Camera Labs

It's funny that you say that because I actually was able to get as close as 15 meters from a deer and all it did was stare back at me for like 5 minutes. Sadly though, I couldn't get a shot because as soon as I got out my camera and pointed it at the deer, it ran away (and they do run fast!). Also the thing is that I've had trouble getting closer than 60 meters to geese (ducks seem to be ok with me approaching them). So I think that sometimes it doesn't depend too much on the animal, but rather in it's environment, if it will actually let you approach it.

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Gear: Canon SX20 IS, Canon Rebel T3i, Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Wishlist: Canon 50mm f/1.8 II, Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II
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Definately Pierovera.

You have no idea how often Im well within range of a shot of an animal and there is a rock, tree, hill, river, lake or whatever in the way which doesnt allow me to approach the animal to get a clear shot or a shot with decent light

I usually break down wildlife into 3 groups... which of course could be broken down even farther...

1) Zoo Wildlife: Animals found in zoos. Captive so for the most part easy to photograph. Only variables really are type of enclosure, fencing, if they are out in the open or resting in their home, light and a few other factors.

2) Urban Wildlife: wildlife used to human contact on a regular basis usually found within cities or towns. Usually easy to approach and sometimes even easier to phptograph then zoo wildlife. You dont have to worry bout fences, enclosures and limited angle access to take into account light in many instances when photographing urban wildlife. Quite a few times you can work your way around animals to get the perfect light and close enough to the animal to not have to worry bout extensive cropping, espeically in urban parks.
Many times I include animals in natural parks or on animal preserves in this group as well seeing these animals are seldom harrassed and have frequent human contact. One must always keep in mind however that care still needs to be taken in these places as wild animals are just that wild.

3) Wildlife: Animals found in truly wild areas seeing little human contact. Much more difficult to photograph or approach than either of the two above especially if there is hunting in the region. Our hunting season opens up in bout 4 to 6 weeks depending on what you are after... ducks, geese, grouse, rabbit, deer, moose, elk. If you have a trapping season like we do it adds even more pressure.
Funny thing is if you can find an environ that has had no human presence to speek of and not hunting pressure animals can become quite approachable. I have been lucky enough to be in several of these places and have had black, grizzly, polar and kermode bears within 2 meters of me, whales that I could reach out and touch if I wanted to, linx within 5 meters, moose within 10 meters, buffalo within 10 meters.... and so on. Sadly these places are few and far between however.

The spookiest animal I have encountered to date is the trumpeter swan in the Tuktoyaktuk area above the arctic circle. It is hunted regualrly by the inuit and getting closer than 400 meters is highly unlikely on an open approach.

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Continuing my catching up project, here are more feathered friends from Florida with the A580 & Minolta 300mm F4 APO lens + 1.4x TC...

Female red-winged blackbird:


American bittern running away:


Green heron:


White ibis taking off:


Little blue heron juvenile still in its white phase:


Anhinga catches a nice fish:


Snowy egret gets two small fish at the same time:


Green heron, not to be outdone, gets himself a fish too:


Starling on a stump:


Purple gallinule running up a branch:


Great egret in flight:


Great blue heron chick:

_________________
Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

awesome as always zack...

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Superb shots Zack.
How long did you have to wait to get the Anhinga shot or were you too fishing by its side
Regarding the Green heron I have 1 question - the front leg is in sharper focus and the leg away from camera is out; I assume 1/3 in front and 2/3 behind dof should have brought the rear side leg in focus too....if you had focused on the eye.... but the twig in front of the heron is in focus too - comparatively. Was the focus set on some part of the twig in front to throw the back ground out
Did I mention before that you almost had me on the Sony bandwagon.....only that Sony does not have a presence same as Canon and Nikon in India either for camera or for service centres.


Regards,

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Jagadish_C
http://s1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee472/Jagadish_c/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46710427@N07/

Not too long, fortunately - I happened to be walking by when I saw him dive, so I stuck around to see if he came up with anything - when he surfaced I snapped a burst of shots and caught a 3 shot sequence of him with this fish...this one had the most 'action' so it's the one I posted.



Actually, it was his movement that caused that - he had been perched on the branch and leaning his head down while ready to grab the fish, and his head was actually closer to me - so when I first acquired focus it was on the head which was an inch or two closer to me, but after he lifted his head with the fish, he had moved it back an inch or two - fortunately the head was still within the focus area, but the narrow DOF at that aperture and focal length caused the focus center point to be closer to the front leg and where the head was a moment earlier, which had the back foot just outside the DOF area. Had I taken the time to refocus before shooting, it would have pushed the focus back an inch or so and probably had both feet just inside the focus area, but I was set to AF-S rather than continuous and this was the 4th or 5th frame of a burst that started when he first plunged his head down to get the fish.



That's a pretty good reason to choose another brand! If your country doesn't have much support for a brand, there's not much use going with that brand. Honestly, there's very little difference overall between the brands nowadays...they're all quite good, and the lenses you choose and the photographer's skill make much more difference than what brand of camera you use.

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Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

This should be made a stick thread, IMHO

_________________
Gear: Canon SX20 IS, Canon Rebel T3i, Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Wishlist: Canon 50mm f/1.8 II, Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II
Visit me and leave me a comment in My Flickr

Trying to get caught up on some of the old stuff now that I can spend more time on the computer. All shot from inside a car. These are randoms from the spring...

Finally got close to one of these.. now I just need the sun...



Spring is in the air



Spring is in the air 2



My second favorite songbird...



Complete hover mode...



Complete fluke on my part... what are the odds. He wizzed by me in full flight and I pointed. clicked, and prayed...



Off to Northwestern Ontario for the weekend... not for photography but who knows... I might get lucky with a shot or 2 if I can convince someone ot take me for a ride in the country

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Wolf all the best in Northwestern Ontario.
Is it for checkups?
And that you get a ride to country side...... I post and I pray

Cheers,

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Jagadish_C
http://s1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee472/Jagadish_c/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46710427@N07/

@Zack:

- Oh then I would request you to a fishing trip with me as the birds get good catch so I want a share of that

- Now very clear why the rear leg is out of focus.

- As regards Sony cameras.....the reason I mentioned this almost 2 years after boarding Nikon ship is..... when you post, even now I remember those days when the dilema was in full swing... to Sony or not to Sony
India has a population of.... hold tight to the seat.....1,200,000,000 and a mere fraction has the potential to surpass cumulative sales from quite a few countries. Take heed Sony Corp.

But my plans to get the D7000 has to wait for few months as costs are very high in Australia.... till january 2013 I will be here. Christmas sale coupled with new launch may swing the tide in favour though. Lets wait.


Regards,

_________________
Jagadish_C
http://s1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee472/Jagadish_c/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46710427@N07/

Thanks Jag... just got back.

My trip to NW Ontario was to spread my mom's ashes. She passed away Aug 15 of natural causes at 94 and it was expected so we were all prepared. She had a long and happy life with no illness and I got my love for nature from her. I took her out in the middle of nowhere and placed her ashes in a hollow under an old spruce tree on the shore of a lake with an amazing view. NW Ontario is where I grew up and she spent her happiest time there out in nature after we moved to Canada so it seemed appropriate.

Got some nice scenery shots, got to listen to wolves howl again, had an amazing 2 hour northern light display but no animal encounters to speak of except after dark.

It was the first time in 18 years that I have gotten back "home", I was born in Germany but spent my youth there, if I can call it that so to be out to the old fishing holes and see the lakes I grew up near was the most important thing for me this time round. That being said I definately need to go back for a photo outing there... hopefully next summer.

_________________
Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Must have been a very emotional time for you. Hope the year improves for you Wolf.

Haven't seen a Swift for over a week now & it won't be long before the Swallows depart for warmer climes.

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Swallow (Hirundo rustica) by Carl B.1, on Flickr

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Nikon D700 & D7100 bodies + Nikkor 300mm F2.8 VR11, 1.7TC, 50mm F1.4G, 16-35mm f/4G VR, 105 F2.8 VR macro, 70-300mm lenses. A couple of filters, Giotto tripod & ballhead. Lowepro Slingshot 302 AW

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldcarlos/

Some of them are already down here. Chimney swifts have been here buzzing over my house for a month now, but the tree swallows and northern rough-winged swallows have started showing up the past week or so, in pretty good numbers. So far, we're having a decent migration this year, better than last year...maybe that is some kind of lucky sign we may actually get something resembling a winter this year (didn't have one at all last year). The past week or two there's been a shocking variety of warblers and other migrating perchers filling our trees.

_________________
Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

1209_090 by Nikon Pup, on Flickr

No idea what this is, but love it's colors!

1/30 sec @ f/5.6, ISO400, 105mm with 18-200 VRII, Nikon D80

great shot thomas. no idea what it is either but it is funky looking

_________________
Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr