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| Blown Opportunity | Rate Topic |
| Author | Post |
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| Posted by Squarerigger: Wed Jul 25th, 2012 15:56 | 1st Post |
| Yesterday evening, I was presented with an opportunity never before given and just plain failed. The sun was over the house and the front yard was well shaded. I looked out the front door and saw something in the bushes I could not identify. I opened the door and stepped onto the front porch to go check the object out when it heard me and jumped back. It was a hawk which was having a late day snack. It jumped around when it saw me and I was afraid it was going to fly away immediately. I ran into the house to get my camera, D7000 with a 24-70mm lens attached. I thought about switching to a longer lens but thought the bird would be gone by the time I returned. So, I ran back out to the front porch and the hawk was still there only with it's back to me. I focused and took a reading. I had to adjust the ISO because my shutter speed was way to slow with the bird moving. I took one shot and in the hot summer day with humidity approaching 96 percent, my lens and camera were starting to fog up. The hawk still had it's back to me when suddenly it held it's head up and turned sideways. I figured this was my only opportunity and took one more shot without the benefit of any more changes to the cameras settings. The bird immediately flew off around the side of the house. I looked at the camera and saw condensation all over every piece of glass and knew I had blown my chance to capture the moment. I pulled the SD card and went to the computer to confirm my sorry effort. The shot of the back of the bird was not at all satisfactory and the side shot was either affected by my shaking with enthusiasm or the condensation. I had some choice words for myself at my total lack of skill. On the DX body I shot at about 100mm, the bird was 60 or so feet away, the crop was a very small portion of the photo. Attachment: Hawk 72412 5 of 8 - Version 2.jpg (Downloaded 58 times)
____________________ -------------------------------------------- Gary |
| Posted by Robert: Wed Jul 25th, 2012 16:59 | 2nd Post |
Well, don't know wether to congratulate or commiserate!   It's in focus or not far off, I think the issue is shake and colour saturation. If you can get it to somebody with Photoshop they should be able to fix the shake. Ps has the facility to remove linear blur, provided it's the entire image, or by selecting part of the image. Perhaps a small handful of corn or a couple of dead mice at the same place tomorrow? A very rough and ready adjustment in Lightroom 3.6. Attachment: Screen Shot 2012-07-25 at 22.08.17.jpg (Downloaded 57 times)
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by Ed Matusik: Wed Jul 25th, 2012 17:12 | 3rd Post |
| That's wildlife shooting for you. Happens a LOT.
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| Posted by Iain: Thu Jul 26th, 2012 05:10 | 4th Post |
| Just a little bit to much of a pull for the 24-70 Gary. There was a good chance that it would have sat there long enough for you to change the lens. Better luck next time.
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| Posted by jk: Thu Jul 26th, 2012 07:11 | 5th Post |
| As Ed says that is the reason why good nature shots are so difficult and why many great shots are staged or use 'tame' animals. To do it for real means that you need to spend loads of time knowing the creature and its habits and locations during the day.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by jk: Thu Jul 26th, 2012 07:13 | 6th Post |
Iain wrote: Just a little bit to much of a pull for the 24-70 Gary. Yes but best professional practice says to get the first shot then refine and change position/lens/etc... 
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Ed Matusik: Thu Jul 26th, 2012 08:09 | 7th Post |
| You said a mouthful JK. All the instructional websites, manufacturers sites, etc., are dead on about taking a few shots, looking at the histograms and making adjustments to maximize the picture quality. Unfortunately, when a free-living, wild predatory or prey animal momentarily exposes itself contrary to its instinctual and learned behavior, it won't sit still for a photographer to get that ideal studio shot, and the rest of the story is history. Like JK, I shoot first then hope that I can get a second or third opportunity to get a better shot. Most of the super sharp images seen on nature shows or in magazines were taken in national park or zoological settings where the creatures are habituated to meeting people with cameras. If you want to shoot only really wild creatures, you must develop great patience, and make a lot of exposures because you'll not end up with many high quality ones.
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| Posted by Squarerigger: Thu Jul 26th, 2012 08:27 | 8th Post |
| It was a great educational experience. Since it was my first attempt, I was in a hurry and did not want to miss the opportunity. Using hind sight, I would have exchanged lenses to get more reach. I would have taken the time to get the best setting possible. I really wish I had a tripod. I am going to have to make an effort to practice this as it was very exciting. Well I am crushed to learn that many wild life shots are taken in zoos, etc. I have a new found respect for the wild life shots taken by Iain, Ed, and others on this site. I always appreciated them but now I am in awe. Robert, the thought did occur to me to provide some bait but we no longer have any small children left in the neighborhood.  Thanks for the input and now I have a new mission.
____________________ -------------------------------------------- Gary |
| Posted by Ed Matusik: Thu Jul 26th, 2012 08:31 | 9th Post |
Squarerigger wrote: It was a great educational experience. Since it was my first attempt, I was in a hurry and did not want to miss the opportunity.What about excess mothers-in-law?
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| Posted by Robert: Thu Jul 26th, 2012 09:50 | 10th Post |
I could supply both! Willingly... 
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by blackfox: Thu Jul 26th, 2012 12:37 | 11th Post |
i can thankfully say that 99.9% of my wildlife shots are just that ,proper wildlife .sometimes its just being in the right place at the right time others its just sitting and waiting ,but i like to be on the move a lot preferring to anticipate movements in advance ,sometimes its a case of walking /moving slowly .i suffer from high frequency hearing loss so actually hearing the birds or even what robert was talking about when we met are a no go area and i guess what i lose from one sensory loss is gained in others as i don't seem to do to bad ,heres what you can do when prepared and moving 20 stone down a riverbank at speed 
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| Posted by Squarerigger: Thu Jul 26th, 2012 12:54 | 12th Post |
| Very nice Blackfox. Could you provide details such as camera and lens -= thanks.
____________________ -------------------------------------------- Gary |
| Posted by blackfox: Thu Jul 26th, 2012 16:45 | 13th Post |
| gary same as usual i only use one rig ,its the d7000 fitted with a nikon300mm f4-afs plus 1.7t/c this gives an effective focal length of 500mm but is still light enough to hand hold ,my only modification is a permanently attached manfrotto 393 mounting plate so i got something my big mitts can grasp ,i virtually never use the tripod always hand hold . this set up is very versatile as i can shoot at 500mm as in the stoat pic above and instantly change to pseudo-macro just by flicking the limiter switch on the lens as below . 
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| Posted by Ric: Thu Jul 26th, 2012 21:14 | 14th Post |
| Today on the way back from Denali National Park today, a black bear stepped out into the road in front of me. I didn't have time to think about the camera, as I didn't want to buy a rental car. When I got stopped, my camera was on the passenger floor board. The bear didn't dart away like I thought he would. Reached down for the camera, and snapped three shots. I didn't want to do that through the windshield, but I thought, I may not get another chance like this. Of course there's bugs on the windshield. The bear was far enough away from the center of the road and I pulled up even and took a shot out the passenger window that was already down. With that, it was gone. You don't always get the shot you want, but I'd rather have a poor shot than not have my camera with me. Ric
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| Posted by Iain: Fri Jul 27th, 2012 09:32 | 15th Post |
jk wrote:Iain wrote:Just a little bit to much of a pull for the 24-70 Gary. Your right JK. I think when you have done wildlife for so long you get to the point that it's the other way round where only a good shot will do.
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| Posted by ArcticRick: Fri Jul 27th, 2012 12:23 | 16th Post |
| 'll have to remember that thing about being happy I had the chance to shoot a picture
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