Nikon DSLR Forums Home 

This site requires new users to accept that a small amount of member data is captured and held in an attempt to reduce spammers and to manage users. This site also uses cookies to ensure ease of use. In order to comply with new DPR regulations you are required to agree/disagree with this process. If you do not agree then please email the Admins using info@nikondslr.uk after requesting a new account. Thank you.

 Moderated by: chrisbet,  
AuthorPost
Squarerigger



Joined: Thu Apr 5th, 2012
Location: Goose Creek, South Carolina USA
Posts: 418
Status: 
Offline
Yesterday evening, I was presented with an opportunity never before given and just plain failed.

The sun was over the house and the front yard was well shaded. I looked out the front door and saw something in the bushes I could not identify. I opened the door and stepped onto the front porch to go check the object out when it heard me and jumped back. It was a hawk which was having a late day snack. It jumped around when it saw me and I was afraid it was going to fly away immediately.

I ran into the house to get my camera, D7000 with a 24-70mm lens attached. I thought about switching to a longer lens but thought the bird would be gone by the time I returned. So, I ran back out to the front porch and the hawk was still there only with it's back to me. I focused and took a reading. I had to adjust the ISO because my shutter speed was way to slow with the bird moving.

I took one shot and in the hot summer day with humidity approaching 96 percent, my lens and camera were starting to fog up. The hawk still had it's back to me when suddenly it held it's head up and turned sideways. I figured this was my only opportunity and took one more shot without the benefit of any more changes to the cameras settings. The bird immediately flew off around the side of the house.

I looked at the camera and saw condensation all over every piece of glass and knew I had blown my chance to capture the moment. I pulled the
SD card and went to the computer to confirm my sorry effort. The shot of the back of the bird was not at all satisfactory and the side shot was either affected by my shaking with enthusiasm or the condensation. I had some choice words for myself at my total lack of skill.

On the DX body I shot at about 100mm, the bird was 60 or so feet away, the crop was a very small portion of the photo.


Attachment: Hawk 72412 5 of 8 - Version 2.jpg (Downloaded 58 times)

Robert



Joined: Mon Apr 2nd, 2012
Location: South Lakeland, UK
Posts: 4066
Status: 
Offline
Well, don't know wether to congratulate or commiserate! :applause: :needsahug:

It's in focus or not far off, I think the issue is shake and colour saturation. If you can get it to somebody with Photoshop they should be able to fix the shake.

Ps has the facility to remove linear blur, provided it's the entire image, or by selecting part of the image.

Perhaps a small handful of corn or a couple of dead mice at the same place tomorrow?

A very rough and ready adjustment in Lightroom 3.6.

Attachment: Screen Shot 2012-07-25 at 22.08.17.jpg (Downloaded 57 times)

Ed Matusik



Joined: Fri Apr 6th, 2012
Location: Pennsylvania USA
Posts: 187
Status: 
Offline
That's wildlife shooting for you. Happens a LOT.

Iain



Joined: Fri Apr 6th, 2012
Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Posts: 1410
Status: 
Offline
Just a little bit to much of a pull for the 24-70 Gary.

There was a good chance that it would have sat there long enough for you to change the lens.

Better luck next time.

jk



Joined: Mon Apr 2nd, 2012
Location: Carthew, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Posts: 6877
Status: 
Offline
As Ed says that is the reason why good nature shots are so difficult and why many great shots are staged or use 'tame' animals.

To do it for real means that you need to spend loads of time knowing the creature and its habits and locations during the day.

jk



Joined: Mon Apr 2nd, 2012
Location: Carthew, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Posts: 6877
Status: 
Offline
Iain wrote: Just a little bit to much of a pull for the 24-70 Gary.

There was a good chance that it would have sat there long enough for you to change the lens.

Better luck next time.

Yes but best professional practice says to get the first shot then refine and change position/lens/etc...
;-)

Ed Matusik



Joined: Fri Apr 6th, 2012
Location: Pennsylvania USA
Posts: 187
Status: 
Offline
You said a mouthful JK. All the instructional websites, manufacturers sites, etc., are dead on about taking a few shots, looking at the histograms and making adjustments to maximize the picture quality. Unfortunately, when a free-living, wild predatory or prey animal momentarily exposes itself contrary to its instinctual and learned behavior, it won't sit still for a photographer to get that ideal studio shot, and the rest of the story is history. Like JK, I shoot first then hope that I can get a second or third opportunity to get a better shot. Most of the super sharp images seen on nature shows or in magazines were taken in national park or zoological settings where the creatures are habituated to meeting people with cameras. If you want to shoot only really wild creatures, you must develop great patience, and make a lot of exposures because you'll not end up with many high quality ones. 

Squarerigger



Joined: Thu Apr 5th, 2012
Location: Goose Creek, South Carolina USA
Posts: 418
Status: 
Offline
It was a great educational experience. Since it was my first attempt, I was in a hurry and did not want to miss the opportunity.

Using hind sight, I would have exchanged lenses to get more reach. I would have taken the time to get the best setting possible. I really wish I had a tripod. I am going to have to make an effort to practice this as it was very exciting.

Well I am crushed to learn that many wild life shots are taken in zoos, etc.

I have a new found respect for the wild life shots taken by Iain, Ed, and others on this site. I always appreciated them but now I am in awe.

Robert, the thought did occur to me to provide some bait but we no longer have any small children left in the neighborhood. :rofl:

Thanks for the input and now I have a new mission.

Ed Matusik



Joined: Fri Apr 6th, 2012
Location: Pennsylvania USA
Posts: 187
Status: 
Offline
Squarerigger wrote: It was a great educational experience. Since it was my first attempt, I was in a hurry and did not want to miss the opportunity.

Using hind sight, I would have exchanged lenses to get more reach. I would have taken the time to get the best setting possible. I really wish I had a tripod. I am going to have to make an effort to practice this as it was very exciting.

Well I am crushed to learn that many wild life shots are taken in zoos, etc.

I have a new found respect for the wild life shots taken by Iain, Ed, and others on this site. I always appreciated them but now I am in awe.

Robert, the thought did occur to me to provide some bait but we no longer have any small children left in the neighborhood. :rofl:

Thanks for the input and now I have a new mission.
What about excess mothers-in-law?

Robert



Joined: Mon Apr 2nd, 2012
Location: South Lakeland, UK
Posts: 4066
Status: 
Offline
I could supply both! Willingly... :devil:

blackfox



Joined: Thu Apr 12th, 2012
Location: Flint, North Wales, United Kingdom
Posts: 1245
Status: 
Offline
i can thankfully say that 99.9% of my wildlife shots are just that ,proper wildlife .sometimes its just being in the right place at the right time others its just sitting and waiting ,but i like to be on the move a lot preferring to anticipate movements in advance ,sometimes its a case of walking /moving slowly .i suffer from high frequency hearing loss so actually hearing the birds or even what robert was talking about when we met are a no go area and i guess what i lose from one sensory loss is gained in others as i don't seem to do to bad ,heres what you can do when prepared and moving 20 stone down a riverbank at speed :rofl:

Squarerigger



Joined: Thu Apr 5th, 2012
Location: Goose Creek, South Carolina USA
Posts: 418
Status: 
Offline
Very nice Blackfox. Could you provide details such as camera and lens -= thanks.

blackfox



Joined: Thu Apr 12th, 2012
Location: Flint, North Wales, United Kingdom
Posts: 1245
Status: 
Offline
gary same as usual i only use one rig ,its the d7000 fitted with a nikon300mm f4-afs plus 1.7t/c this gives an effective focal length of 500mm but is still light enough to hand hold ,my only modification is a permanently attached manfrotto 393 mounting plate so i got something my big mitts can grasp ,i virtually never use the tripod always hand hold .
this set up is very versatile as i can shoot at 500mm as in the stoat pic above and instantly change to pseudo-macro just by flicking the limiter switch on the lens as below .

Ric

 

Joined: Thu Apr 5th, 2012
Location: Kalamazoo, USA
Posts: 18
Status: 
Offline
Today on the way back from Denali National Park today, a black bear stepped out into the road in front of me.  I didn't have time to think about the camera, as I didn't want to buy a rental car.  When I got stopped, my camera was on the passenger floor board.  The bear didn't dart away like I thought he would.  Reached down for the camera, and snapped three shots.  I didn't want to do that through the windshield, but I thought, I may not get another chance like this.  Of course there's bugs on the windshield.  The bear was far enough away from the center of the  road and I pulled up even and took a shot out the passenger window that was already down.  With that, it was gone.

You don't always get the shot you want, but I'd rather have a poor shot than not have my camera with me.

Ric

Iain



Joined: Fri Apr 6th, 2012
Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Posts: 1410
Status: 
Offline
jk wrote:
Iain wrote: Just a little bit to much of a pull for the 24-70 Gary.

There was a good chance that it would have sat there long enough for you to change the lens.

Better luck next time.

Yes but best professional practice says to get the first shot then refine and change position/lens/etc...
;-)

Your right JK.

I think when you have done wildlife for so long you get to the point that it's the other way round where only a good shot will do.

:rofl:

ArcticRick



Joined: Thu Apr 5th, 2012
Location: Wasilla , Alaska USA
Posts: 121
Status: 
Offline
'll have to remember that thing about being happy I had the chance to shoot a picture


Current theme is Blue



A small amount of member data is captured and held in an attempt to reduce spammers and to manage users. This site also uses cookies to ensure ease of use. In order to comply with new DPR regulations you are required to agree/disagree with this process. If you do not agree then please email the Admins using info@nikondsl.uk Thank you.


Hosted by Octarine Services

UltraBB 1.173 Copyright © 2008-2024 Data 1 Systems
Page processed in 0.0558 seconds (68% database + 32% PHP). 114 queries executed.