Why Your First Shot Is Almost Never Your Best Wildlife Shot

Patience is the crucial skill that separates wildlife shots you'll actually keep from the ones you delete. No lens upgrade fixes leaving a location too early.

Coming to you from Todd DeWald, this straightforward video makes the case that patience is the single most important tool in wildlife photography, and DeWald backs it up with a real example. While filming from inside a photo blind, he's waiting on a house wren to return with nesting material. He sits there, not shooting, not moving on, just waiting. That discipline is exactly what sets up the better frame. The first animal encounter you have in a location is rarely the best one.

The core argument is simple: most people take the first shot they get and leave. DeWald says that habit costs you. The longer you stay with a subject, the more you learn its patterns, where it moves, when it moves, and which positions give you a clean composition with good light. Animals are more predictable than they seem, and time in one location converts that predictability into usable images. DeWald points out that light also shifts the longer you stay, so the same subject in the same spot can look completely different an hour later.

The story that anchors the video is a good one. While DeWald is sitting in that blind waiting on the wrens, a northern flicker lands on the same nest cavity. He never could have planned for that. It happened only because he was already there, settled in, not rushing to the next subject. That kind of unexpected opportunity, the one that makes a shoot memorable, shows up specifically because you didn't leave. It's the clearest illustration of why the patience argument isn't abstract.

DeWald also reframes what it means to photograph the same subject repeatedly. Returning to the same bird or the same nest isn't redundant. Each visit gives you different behavior, different light, and a chance to work different compositions. Over time, you build a full set of images from one subject instead of a handful of throwaway portraits from a dozen different locations. His practical suggestion is minimal: bring a small stool, find a subject worth observing, and position yourself where the animal's natural movement works in your favor. The gear conversation doesn't come up, because it doesn't need to.

Check out the video above for the full breakdown from DeWald, including more on how to read animal behavior patterns and use them to put yourself in the right position before the action starts.