.

    Forests and wooded areas are filled with animals, plant life, swaying branches, and often drastic changes between deep shadows and bright light. All of these can hinder the performance of autofocus. Unless a clear line of sight is established between the camera and its subject, the subject is not moving too fast, and the light conditions are stable, autofocus will not successfully take a clear picture. For an example of this, look at the photo to the right. The subject is standing at approximately fifty feet from the camera. This photo was taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T2i, a top of the line SLR boasting 18megapixels. The subject was stationary, there are not many leaves on the trees, and the conditions are clear. However, the branches in front of the photo managed to turn what would otherwise be a clear picture into a blurry mess. Such is the downside of autofocus, it is easily confused by foliage and non-stationary objects. Every nature photographer captures a blurry photo of their subject from time to time. If they didn't delete them, there would be just as many blurry photos of birds and raccoons as there are of the big guy.

Same camera, same spot, manual focus.

    To avoid your otherwise perfect photo of the big guy becoming just another blobsquatch, I recommend learning how to use manual focus on your camera. Most high end cameras come with the option to turn off autofocus and engage manual focus. A photographer who is familiar with the manual focus option on their camera can return much better results, capturing clear and focused photos even in a challenging environment. A person operating the focus on a camera will almost always be quicker than the camera doing so automatically. We're just good like that. The photo to the left was taken from the exact same camera in the exact same spot as the first picture. The only difference? The photographer used manual focus.

    For years the presumed undiscovered great ape of North America has eluded clear photographs by fooling autofocus. But now, with masses of researchers armed with manually focused SLRs, those days are over. (I hope.)

    Thanks for reading!

 - A.Z.