A few of mine from the TP meet at The British Wildlife Centre

Very nice set of shots...
 
Love the wildcat Laurence. Going through my photos at the moment and its a parade of disappointments!
 
Great day and some really nice shots, pine martin wins for me too out of these. ;)
 
Nice to meet everyone..........especially those I'd never met before. Its good to put faces to forum names:)

Great set here........the Wild Cat is my favourite - super shot(y)
 
Some great pictures but that pine marten is a polecat
love the buzzard
 
The first two are looking good.

The buzzard looks like the eye might be a little soft, and without a catchlight, leaving the eye looking a bit "dead". I also don't like the distraction of the caged environment being obvious in the background. I gave up on the buzzard for that very reason. I tried to lose it but couldn't manage. to.
 
I like 1 & 2, the eyes are crisp and sharp although the cats were nothing more than ferals to me.
I agree with Tim with regard to the buzzard but credit where it's due, you've done a much better job shooting through the cage that I managed with any of them
 
Pine martin is a great shot - and I like the wildcat too. Looks like a good place for a visit sometime.
 
You got some nice shots in that set Laurence, especially the Wildcat.

Good to bump into you again.

Steve
 
footman said:
Your'e right Tim, sometimes it's best to walk away.
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A basic rule I tend to stick to is that if I can't conceal evidence that the animal is captive then I usually won't bother with the shot. Certainly cages, fences, bowls and other man made constructions are a complete no-no. The only exception is the jesses and radio transmitters for the birds. Then, if my limited editing skills can remove them I will try, or I will frame the shot to conceal them. For BIF I'll just give it a go anyway, as I like the thrill of the chase. :)
 
footman said:
What are jesses ?
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The thin leather straps you normally see tied to a foot of a bird of prey, they are used for tethering.
If you noticed on the Peregrine falcon, there was also a small antenna, radio transmitters are commonly used these days as it's easy for falconers to track birds.
So basically two items you need to clone out of a photo if you want to trick people into thinking it's a wild bird :)
Each to their own I say but I never do this because if you take a shot of a bird for instance such as a Harris Hawk, although there are a few escapees in the wild, you won't fool someone who knows about birds of preys as these are one amongst many that are not native to the UK :)
 
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footman said:
What are jesses ?
Click to expand...

I didn't make painstaking efforts here, but here is a before and after of one of my BIF shots from yesterday....

20110321_221524_000.jpg


Just enough to fool the casual viewer, and to stop the photo looking like complete carp. I guess I could have gone a little further, but this was enough for the intended purpose.
 
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