Camera Labs

noise is the grainy look a picture takes on due to lack of light and the camera having to compensate by upping the ISO. Noise can also happen naturally as in foggy conditions. Noise can at times add character to a picture but most of hte time you want as little as possible.

Modern SLRs are for the most part excellent with noise... whereas a few years back it was unheard of to take a pic without noise when breaking the 1000 or 1200 ISO barrier these days cameras can take pics vertually noise free up to 1600 ISO and even higher. Ive gone as high as 3200 ISO with good results. Even after that there are programs out there to help reduce the noise so with the right softwear as well as a DSLR unwanted noise, for the most part, is a thing of the past.

ISO is a camera setting you use to increase your shutter speed in low light. When shooting any wildlife you really wanna try for shutter speeds upwards of 800, even though lower settings will work, to freeze the action and not worry about any type of blur. I usually try for speeds of 1000. So if you have a shutter speed of say 200 and your ap is set to your ideal setting for that pic the only way to increase your shutter speed is to up your ISO. Ideally for wildlife you want shutter speeds of 1000 or better, ap as low as possible for that particular lens and an ISO as low as possible for your best pics.

Lots of ppl will say shutter speeds of 200 are just fine for wildlife most of the time and I say if the conditions are perfect and you are using a relatively short lens or a tripod fine but if you are using a lens of around 400 length freehand its pretty hard to not get blur at 200 shutter speed unless you are leaning against something for support... Also always remember that if there is any wind animal fur as well as bird feathers will ruffle or blow in it.. if this happens this too will add blur.. as will any sudden movement of the animal if you are shooting at low shutter speeds.

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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
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That's great! Believe me when I say you will see a lot of improvements. By the way, Wolfsong just saved me the trouble to explain the term "noisy" for you, and I believe his explanation was clearer than what I might have said, so thanks Wolfsong

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Thanks again! I have read all the messages, and will start paying more attention to the shutter speed, and to the noise in the picture. I almost got a new camera this last week, and something came up with one of my kids, so I put it off one more time. I am really hoping for a new camera very soon. The snow is coming, and I love to get out in the woods when there is a little snow to track the foxes, deer and rabbits. Snow just changes a scene so much and adds extra light, and I am excited about getting out there with a new camera. I also like to take pictures of ice in all forms, and I want a good camera for that. My laptop is scheduled to go in for a tune up next week and I am hoping that once it does, I will have the capability to do some editing also, so I'll be around asking for your opinions on that too. Right now it is just soooo slow, it makes me frustrated. If I get a chance, I'll get a few more pictures uploaded to photobucket again tonight to add some more here.

So yesterday turned out to be sunny in the morning and knowing that I got up an hour before sunrise to get out to one of my favorite deer locations. I have always had a lot of luck there with does but have never seen a buck there before. When I first woke up all I did was check to see if the stars were out and they were so I got dressed and headed out. I knew it was supposed to be cold and my first sign of that was a brisk breeze. When I got in my car and started it the outside temp read _ _ which means it is colder than -30C as that is the lowest the gauge will go. Not to be set back I got on my way with the radio on and before long the weather forecast said it was -34C and with the windchill it was -42C... for those who dont know metric that would be about -46F. Yup it would be a cold morning to say the least but the sun was out for one of the few times in a month and I wasnt about to go home...

The spot I was going to was about 1 hour from my house so I had it timed to get there right around 8:45am and with the sun rising at 9:03am it would give me a few minutes to scout out the areas looking for early movement which I could hopefully get back to when the sun broke the horizon. There where 3 spots within an area of about 15 square kilometers that have proved to be very successful over the years for me and on any given day at least one would produce results and quite a few times 2 would as well... on this day however all three would produce.

The first area is made up of 4 smaller areas and it is a spot where deer seem to like to bed down or rest so this was the first I approached. While the sun was still down I noticed 2 deer bedding in the area so I left and decided to go back in about 15 minutes when the sun was up to see if they were still there.. by the looks of them I knew they would be as they seemed to have settled in a while ago. These first 2 pics are of one of the deer bedded down just at sunrise. By the way she is covered with snow it is easy to see she had been there for some time hunkered down against the cold. As cold as it was I got a few shots and let them be. My goal today was not to interupt anything too much as I did not want to stress anything out too greatly in this weather and have them burn off energy that they clearly needed on a day like this to stay warm.

Anyways.... Saskatchewan wildlife in the dead of winter does not have it easy on the best of years and so far this winter has proved to be unusually cold with lots of snow as the pics show. No matter what it will be a long winter up here for all wildlife...





Of course I ran into a few random deer in this area as I always do...







The next area I had had a lot of success in is a dense bushy area. The deer seem to like it due to all the tender shoots off the shrubs and also because it doesnt really get any direct sunlight so although activity here is highest ealry mornings and late evenings I do see deer here all day long some times. Today I managed to watch 3 for a bit as they fed. Although it is constant shade here I have always loved the feel of the pics I take here in the winter.









The last area I go to here and probably my favorite deer location yet is a tree/shrub line which boarders a large meadow. I have posted pics in previous years from this location several times and it still produces when I go there 80% of the time in the winter. What makes this place special is that the tree line is so dense the deer find it hard to get through it except in a few places and the line is about 2km long. With the meadow being as large at it is the deer use the treeline as a road so to speek and they hug close to it when on the move. Without a doubt this is the heaviest travelled deer path I have ever come across anywhere year after year. Along with this the winter sun is at the perfect angle from sunrise to about 12 noon during the winter months (keep in mind that up here the golden hour lasts almost all day at this time of year as the sun never gets high in the sky) and about 50 meters from the tree line in the meadow is a small clump of trees where the landowner has let me build a small blind giving me a great angle and great light on any deer moving along the line in the winter.

Today this path was travelled by a few deer but the prize of the day for me was this beautiful little 8 point buck and he made the morning for me. He slowly moved along the tree line and stopped 3 times when I purposely made noise to get him to look my way without totally spooking him I got the 3 angles I wanted with the last being a perfect broadside of him. Just after that he darted into the trees with one amazing leap and wouldnt you know it I didnt have my camera ready at the time. I can still visualize the leap however and it would have made a stunning pic... but it was a great day with some awesome dear pics... this was one of the very few times when I was watching the buck that I actually doublechecked my shutter speed and went for 2000 as I was shaking so bad from the cold









All these pics were taken within a 2.5 hour time frame... not a bad morning out with some very cooperative deer on a bitterly cold winter day

And wow.. my stories seem to be getting longer and longer ... need to come up with a term for babbling long-winded typers

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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
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Hey Wolfsong, I love the stories. It adds to the pictures and points out things to look for (like the snow).
Are these Whitetail deer? They look very similar, but their ears seem to be smaller, and their noses seem a little shorter and more narrow than the deer around here. I even went back and took a look at some of the pictures I posted to see if I was just imagining things. The faces of some of the deer you took pictures of seem to look almost like foxes with the narrow bridge of the nose. I am also wondering how big the deer are there. The snow is certainly deep and their winter coats look warm and shaggy.
Time for me to go shovel some snow here. Thanks for the story! Great pictures.
X

A very productive morning indeed! Excellent

Oh btw, I enjoy reading about your expeditions nearly as much as looking at your pics, so please continue if/when time allows.

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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/

Amazing shots Wolfsong! I agree with both oldCarlos and XNavy, your stories are really good and I love reading them too, they are as good as the pictures themselves.

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yup these are all white tails but we do have mule deer here as well in lesser numbers... I have heard they grow a bit larger up here than they do in the states but nothing too obvious... overall they are the same animals... we do tend to get more large bucks up here hence why americans spend so much money to come deer hunting in saskatchewan. This year I heard there were 3 taken so far over 20 points and another dozen or so between 16 and 20 points. 8 to 14 pointers are somewhat common amoungst bucks here. I have one roaming around where I live that is 18 points at least but I have only seen him after dark. One night while driving home around midnight I saw him stopped along a fence line just off the road and caught him in my headlights for a good 2 minutes... I counted 9 points on 1 side for sure and there may have been smaller ones I missed.

Honestly I find white tail deer to be more of a pest and to some degree an invasive species than anything else and dont spend a lot of time photographing them. They have never really excited me... maybe because they are so common up here from october to early may. Due to preditor decline and a few other factors their numbers have become way too high and in recent years there have been several culls allowed. All that being said I do try to get out and photograph them however a few times a year at least. The buck was fun to photograph and it did excite me when I seen him. I will probably head back when the sun comes out again to see if I can find him again

the snow is just under a meter deep now on average.

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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

Great shots Wolf, I agree with the text, it makes the shots more interesting in how you captured them. Hmm -34c and we get cold when it's below 22c.

Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

Deer (whitetail) are also extremely common here. If I tried, I am sure I could find some every day. The deer here are probably smaller than the ones you have there, but are bigger than the ones in the Southern US. When I lived in Washington State, Mule deer were common there. Not many 18 point bucks here. 10 - 12 pointers are pretty common. They have also had culls here, and now we are starting to get wasting disease. Wolves were rare for a long time, and now that they are back, they are back on the hunting list. I don't disagree with hunting per se, but the hunters usually take the healthiest deer, while natural predators would normally take out the weak and sickly among the group. Thanks for answering the questions.

Send some of that snow our way - we only have about an inch, and need all the snow cover we can get this winter. It's been dry, dry, dry here... Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

This picture was taken 2 days ago - before we got snow. This little guy had a sore on his leg, and mom was cleaning it. Unedited, and on max zoom for my camera, so my apologies for the poor quality (Canon Powershot SX 150 ISO):

Nice shot, despite the fuzziness it's still pretty good

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Great catches wolf!!
They look to be quite healthy with lots of fat which can unfortunately only mean one thing for you....looong cold winter ahead.
The buck appears to be bouncing back from the rut well,I suspect he'll be losing the horns soon if you were interested in picking them up follow along a few of their trails in the snow.
Our deer have diminished greatly here....I'm lucky to see one per week.

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Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-55mm,Pentax 50-200mm,Sigma 17-70mm,Sigma 70-300mm, Sigma 50-500mm

awesome pics Wolf and great story. A trip to Canada is on the list.
In the meantime I have had to endure a few 30C days, dig up and dry the garlic I grew over winter, start eating home grown tomatoes with basil, zucchini and cucumbers etc.
My barbeque has a problem in that it only works while I have a cold beer in my hand.

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Canon Powershot S95, Canon 7D, 15-85, Canon 85 1.8 USM, Sigma 30 1.4, 50mm 1.8, Canon 100 2.8L IS Macro, Canon 70-300L IS USM+Kenko 1.4 Pro 300DGX, Canon 430EX II and RS 4 Classic

i hear ya max.



30 degrees here and i was BBQing with a santa hat on...

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Canon 550D, Canon EFS 17-85 IS USM, Canon EF 75-300 IS USM, Canon EFS 10-22mm USM, Canon EF35mm F2.

Got some of the gear but really still no idea...

Boo hiss.

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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/