Chester Zoo - Keltic Ice Man

[Keltic Ice Man]

My efforts from yesterdays meet. It was the first real outing for my sigma 70 -300 and I was using manual focus for the first time.
#1
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/768/061001_7810-01.jpg
#2
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/768/061001_7684-01.jpg
#3
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/768/061001_7870-01.jpg
#4
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/768/061001_7723-01.jpg
#5
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/768/061001_7732-01.jpg
#6
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/768/061001_7996-01.jpg
#7
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/768/061001_7660-01.jpg
#8
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/768/061001_7820-01.jpg
This one is my take on the word ZOO - thought it made a statement! - Got to say the animals looked really well in the zoo - but this did make me stop and think (for a moment)- does it do it for you?

More pics in my gallery.

C&C always welcome

Allan

[Matt Charlton]

Fantastic work Allan, love the first tiger shot, I never seem to be able to get them yawning and things. The tigers were pacing up and down by the fence when I saw them again.

[Nath]

I like them, but doesn't your lens have auto focus? The focusing looks off on some/alot of them to me :(

[Boon]

lovely set allan, really impressed with them, nice use of DOF and good colouring too, are you pleased with the lens?

[SDK^]

wow, superb photos !!!
Image 6 of the Merekat is great :)

[digitalfailure]

KIM, :thumbs:

The penguin wannabe meerkat had me chuckling :D

I didn't get the chance to capture the jaguar or the tigers, and the red pandas were fast asleep by the time I got to them.

A great set :)

[Keltic Ice Man]

Thanks guys :)

I like them, but doesn't your lens have auto focus? The focusing looks off on some/alot of them to me :(

Nath - the lens does have AF but in some conditions it seemed to take a while to get the focus point. I thought the focusing on the pics was ok - is it the Depth of Field that is making you think the focus is off? What do others think of the focus?

DF - every time I see red pandas they are asleep I was so pleased to see one awake - made my day.

Thanks

Allan

[Matt Charlton]

focus looks spot on to me.

[digitalfailure]

Focus looks as good as it'll ever be to me, the 1st tiger is focus'd through the fence, the dragons are behind glass as is the Jaguar

[Joe T]

Some of the best I've seen so far. The colours in that first one are superb.

[InaGlo]

Well I thought Id get bored looking at all the zoo shots but actually Ive been rather impressed.
Nice shots there KIM!

[RickMezza]

Great set of shots KIM, the 1st tiger shot is a winner for me, really can't see how it could be improved upon :clap: :clap: :clap:
Also like the 4th one a lot (Lizard), brilliant. :thumbs:

Rich

[IanC_UK]

d'oh ! missed these!

nice shots KIM, a coupel do seem to have a little softness to them, 2,3 and 5 mainly, but its not too far off, and may just need a minor USM on them !

[moomike]

1st & 4th for me, really great images Allan, colours & composition are spot on.
looking forward to the rest :clap: :thumbs:

[photostar_1]

Love the tiger and the lizard!

[Keltic Ice Man]

Thanks guys for the comments.

Ian the softness might be what Nath saw - wonder if it was the same pics?

I always worry about over sharpening the pics in post processing. Can some one take pic 3 and sharpen it to how far they think it should go so I get an idea of how far to go.

Thanks

Allan

[BobR]

Number six is brilliant. Well caught. IMVHO i thought number 2 was a touch out of focus, but who am I to criticise when I cant sometimes even get it right with the autofocus on!

Nice set of pics.

Bob

[Matt]

Gotta love that tiger.
Never actually seen him outside.

Was he listening to Marcels Jokes :D

[Matt Charlton]

I think he was watching DF waiting for him to say something.

[namllihs]

Thanks guys for the comments.

Ian the softness might be what Nath saw - wonder if it was the same pics?

I always worry about over sharpening the pics in post processing. Can some one take pic 3 and sharpen it to how far they think it should go so I get an idea of how far to go.

Thanks

Allan

Is this too much?
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/linda.hillman/Red Panda 2.jpg

[kamion]

I like the camouflaged elephant! They're not very good camouflage candidates usually! :D

[Keltic Ice Man]

Is this too much?


I think you probably have that spot on - was that USM? or high edge?

When I do USM it seems to be to much - can you remember what sort of settings you tried.

Thanks

Allan

[namllihs]

I think you probably have that spot on - was that USM? or high edge?

When I do USM it seems to be to much - can you remember what sort of settings you tried.

Thanks

Allan

In Photoshop I converted it to LAB Color switched of A & B channels, applied USM Amount 100, Radius 0.9, Threshold 1 then converted back to RGB Color HTH.

[Mike]

Love the Tiger shot Allan, it's very good :)

Mike

[tom]

Was nice to meet you fella, some of the shots are very similar to mine (would be, you were with me half the day :D The tiger shot is almost identical for example)

Good work :D

Tom.