Imagine that you’re on a beautiful beach and you see an unusual bird fly towards you. The sun is low in the sky and golden light washes over delicately patterned wings. You raise your camera, unsure of what settings to use. When you get back home, you realize the shots are blurry and overexposed – and worse, the pictures have just enough detail to identify the bird as a Far Eastern Curlew, a species you’ve been trying to photograph for years. How can you avoid this disaster?