[PIC_THREAD] Wildlife, Animals, Birds, Zoo

From my recent Safari in Kenya.





Need to learn to edit photos as got a few I'd like to clear up. Turns out taking photos on a windy day on the Masai Mara out the top of a land rover isn't as easy as I thought.
 
Last edited:
Well if they're straight out of the camera then they're not bad :) Wouldn't need much in the way of alterations.
 
Yeah they're some of the better ones but got a few that are a little bit blurry or the lighting is a tad off. Suppose I might as well make the most of my last few days off and get learning.

eg. I would like to try and make this a bit better. seems a bit grainy/blurry to me.



Leopards are buggers to take photos of. Unless it's a cub:

 
Last edited:
Well processing won't do much for blurring. You can do a little to hide a slight blur but that's about it.

Colours/Tone/Contrast etc can be altered and of course you can crop to improve the framing of the shot but that's dependant on what you've got to play with in the beginning.

Here's a quick example:

Not much left in the shot to crop away so it's been sharpened a little, more contrast/luminance/saturation/clarity. I warmed it a little but also de-saturated greens a little because after applying the other settings, the bush looked a bit too green for my liking.

Lastly I just highlighted the eyes with a little more saturation/clarity/contrast (I find bright eyes helps make the shot look a bit sharper in general).

This was done in Lightroom

dIhmLGq.jpg
 
And said:
Been working on kingfishers the last week or so with varying success. Seems 5am starts to get in situ and set up work best after learning some of this particular bird's habits and playing the waiting game. Next steps will be trying to get some different angles on this spot and putting out a post in the water near the bank.

Kingfisher by Andy Davis, on Flickr
Click to expand...

fantastic shot, definitely one to be proud of! As you say, it is all about learning the animals habits and just getting out there time and tiem again.

Sadly i'm to busy with family and other hobbies to commit to such a project but it is veyr rewarding when you pull it off.
 
Thanks. Hoping to keep these on the go now through the winter along with my regular winter project which I'll make a start on next month, though some of that is data collecting from roost counts etc.

D.P. said:
fantastic shot, definitely one to be proud of! As you say, it is all about learning the animals habits and just getting out there time and tiem again.

Sadly i'm to busy with family and other hobbies to commit to such a project but it is veyr rewarding when you pull it off.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks guys, I've got about 2000 photos to go through hence why I've been putting it off... think I got high continuous shooting happy!

These are JPGs straight out the camera, cropped to 16x9 and adjusted the shadows slightly, all done in the Lightroom iPad app and uploaded straight to Flickr.

Once I've sorted through them all I'll start a new thread.
 
And said:
Been working on kingfishers the last week or so with varying success. Seems 5am starts to get in situ and set up work best after learning some of this particular bird's habits and playing the waiting game. Next steps will be trying to get some different angles on this spot and putting out a post in the water near the bank.
Click to expand...

Lovely shot :)
They're such pretty birds and when they're fishing you can get some great action pics.
I was out all day yesterday at a place I go to trying to catch an Osprey which has been visiting, sadly it didn't turn up but the Kingfishers didn't let me down and put in an appearance at least every hour :)



 
Yeah the kingfishers are great to watch, you've got yourself a nice little spot there. I'm off to Mull for a week tomorrow so should pick up eagles while there, both UK species are resident breeding.
 
Had a play with focus settings, found one that many use for birding.
So here's a little egret I took today, very happy with the results.

Was using back button focusing, but it wasn't enough.
Had to adjust the priority settings.
Much slower burst, but a far greater strike rate.

Egret by darren bray, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
Thanks.

Nothing from a hide but a bit of driving and a lot of waiting and watching with bins (good optics in that respect are essential) and listening, generally from the car at first then on foot.

Sea eagle was from a boat trip.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom