"Fresh & Wild" Entry 3 - Upload Batch Two

Landing Magpie

Grasshopper

Crow

B&W Plant

Black & White Flower 2

Here are the photos from my second shoot, they were all taken at different locations on the same day.

In my last entry I wrote about improvements that I could work on for this shoot, here is some feedback on how that went: I have been using Manual focus and it has changed my way of taking photos! When I first see something that I want to photograph I approximately set the focus and then, with the subject through the viewfinder, adjust it until the correct focus is achieved, this method is significantly faster than the Auto-Focus option on my camera allowing me to capture moments that I would've otherwise missed.

As I've had more practice at taking nature photos since the last shoot I've noticed that I have become faster at finding things to photograph and taking the actual photo, my main evidence to back this up is my photo titled: "Landing Magpie"

I have used photo editing software to adjust photos: "B&W Plant" and "Black & White Flower 2" they were taken in colour and looked a bit boring but once changed to Black & White with the Levels adjusted they are much more interesting to look at.

I was in a hurry one day and forgot my camera and on this day I noticed loads of things that I could've photographed, so to improve from now on I shall take my camera with me everywhere.

When on the actual shoot there were very few animals to photograph, to improve for the next time I would go out to various locations and perform a film style recce to find out where the animals are frequently then I'd find suitable places, that wouldn't effect any wildlife, to 'stakeout' until the desired shot is captured.

"Fresh & Wild" Entry 2 - Upload Batch One

Moth Portrait

Collecting It's Nectar Points

Black & White Flower

Looking Up

Young Seagull Portrait

Yellow

Purple

Red

I decided to take this first batch of photos over a couple of days and as nature can be found all around us they were taken in many different places. Before I started the first shoot I roughly planned which settings I would use on the camera, I chose settings that would give me fast control because I know how fast animals and insects can be!

I feel that as a whole the shoot went very well, the weather was good resulting in great natural lighting. The angles that I chose to experiment with for the photos titled "Looking Up" and "Purple" are much more interesting than just taking face on photos, I think I will be using different angles more in my future work.

A few things didn't go quite so well like when I was photographing insects my shutter speed, aperture and lighting was right but the focus on the camera took too long resulting in many insects getting away. Another problem I encountered was when I was trying to photograph the seagull in "Young Seagull Portrait" I found that the lens I was using couldn't quite zoom as far as I would've liked it to so I had to crop the photo using editing software causing the image quality to reduce.

To improve for my next shoot I am going to switch my camera from auto focus to manual focus and as I can not afford to purchase a longer telephoto lens at this time I am going to have to try to get physically closer to the subject that I would like to photograph.

"Fresh and Wild" Entry 1 (part 2) - Research

This photo is an extreme close up of an elephant's eye it was taken by the wildlife photographer Chris Packham.

Like most of Chris Packham's wildlife work this photo was taken using a telephoto lens - he uses this so he doesn't startle or upset any animals that he is photographing and because it gives visibly better results than taking the photo with a regular lens and cropping in later.

I think this photo might have been cropped a tiny bit and because of all of the details in the face I think he used a closed aperture (like F22) 

 

 

 

 

 

This is another photo by Chris Packham it's main subject is a young animal.

When I first saw this photo it appeared that the animal was hiding in a plant area but under closer inspection it appears to be in the arms of it's parent.

This photo was also taken with a telephoto lens, but probably not cropped in the editing stage.

To get the viewer's attention and make this photo really brilliant the main subject is just off centre, in my opinion if the main subject had been anywhere else this photo would not be as powerful.

I think this photo was taken with a closed aperture.

The conclusion:

So here we have two photos both taken by the same photographer but both are completely different composition wise and technique wise. When photographing animals I must keep versatile to my approach and remember to photograph the subject the way I want it to be portrayed by others.

 

Both images in this entry are screen shots from chrispackhamphotos.com/ the photos seen in the screen shots are both © by Chris Packham.

"Fresh and Wild" Entry 1 - Research

This photo was found on Flickr it's called "Sweet Dreams Everyone..." and it's by Edward Nurcombe.

This is a Macro shot that the photographer achieved by using a macro lens, having to get very close to the subject.

It is not cropped and as far as I can tell the image itself hasn't been modified much, maybe just the brightness, contrast and saturation. I think the border that he has added completes the image nicely. This photograph has an open aperture (about F5.6?)

This photo is called "thanks for digging the garden (EXPLORED)" and it is by Jeff Cohen

The photographer used a long distance lens (either telephoto or long focus) for this portrait style photograph. I like this photo because of the focus and details, the open aperture eliminates any distractions that might have been in the background.

The Comparison:

Both of the images seen in this blog entry use an open aperture to draw the viewer's attention to what the photographer wants them to see, both images are in colour and are focused effectively.

The main difference between the two images is that one is a macro / close up shot and the other was taken with the photographer a significant distance away from the subject.

First Post

When You Do A LOT Of Photography You Might Find You Develop

Photographer's Knee

Just to test the new blog, it's not a real condition! ;)