A visit to the zoo.... 56k run away!

Richard T · 1 Jan 2007 at 20:59

Hi guys. I popped over to Colchester Zoo on new years eve for a few hours and walked round in some pretty bad light!

here are my faves of the day.

Any comments and crit most welcomed

check out the face on this girl!
1

2

3

4

Richard T · 1 Jan 2007 at 20:59

5

6

7

8

this is my fave of the whole lot. she just kept on calling!

Joe T · 1 Jan 2007 at 21:02

Not bad at all.

pmbuzz · 1 Jan 2007 at 21:04

Great pics Richard, very nice indeed.
Any chance you could link to full size versions for possible desktop use.?

^^Gord^^ · 1 Jan 2007 at 21:13

Did you get the lion in the first shot to sign a release wavier?

I agree, shot 8 is the best one. They all look good except shot 4; the DOF doesn't work for me in that shot.

Richard T · 1 Jan 2007 at 21:48

Joe T said:
Not bad at all.

thanks...

pmbuzz said:
Great pics Richard, very nice indeed.
Any chance you could link to full size versions for possible desktop use.?

any in particular? and what size? I'll see what I can do!

^^Gord^^ said:
Did you get the lion in the first shot to sign a release wavier?

I agree, shot 8 is the best one. They all look good except shot 4; the DOF doesn't work for me in that shot.

not happy is she

thanks for looking

Bolerus · 1 Jan 2007 at 22:41

on shot 4 my eyes were drawn to the pelican (they were pelicans right) in the background that is out of the focus, as opposed to the one that I assume was the target.

I love 6 because of the siberian tiger, and 7 looks like it is about to charge the camera, with that in mind, it would have been nice (in my opinion) to have a little bit more foreground for it to cross.

and of course number 8 is excellent as well.

well done m8, keep them coming

Fireblade2K4 · 1 Jan 2007 at 22:56

Very nice photo's indeed, what camera and lens were they taken with?

Stu

Mohain · 1 Jan 2007 at 23:12

Hi Richard,

Some cool shots there. I really like No. 5 & No. 8. I think 8 could do with a bit of a crop off the LHS.

pmbuzz · 1 Jan 2007 at 23:17

Richard T said:
any in particular? and what size? I'll see what I can do!

5 and 8
1280x1024

Only if you have them handy mate, please don't put yourself out.

Richard T · 1 Jan 2007 at 23:40

pmbuzz said:
5 and 8
1280x1024

Only if you have them handy mate, please don't put yourself out.

i've emailed em to your trust email addy

pmbuzz · 2 Jan 2007 at 00:11

Thanks so much Richard, very much appreciated.

P_A_N_I_C · 2 Jan 2007 at 00:20

ace pics

just had to have a little play with this pic:

Richard T · 2 Jan 2007 at 10:57

thanks guys

the rest are here

from the white tiger onwards

Richard T · 2 Jan 2007 at 17:57

Sorry P_A_N_I_C
I just noticed your update.... think I prefer the original

SilverPenguin · 2 Jan 2007 at 18:45

Richard T said:

This is by far the best IMO as we have great eye contact and a nice background without it screaming 'zoo' at you. Great stuff.

I had a very quick play in PS, hope you don't mind. I think it is a tiny bit flat so just made some very small adjustments:
played with curves a little bit and warmed it up a tad. Then just boosted saturation by 8 to lift the colours a tad. Also cropped a small amount to get rid of some of the extra space at the top of the frame which looked like it may have been a brick wall or something?!

Its all subjective though

Scam · 2 Jan 2007 at 19:53

Thats a great improvement SilverPenguin

I was going to say some of them looked a little flat, but i assumed that was because of the weather. Shows what you can do eh?

Richard T · 2 Jan 2007 at 19:55

Fireblade2K4 said:
Very nice photo's indeed, what camera and lens were they taken with?

Stu

Hi Stu

All taken with my 350d and 70-300is

SilverPenguin said:
This is by far the best IMO as we have great eye contact and a nice background without it screaming 'zoo' at you. Great stuff.

I had a very quick play in PS, hope you don't mind. I think it is a tiny bit flat so just made some very small adjustments:
played with curves a little bit and warmed it up a tad. Then just boosted saturation by 8 to lift the colours a tad. Also cropped a small amount to get rid of some of the extra space at the top of the frame which looked like it may have been a brick wall or something?!

thanks for that Richard... It does look a lot better now

P_A_N_I_C · 2 Jan 2007 at 20:02

Richard T said:
Sorry P_A_N_I_C
I just noticed your update.... think I prefer the original

sry i wasn't trying to improveyour pics

i just like playing with stuff in PS

SilverPenguin · 2 Jan 2007 at 22:10

Scam said:
Thats a great improvement SilverPenguin

I was going to say some of them looked a little flat, but i assumed that was because of the weather. Shows what you can do eh?

Its pretty easy to get a bit of warmth back in to a shot that looks flat. So dull overcast days aren't that bad to shoot in. In fact overcast lighting is very good for fur/feather detail. Then you just get some of that warmth back afterwards. The trick is not going OTT and keeping it real looking

Richard T said:
thanks for that Richard... It does look a lot better now

No worries, its a great shot to start with! Without that no amount of photoshoppery would help