Eagle Heights Part II

[Jelster]

A couple more from Sunday's visit.

A young Golden Eagle that was hand reared.

Some sort of North American Constrictor snake.... Beautiful colours.

And another one of the Otters, they are just so cute

After reviewing the hundreds of shots I took on Sunday, I'm now pleased that I am getting them sharper. I just need to up my "hit rate", 1 in 20 isn't that good really :shrug:

 

[IanC_UK]

Some nice shots there, and you got down to their level too which is good, the snakes eye is a little soft, but not a bad shot.

Which focus points do you use on the camera ? Try not to use it set to all, pick a point, place that over the critters eye and make sure that focus is ok, the rest will come remember to leave a little space in the direction the animal/bird is looking and you should feel happier about the shots

 

[Jelster]

I have it set up on the single centre point, so I can focus & recompose. Some of the softness may be due to camera shake as I've not got the steadiest of hands and they are all hand held, most of them with the zoom at 300 mm (ISO 200)

 

[IanC_UK]

The rough rule of thumb for long lenses is keep the shutter above the focal length of the lens, so at 300mm you should have at least 1/300th of a second, if you cant get this, up the ISO, this guideline is for getting over the fact its handheld and does not allow for the fact the animal is moving. If you have an IS lens this can be tweaked a little but you need a really good posture and hand holding technique to carry it off well is just a matter of persevering and it will come