Formby Reds (Squirrels) First time with animals (Its not easy is it)

gibbo

gibbo

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Brian
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OK now I have a FULL appreciation of all you photographers who can shoot any animal, getting it nice and sharp colourful in-focus etc etc I'm totally in awe of you ALL :notworthy:

Anyway these were shot at various slowish shutter speeds at f2.8 with iso ranging from 600 down to 100 for tha odd ones.
HOW THE HELL DO YOU DO IT ?????

no1
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no2
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no3
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I even had the damned things running round my feet & I still missed some :crying:

CC please and any tips will be greatfully wanted, needed & appreciated
 
Looking at the exif, your shutter speed is too slow for the lens length, so you're getting some camera shake. General rule of thumb is that shutter speed should be the inverse of the focal length. So for a 200mm lens, you need a shutter speed of 1/200 sec. With cropped sensors, up this figure a bit - to say 1/300.

I think you may also have focus issues too - the focus on the last one looks a bit like you've focussed on the foreground rather than the animal. Use the centre focus spot and try and focus on the eyes.
 
Hello Mobile where do you read my exif from (I cant find it)
Any way I was aware of keeping shutterspeed up for the lens length but I didnt want to up the ISO too much. The focus was continous as the little critters wont pose for me they were all over the place. So it looks like I have to compensate iso to keep shutter speed up and as for the eye bit thats the hard bit I want them to have eyes the size of dinnerplates, but I know what you mean. Its damned hard hats off to you animal photographers (I wont even mention the birds I tried to catch)
Thanx for the info its not bloody easy photographing animals is it ??
 
You got a great angle of the squrriel.

I'm not an expert (lil too young at the mo) but what I normally do with my photos to brighten them up is use something called time machine, on Paint Shop Pro.

Example of your pic:

DSC_5983_sml.jpg
From this to...

This:
squrriel.gif


Edit: ignore that, it only works properly with animals that don't have fur, e.g feathers.
 
jo photography what did you do to that shot cos by the looks of it your moniter isnt callibarated properly. My tip would just to practice alot as i am pretty crappy myself so i cant give you much more than that . Good shots though
 
I'm off-topic, but thanks. I was wondering that too. Plugin installed. (y)

:) Steve
 
davidbridges said:
jo photography what did you do to that shot cos by the looks of it your moniter isnt callibarated properly. My tip would just to practice alot as i am pretty crappy myself so i cant give you much more than that . Good shots though
Click to expand...

Your right, something went weird with that picture. It was alright when I was on Paint Shop Pro.

I think it works better with creatures that don't have fur, e.g feathers.
 
mobilevirgin said:
Its a firefox addon - here

If you don't use Firefox, there are other solutions - eg Opanda
Click to expand...

Wow brilliant thanx, there`s details there I didnt know ;)

And thanx for the comments, more practice required. (I have a new friend on here some where a newby with some shots from today so if hes reading this say hi)
 
For first go, then deffo not bad. Yeah they are little sods, you just think about taking a frame and the buggers move!!
 
not bad at all :) what you need to do is wait for the brighter days so you can get the shutter speeds up, you did the right thing by getting really low, it makes the shots so much more appealing :) plan your visit, make sure you take nuts with you to bait the ground, but dont put soo many down you can see hundreds in the shot. Keep persevering though :)

Heres one i took at Formby a while ago :)
http://www.cookster.co.uk/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/0520-145231-01.jpg
 
Good evening Gibbo.
Try going down 'Green Drive' in Lytham, there are hundreds of grey critters there!
 
not too shabby
it does get easier with practice
keep the shutter speed up (adjust ISO if needed)
oh and drug the little buggers!
 
Thankyou Geordi, Ian, Jack & MMcp for you comments and advice. I think your right I`ll nail the little sods to a plank then I think I`ll do ok. :bonk:
But I think Im on the right track at least. (I dont mean nailing them):nono:
As you say much more practice better light & probably 2 cameras one for when they are at your feet and the larger lens when they are legging it about, thats another thing they dont half bound about as they scurry about looking for nuts and what ever they eat. :shrug:
As you said Ian I will take some bait and set up some shots for them to munch on.
As I said before I take my Hat off to you.
(And I havent even started on the twitchers (Spotters) yet! thats even worse how can you catch something that moves in ALL directions) :bang:
 
I should have said, Gibbo, that I think the composition on the first 2 is fine - good advice to get down low, as you did. I like the first one the best. You've got the exposure and light all spot on - so that's something you don't need to worry about next time. And as the others said, practise helps. So too does taking lots and lots of shots. Improve the odds so that they work in your favour.

The twig in #3 is distracting.
 
Not bad for a first time attempt!! :) I think the attempt at colour correction is a little over done but along the right lines!
 
mobilevirgin said:
I should have said, Gibbo, that I think the composition on the first 2 is fine - good advice to get down low, as you did. I like the first one the best. You've got the exposure and light all spot on - so that's something you don't need to worry about next time. And as the others said, practise helps. So too does taking lots and lots of shots. Improve the odds so that they work in your favour.

The twig in #3 is distracting.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments. Yes your right I`ll shoot so the odds Will be on my side also I`ll raise the iso if I need to to keep the shutter speed up.

As purplecloud said a little over done, yes I think so, I over did 2 of them just a little. (1&2)
But I have gained loads of info from this shoot and I think some of them are actually basics. I think in the heat of shooting I am obviously loosing sight of some of the basics :bang: ..... thanx for the help :clap:
 
good shots we will have to go down green drive(Lytham) so you can practice taking more shots of the little critters
 
They're excellent shots Gibbo !! Dont know what your moaning about :D

I know how hard it is to capture these as I have tried many times and not yet got a shot I'm really pleased with.

What day were you there, I was there on Thursday and didn't see one squirrel. I'd got loads of bluddy nuts aswell......

Pah.

BB

(y)
 
Hello Borat they are not as in focus or sharp as I would like, but I will keep trying.

I was there Thurs just myself & the Wife about 11.30ish for a couple of hours (cant walk too quick at the mo) we kept away from the crowds found 2 little places just off the track 5 playfull ones which ran round your feet. Then as we were leaving we find 3 others one being hand fed and one other which fell from a tree stunned for a few moments, there were kids every where when this happened but to be fair it didnt scare the Reds away.

And I had no nuts (bought ones) didnt know you could buy any untill we were leaving.

A young Lad was there taking photos with his new Nikon d40x nice lad (12) I gave his mum this TP site for him to join. He has signed up but not seen anything of him in the welcome thread yet..... or his photos (I hope he reading this)
 
It was indeed very busy !!

Fair few groups of "pond life" there to to spoil things too.

I've never really felt the need to punch anyone in the face but there was this group of about 6 lads, the youngest must have been about 9 or 10 years old, all smoking stuff they shouldnt have been, ;-/ shouting and swearing etc etc.

10 years old ffs. Thats no way to be brought up is it.... ?
 
Nope you want to see what made it to the beach.....
I must admit the place was dirty considering it is a NT reserve the place was littered with pop bottles crisp packets dog poo bags just dropped squashed into the floor buttie bags etc
shame
 
Gibbo, hope you dont mind, but I've just picked photo number 2 as its my fave, chopped a bit of the right side, sharpened it a tad and altered a few levels.

I hope you like it as I think it turned out quite well !

DSC_6015_sml.jpg
 
wow... its not the same image :crying: :love:

looks like you took the same shot as me thats just what I would have been happy with from the out-set. (y):clap:

So what did you do to the original (I have ps 7)
nice easy steps....... :)
 
Gibbo, I used Picassa, its all I can afford at the mo, :LOL:

I find it really good for the simple stuff considering its a freebie.

I cropped it first, then used the sharpen button twice. Sometimes once is enough and twice takes it too far, but in this instance it seemed to work.

Then I took the shadows down, just a gnats cock, enough just to give the image some depth.

Then altered the colour temp silder towards the "warm" end of the scale.

Job done.

I've never experienced PS so I cant tell you how I would have done it on there ????

Hope it helps though..
 
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