Project one: Core skills: Freeze fast subjects

Mike Harris details the basics to capturing speeding subjects and proves camera kit needn’t be a barrier

- Mike Harris

The Mission – Learn to capture tack sharp moving subjects like a professional

Time – 30 minutes

Skill level – Beginner

Kit needed – Any standard or telephoto prime or zoom

Plenty of photographers shy away from fast-moving subjects because they can be difficult to photograph. But we reckon the steep learning curve can be made more palatable due to the intensity in which you can practise the technique.

If you’re learning to shoot sunsets, you have to find a good location and hope the weather plays ball. If everything does work out, you might get the chance to photograph a few different scenes and only one during peak sunset conditions. If you want to learn how to capture birds in flight, however, you can head to your local nature reserve and spend all day snapping ducks, geese, swans and anything else that happens to swoop past.

It’s also often assumed that you need specialist camera equipment to shoot fast-moving subjects. Sure, this month’s camera under the microscope, the Nikon Z 9 (page 100), is every action photographer’s dream, but we captured our mountain bike images using nothing but a nifty fifty and a 10-year-old DSLR with sluggish 4fps burst speeds. If you want to commit to photographing moving subjects seriously, then a telephoto or super-telephoto lens is going to be an essential, but there’s no reason why you can’t start practising the technique with your kit lens right away.