Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Wildlife Shoot....  Well, not too wild.

Today after work, I went over to Duck Creek Pond in Richardson off of Beltline Rd and Jupiter Rd.  There are a lot of ducks and geese there.  My plan was to sit my camera on the ground and shoot from ground level with my shutter release.  I learned a few things.  1) Geese are not afraid of people.  2) Geese have teeth and claws.  3) Geese hiss very loudly.  I've now added geese to my list of scary animals.  lol  But, I digress.

I was able to get a few decent shots using this method.  There are two problems with this.  Not being able to see the screen to focus is like pulling the handle on a slot machine and not being able to adjust the depth of field, I ended up with in focus grass and slightly out of focus ducks and geese.  In light of this, I decided to scrap that method and go hand held.  This made things a little easier, but throwing bread and then trying to get a shot is difficult also.  Next time, I'll bring someone with me to throw.

Working with animals, you give up some control in that the animals are going to do what they want.  Here are some of my best shots.


As you can see from the upper left picture, the camera on the ground angle was not bad, but not perfect.

Tracking a bird in flight is pretty tough, but it's something I look forward to practicing some more.

 I was determined to get a nice picture of a duck in flight.  This one is a bit out of focus, but was the best of the bunch.  I think I will do better the next time.


So, lessons learned from this photo shoot.  1) I need more practice tracking a moving target.  2) When shooting without being able to look at the LCD screen, increase the F-Stop to increase depth of field and the chances of filling the screen with in focus objects.

Before I go, please be sure to check out my Facebook page:

Marcus Davis Photography

I'll be loading up my best shots on there, so you can see where I am and where I am headed.

Until next time...

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