Trial and Error at Blackpool Zoo...

[antihero]

Me and the wife made a last minute decision to have a trip out to Blackpool zoo today, so decided to throw myself in at the deep end.

I purchased a Tamron SP 90mm f2.5 last week and thought its about time I (sort of) learnt how to use my D40X in manual. No AF, but also no metering, so histogram and lcd preview came to my aid. Got home and was amazed at how good some of the pics came out! I didnt want to faff around with settings all the time so set the ISO to 400, shutter speed to 1/125, and adjusted the aperture to get the exposure right.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

just amazed at the sharpness of some of them (with my dodgy skills), especially #3 which was behind glass!

 

[mmcp42]

like them all
especially #3 - "who u staring @?"

 

[IanC_UK]

all nice shots, last one would be my favourite of the set, its the sharpest, a couple of the others are a little soft (not overly though, have you edited/sharpened them at all ?) . Only real comment i would make is the crop is a bit tight, if this is an edit, try leaving a bit more room the side the animal is looking, doesnt make it feel so restrictive. A very good effort though

 

[zozman]

Yep - what Ian said ^^^

5 is a definite highlight.

 

[PIKEMAN]

Last minute decision , looks like it was the right one nice set

 

[antihero]

thanks all, i was so chuffed with the pics i was just in a rush to post them up, so they will be edited (agreed that i've cropped them a bit tight).

I used a Despeckle filter on #2 as the background was pretty noisy, and adjusted some of the levels in #5 as the whites looked a bit blown on the lemur's ears and neck....thank goodnes for RAW!