Animals
Animals can make great photographic subjects - when they behave. I particularly love taking pictures of horses, but it can be incredibly frustrating as their inquisitiveness tends to go a bit far so you end up with a lens covered in horse snot and whilst you try to clean it, one of your sleeves is being eaten.
Still, it’s worth a try. I haven’t succeeded with horses to the extent that I’d put any on here, but I will as soon as I like one enough. Meantime, here’s what I have:
Not my usual type of photograph this, but I really like the weird shapes and sensation of movement created by the blur. Just playing with my new lens by taking pot shots at the birds just outside my office window, and caught this little chap just launching off.
Technical info: f/5.6, iso 100, 1/15s, 200mm, handheld.
I had a glorious afternoon in Dovedale today with Andy. I saw the temperature was down to -5c overnight, so knew I wanted to skive off and take some pictures (I’ve been ill or busy over christmas, so have had no time).
Half way through the walk, we found this gorgeous fat little robin that was so tame he’d all but jump on your finger. Lying down in the snow, he’d sit about 6 inches from my lens and just look at me. I put the camera on P mode (Program, meaning it’s mostly automatic but you can fiddle with things - basically just so it’ll take raws but I haven’t got to spend time tweaking settings. I often do that when I’m taking pics of things that move about a lot).
There’s lots more pics of the walk, but I’ll trickle them on as I process them. Happy new year all.
Technical info: ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/16s. Handheld.
Posted in animals.
I was driving home from a meeting near Dudley with my camera in the car, and was being teased by a glorious sunset which had me wanting to stop the car every hundred yards, but everywhere I could stop had something in the way of the sunset. Finally, when I thought I’d missed the boat, I went past a track next to this field with the crows in, and parked dangerously on the wrong side of the road to rattle off a few shots.
A far from perfect picture, but I love the colours and the birds. You can’t have everything 
Technical info: iso 100, f/1.4, 1/250s, handheld
I love snails - they manage to be both freaky and familiar at the same time. This little chap was crawling down the top of my rough wooden fence just after I got my sigma 70-300, and I took so many pictures of him he forgot where he was going and ended up facing the other way.
Technical info: iso 400, f/8, 1/400s, handheld (the high iso and shot speed were because I was shooting at 190 mm, and had no tripod at the time, so camera shake was a bit of a nightmare).
I went to Twycross zoo a few months back, and this was the best picture of the day. Quite an inquisitive little fellow, he was.
Taking pictures in zoos can be quite a trial, because you normally have to contend with bars, mesh or glass. In this case there was a fine mesh in the way, but if the camera is up close to it and you have a low depth of field and a fairly distant focus it can all blur away to nothing.
Techinical info: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/250s, hand held.
Posted in animals.
Recent Comments