Touching down

[GB1]

Shot at the San Diego (Escondido) wild animal park last week. C&Cs welcome.

G

[CLKunst]

Poor little munchkin looks like his wings got chewed up. Is this a rescue/rehab center? Nice shot a little on the cool side but you're in the shade so it's appropriate but I wish it was a little brighter. Nice bokeh here, I didn't look at the specs for this, did you use a long lens?

[ksbryan0]

Looks like he's got one clipped wing, and your shot clipped the other...typically a fatal error in bird photography, which I know only too well from experience Guessing you took a quick grab shot, and nicely froze the action. Unfortunately your light is exact opposite of ideal, but you take what you can get when it comes to wild animal photography. I just wish they'd take directions like your lovely models!

[GB1]

Cindy, Ken - Just getting back to this to thank you for your critiques.

This one was taken at the San Diego Safari Park in Escondido. I can only guess that they clipped this fellow's wing so that he wouldn't fly away. I double checked the original and the far wing is indeed out of the frame, and yes, it was a grab shot, taken with a manual focus 70-210mm, meaning I am the focuser. I am not sure that's a bad thing though, for those AF systems take some time to lock down their focus, and often get confused, too.

Here's a few more shots from the park. No animal antics, just casual shots.

GB

[CLKunst]

Ooh! Love that lemur! Great grabs GB! Have to agree with you I turn the auto focus off a lot more lately for that very reason.

[hminx]

Considering what you are trying to achieve this is not a bad effort GB, might consider a bit of selective sharpening around the eye, and crop those white thingies behind the lion ...

[ybsorc]

What a perfectly timed shot. I love nature Photography and this captures beauty for sure.

[ybsorc]

I definitely agree that the white poles need to be removed in post. This would be a great lion picture if it were to seem like it was taken in the wild. I am going to Kenya in June and can only hope I can get some pictures of a lion basking in the sunlight like this.

[GB1]

Thanks for the additional comments everyone. The lion shot is OK but I wish I had gotten him doing something else besides sitting there ('lying around'?). Lions sleep most of the day, it seems. Pete, I actually did sharpen around the eyes, am afraid that it may show artifacts if I do so any more. Cindy, seems there's a lot of interest in smarter and faster AF, but I have yet to see a camera that does it well in unusual situations, esp with sports with moving subjects. My Nikon D700 has a continuous AF function that is supposed to allow you to track and shoot subjects moving towards you at a diagonal, but I have not been able to master it (maybe I haven't dedicated enough time to it?). Waiting for that next big breakthrough.

Welcome ybsorc, and thanks for your critique. I did a safari in Tanzania back in '08 and can recommend a few things. Bean bag type thing so you can lay your telephoto lens on the sides of their SUV/Pickup and fire. Telephoto is needed: I used 80-400mm rental. Extra memory cards and battery (!) And last but certainly not least, motion-sickness pills in case you are susceptible! I got really woozy in the back of the vehicle with the driver zipping all over the place - usually very aggressively - hunting for lions, leopards, etc. They forget that drivers never get sick, but passengers do. Here are links to my Tanzanian trip albums if you want to get an idea of what it's like.

https://plus.google.com/photos/10103...CMKVz7CYlLfUPw

https://plus.google.com/photos/10103...KeAgeac8ezoswE

[armando_m]

Regarding AF and subject tracking, I rather use the center point and give enough space to crop so the composition is ok

3d tracking is not magic and I usually prefer to use the AF button in the back so I can interrupt the AF tracking if something gets in between me and the subject

When you don't have a clean shot and timing is critical, AF can be a hindrance rather than a help

AF accuracy is way better with my D800 than it was with the D300, but 3d tracking I find it just as unusable as before

the nikon 1 are supposedly good at that, while I use the V1 , I do not own a long lens for that system, Photojohn has tested it and he seems to like it

[GB1]

Regarding AF and subject tracking, I rather use the center point and give enough space to crop so the composition is ok

3d tracking is not magic and I usually prefer to use the AF button in the back so I can interrupt the AF tracking if something gets in between me and the subject

When you don't have a clean shot and timing is critical, AF can be a hindrance rather than a help

AF accuracy is way better with my D800 than it was with the D300, but 3d tracking I find it just as unusable as before

the nikon 1 are supposedly good at that, while I use the V1 , I do not own a long lens for that system, Photojohn has tested it and he seems to like it

Agree Armando.. the AF mechanism's seem to be refining as the years go by, but 3d tracking seems to be a much tougher problem. I am not sure I could ever get the 3d to do its job right, even with a lot of practice.