A few pics from Marwell

[coupekid]

Hi All,

Went to Marwell Zoo at the weekend, and managed to snap a few pics.

Thought I woul share one or two, so I hope you enjoy them!

A sleepy Mongoose....check out those gnashers!




Same Mongoose.....different view





An otter enjoying the sunshine





I have been trying to capture a reasonable shot of a dragonfly in flight for so long, I was quite pleased with this (uncropped)





Something a little bigger than a dragnfly....a Cheetah! shame the eyes are a little dark, but not a lot you can do about that sadly






I hope you liked them, please feel free to comment!

Ben

[ash]

Re: A few pics from Marwell

What a great set of shots Ben, I miss your wildlife stuff, you should post more often, or is it that your not allowed out to play with your camera as much as you used to
My fav of the set is the first, those teeth are awsome!
cheers
Ash.

[coupekid]

Re: A few pics from Marwell

What a great set of shots Ben, I miss your wildlife stuff, you should post more often, or is it that your not allowed out to play with your camera as much as you used to
My fav of the set is the first, those teeth are awsome!
cheers
Ash.

Thanks Ash, appreciate it.

Lost the photography bug for a while, but back now!

[Ian]

Re: A few pics from Marwell

Looks like you had a nice sunny day

As ever, Ben, you're a natural with animal shots!

I see you have some limited depth of field with the focus nicely where it matters - shame there is no exif data in your shots; I'd be interested to see the settings you used.

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: A few pics from Marwell

Looks like you had a nice sunny day

As ever, Ben, you're a natural with animal shots!

I see you have some limited depth of field with the focus nicely where it matters - shame there is no exif data in your shots; I'd be interested to see the settings you used.

Ian

Ian has mirrored my own thoughts Ben. I was going to ask you if the limited depth of field (it does seem very shallow) was intentional and if so what was your thinking behind it. I'm not suggesting its wrong, only that from a personal aspect I would have thought to go so shallow as you have done. As Ian says though they are sharp where it matters.

[coupekid]

Re: A few pics from Marwell

Hi Guys,

It was a reasonable day, with intermittent sun which is always a pain when using manual settings, as such, on this occassion I used aperture priority.

I was using the 300mm lens, with the aperture nice and wide (around 5.6) for a couple of reasons firstly, as the majority of animals were under cover, so light wasnt at too much of a premium.

Secondly, as with any contained animals, was to ensure the aperture was as wide as possible so as the background is blurred, and to avoid any tell tale man made structures.

I also had the ISO bumped up a bit in order to avoid any motion blur, so that would have been between 100, and 400 inclusive. (100 for the Cheetah and Dragonfly, and 400 for the otter, and mongoose IIRC)

As always, I also ensure that the point of focus is right on the eye.

Had this been true wildlife and didnt feel the need to avoid any man made structures, I would tend to go more for around f8 to ensure all/more of the facial features are in focus.

Cheers guys,

Ben

[peter]

Re: A few pics from Marwell

I really like these. I also like the fact you have blown the background and with good reason. Must make it over to a good zoo one day s we have nothing like that over here.

[Pol]

Re: A few pics from Marwell

They're all nice, though I especially love that second picci of the Mongoose. Worra cutie, eh.

I don't give a toss what settings you used. The most important thing is that you had a good day out with yer mate and the kids and also managed to get a few good pics of the animals for Elise to enjoy and remind her of a fun day at the Zoo.

AND ... nice to see you, to see you ... NICE.

Pol

[coupekid]

Re: A few pics from Marwell

They're all nice, though I especially love that second picci of the Mongoose. Worra cutie, eh.

I don't give a toss what settings you used. The most important thing is that you had a good day out with yer mate and the kids and also managed to get a few good pics of the animals for Elise to enjoy and remind her of a fun day at the Zoo.

AND ... nice to see you, to see you ... NICE.

Pol

hehe, thanks Pol.....

GOOD GAME......GOOD GAME! :d