Patience is a virtue. It always has been and always will. In photography terms, it is vital.

We are so used to things happening rapidly in photography that we can sometimes feel overwhelmed and ever ready for the sudden shot or opportunity. Candids, objects going at breakneck speed and the general rush of life all make us believe that getting the correct shot “as soon as possible” is the only way to capture a great image.

No so. Take your time, relax and chill out.

There will be times that you need to act quickly. But in more cases there is a need for patience and perseverance.

Consider a bird in your garden. He visits you on a regular basis and you have even put up some hanging nuts to capture his attention and entice him to stay that little bit longer. He visits and you snap away because he only stays a few seconds before he is gone – perhaps alerted or frightened by something around him.

Why not take a different approach and instead of rushing to get that photograph when he is newly landed, set up with a view to staying an hour, two hours, three,,,,

In this way you are likely to capture him when YOU are ready. Even more, you are likely to find that he comes back again and again, giving you the opportunity for more shots of him in action.

If you are lucky, careful and patient, there might very well be other birds visiting that same bag of hanging nuts. Perhaps you hadn’t even noticed them in your garden but now, because you were prepared to watch and wait, you now have additional opportunities for a great photo.

Patience is a virtue. Oh yes.

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com.

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