It’s something I’ve done since, forever. After sharing this simple thing with my group last week, I realized I’ve probably never mentioned it but it’s real simple. In my own quest to visually find the best background, I take a picture of it. When I see a background in my viewfinder that intrigues me for any reason, good or bad, I simply manually focus on the background and take a photograph of it. The reason? Well like in this case with the Gtr Prairie Chicken, the birds are constantly moving on the lek. In previsualizing where a chicken was heading and if I wanted to follow it, I would look at the background where it was going. From what I previsualized, I would swing the D500 / 800mm or not. I have hundreds of these subject out of focus, background sharp in focus photos in my files. When I go back again to a location like the chickens, I look at my images taken at that location/subject previously and that refreshes my mind to those backgrounds. It’s nothin revolutionary, just something I do to help teach myself.
