Keep an open mind

Last Sunday, in the early darkness of the forest, as I was stalking wild boar (or at least dark shapes resembling boar) I heard the rutting red deer begin their calls. They were a long way off mind and being on foot in a 20 square KM forested park, I decided they would have to wait. My time being short I concentrated on my targets, baby boar and jays, and wondered how I would find the deer?

So this week I took the bike. Weighed down with bird food, tripod, camo cover, lots of lens and TCs I set off in search of rutting deer. As the darkness lifted the calls began and I was soon, in the dark, tramming down forest tracks. I tried clearing after clearing, but no deer. Then whilst trying to become un-lost I stumbled across a clearning, a large one, where two young reds were busy play fighting. A large bull  was just disapearing in to the trees with a hind. I snook up through the trees as best I could. The light was worse than bad and fighting deer tend to move around alot. But I had found them and know where to find them again ;-)

7D, 300 2.8, 1.4TC, ISO1250

But the playful youngsters heard the shutter and soon were gone too. I waited a few minutes, as animals often re-appear, only to find a fallow deer wandering across the clearing. Bonus.

7D, 300 2.8, 1.4TC, ISO1250

Cropping?

To crop or not to crop? Recently, over on nauturephotographers.net, there has been some discussion about cropping. When one looks at a photo one wants to believe that one is seeing exactly what the photographer saw when he looked through the viewfinder. To discover that this was only 50 or 25% true sends some toggers into a spin. Many purists would have it that this is a cheat of the digital age, and that such practices should be banned along with cloning in or out large amounts of content. But this practice of cropping dates waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back to the days of film (centuries or so ago ;) ), so why does digital get the rap again? Because it takes seconds, not hours to setup and get right.

Of course if we want the maximum amount of detail and lower noise we must fill the frame, but that is not always possible as we either have a prime lens on or our zoom is not long enough, so we crop. Modern sensors, such as my 7D's 18MP, can handle a lot of cropping (at lower ISOs), so why whould I not?

On the otherhand cropping is commonplace for film and video, especially as there are differing aspect ratios, a wide 19:6 capture must be cropped down for a 4:3 display.

Eventually it comes down to the photographer to decide on what he wants to show. Like here, I could have cropped down to the bunny and still had enough resolution for an A4 print, but I wanted to show some of his environment, set the scene, leave space for a message incase someone decided to buy it as an easter card ;)

50D, 100-400, ISO200

It is all down to the artists vision, let them decide what should be seen.

Looking back...

Something I seem to be doing alot at the moment, as I do not get enough time alone to go out shooting wildlife, is cataloguing and deleting old images. This invariably involves processing images too, since I now have a greater understanding of colour and luminosity (not to mention noise, saturation and sharpening).

I have not been back tot he UK for nearly 12 months. I know that UK stock sites like to have shots of wildlife from the UK, rather than jsut lions and tigers. So I figured I would edit and re-edit some older files from last May. Here is one from Harewood House. I was not thinking cute fluffy at the time, I was rather hoping a kite would swoop down and give me the perfect shot...oh well.

50D, 300 2.8 IS

Wildlife is always hungry!

I really do not want to feed wildlife, it is a sin to make wild animals dependant on man, for then they would no longer be wild! I will of course try to temp birds with tidbits, they are usually so fast they do not realise you are there. But sometimes things do not go smoothly. Like the jays. I had placed peanuts on the back of the log to attract the jays. From experience I KNEW absolutley that the wild boar would appear further up the track on their daily patrol, meaning I would not need to remove tele converters to shorten my focal length and they would not find the nuts. Perfect?

Hmm, nature bestowed upon wild boar a brilliant sense of smell. Damn.

7D, ISO800, 300 2.8 IS, 1.4TC, f4.

Success, partially.

It has been six months since my parental leave ended, during the last few months of that wonderful time I had chance to spend time alone doing what I love. Photographing wildlife. I spend around six weeks towards the end trying, in vain, to get a half decent shot of wild boar offspring. Recently though I discovered the forest once again and found me a new family.

Only having six hours a week, Sunday mornings, to spend doing this I have little hope of ground breaking images. But I try. This week I waited patiently for three hours or so in a known spot, a passing male entertained me for a few minutes but otherwise nothing. Then as I was packing away my gear, they arrived. As usual mother wanted her children to stay in the darkness and security of the trees. As usual the little 'uns disobeyed. It was dark and shaded, my ISO was at 800 (this was perhaps not enough) and my throw over hide was only half over.

So my images are a little on the noisey side. Most were blurred and useless. One or two I may manage to salvage. Like this one perhaps?

7D, ISO 800, 300 2.8 IS, 1.4TC @ f4

I often think I do not require an f2.8 tele lens, then on a day like sunday I think "Wow, a 400mm f2.8 would have been a godsend!"...grumble, too many options in life and no perfect solution!



Nature, it KNOWS!

The scenario: bird food on a log. 600mm of lens pointed at log. Wait for jays to land on log.

3 hours later, wild boar arrive and jays are not to be seen. Change to 420mm of lens and shoot away at baby boars. Jays arrive. Change back to 600mm. Jays land behind log, behind a tree or in the long grass. Back to 420mm and shoot more boar because jays know. Jay lands on log now....dang, I swear they know! So for reference I shot the jay, cropping with high ISO ont he 7D is not a good option, but it was that or nothing. I need a zoom, come on Canon, 200-400 f4... :)

7D, ISO800, 300 2.8, 1.4TC

As always, more images available on http://www.travellinglight.de

Chance continued

A day after being suprised by a charging hare I was once again patiently awaiting the arrival of buzzards. Once again I noticed movement at the far side of the field, but this time something far larger was lurking. A far off dog walker disturbed a pair of roe deer and they charged directly at me.

300 2.8 IS, 1.4Tc, 7D

They veered off once the sound of my shutter reached their sensitive hearing, or I would not be here today ;)

Once again my patience paid off, just not quite how I had intended.