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VendaGoat posted:So, you work for National Geographic then? Or went to a really good zoo!
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Jul 10, 2014 22:07
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VendaGoat probably hasn't been to a zoo before
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Jul 10, 2014 22:45
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ansel autisms posted:VendaGoat probably hasn't been to a zoo before I only leave my house when food is offered to me.
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Jul 11, 2014 02:09
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Went to Hilton Head over the weekend and visited the pinckney wildlife reserve. IMG_5554.jpg by kgao1989, on Flickr Alligator Peering Over Pond by kgao1989, on Flickr IMG_5569.jpg by kgao1989, on Flickr IMG_5576.jpg by kgao1989, on Flickr IMG_5594.jpg by kgao1989, on Flickr IMG_5567.jpg by kgao1989, on FlickrI will have a roll of film being developed with more pics. lollybo fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Jul 17, 2014 |
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Jul 17, 2014 02:53
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 Sichuan Takin by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Hippopotamus by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Snow Leopard by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Chimpanzee by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Snowy Egret by William T Hornaday, on Flickr
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Jul 17, 2014 20:33
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William T. Hornaday posted:Awesome stuff
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Jul 17, 2014 21:07
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Took a hike the other day, Put my life on the line to get a decent shot of this guy   It's a Bee by cha_reckoning, on Flickr One from my trip to Denver Zoo a little while back.  Iguana by cha_reckoning, on Flickr
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Jul 22, 2014 02:47
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InternetJunky posted:I love seeing your name pop up on this thread because it means more fantastic photos. Thanks. Here's more.  Blue-Bellied Roller by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Chimpanzee by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Amazon Milky Frog by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Red-Billed Toucan by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Somali Wild rear end by William T Hornaday, on Flickr William T. Hornaday fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 03:55
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Good lord those are beautiful. Where are you taking these exactly?
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Jul 22, 2014 04:10
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 alligator lizard july 2014-headshot 1721 on Flickr
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Jul 22, 2014 05:20
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William T. Hornaday posted:Thanks. Here's more. Making me want to sign up for a membership at the Portland Zoo. Those are great. Here's a boring old North American Ungulate  Mule Deer by No Small Wave, on Flickr
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Jul 22, 2014 05:51
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Kenshin posted:Good lord those are beautiful. Where are you taking these exactly? Various zoos.  Blue-Crowned Motmot by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Ring-Tailed Lemur by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Black And White Ruffed Lemur by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Cinereous Vulture by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Chimpanzee by William T Hornaday, on Flickr
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Jul 24, 2014 02:24
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Yup, I'm going to need a more powerful zoom lens.
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Jul 24, 2014 03:31
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VendaGoat posted:Yup, I'm going to need a more powerful zoom lens. I need to not feel weird about taking my 400mm to the zoo.
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Jul 24, 2014 04:34
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Kenshin posted:I need to not feel weird about taking my 400mm to the zoo. I can't imagine any reason why you should feel weird bringing it.
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Jul 24, 2014 04:45
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William T. Hornaday posted:I can't imagine any reason why you should feel weird bringing it.
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Jul 24, 2014 04:51
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William T. Hornaday posted:I can't imagine any reason why you should feel weird bringing it. Eh, its annoying when a bunch of people do the "Woah check out National Geographic over here!" jokes all day Out of curiosity, what are you generally shooting with? 800peepee51doodoo fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Jul 24, 2014 |
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Jul 24, 2014 05:40
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My standard gear is a Canon 7D, a 70-200 2.8L IS, a 12 mm extension tube, a 580EXII, and a 24-70 2.8L (that I almost never actually end up using.) I'm gonna be getting a 400 5.6L sometime soon which should be fun, but honestly the 70-200 is my favorite thing in the world and I'll probably still be using it 90% of the time. I've never had any sort of huge issue with people giving me crap for my camera. Occasionally I'll have people tell me, "Wow, that's a nice camera" and "Ooh, there's a good shot over here" (which it never is.) Just bring some headphones and make it clear that you're ignoring people.
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Jul 24, 2014 13:25
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I know you gave us a write-up a while ago about your techniques, both shooting and editing, but I was wondering specifically if you had any advice regarding shooting through glass. Also, are all those fantastic poses the result of luck and patience, or do you do anything to get the animal's attention? From the text under your avatar I'm expecting the answer is NOT "tap on the glass". Unless the otters are underfed, I suppose. Also also, make a drat book already. drat the lawyers, full speed ahead! I'd buy the poo poo out of William T. Hornaday's Big Book of Animals. EDIT: I really wanted to ask about the headphones. Does that work? I find when I'm wearing headphones people just come up and talk at me regardless.
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Jul 24, 2014 16:39
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William T. Hornaday posted:My standard gear is a Canon 7D, a 70-200 2.8L IS, a 12 mm extension tube, a 580EXII, and a 24-70 2.8L (that I almost never actually end up using.) I'm gonna be getting a 400 5.6L sometime soon which should be fun, but honestly the 70-200 is my favorite thing in the world and I'll probably still be using it 90% of the time. I had my 300/2.8 at the San Diego zoo a while ago and got a bunch of comments. That's a bit more conspicuous than a 70-200 though. The extension tube and headphones are great ideas, I'll have to keep that in mind.
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Jul 24, 2014 18:11
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ExecuDork posted:EDIT: I really wanted to ask about the headphones. Does that work? I find when I'm wearing headphones people just come up and talk at me regardless. It works very well. I've used that trick for shooting before. And if you still want to hear whats going on around you, you don't have to have it plugged in to anything. Just put the plug in your pocket and shrug when someone starts talking to you. It's a very helpful trick.
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Jul 24, 2014 18:20
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800peepee51doodoo posted:Eh, its annoying when a bunch of people do the "Woah check out National Geographic over here!" jokes all day The one that annoys me is when you put up a temporary hide and people feel the need to come over and investigate or loudly ask what you're watching (answer: nothing now)
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Jul 24, 2014 18:29
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Pablo Bluth posted:To be fair, that's preferable to the other occupational hazards: being labelled a terrorist or a pedo. 
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Jul 24, 2014 18:44
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On the subject of shooting through glass. Does anyone carry cleaning cloths with them for the sole purpose of cleaning all the finger prints and snot off to get a clearer shot? I did this last time I went to the zoo. Not going to lie, I felt weird cleaning out a spot to shoot through, seemed to help though. Anyway, Have a grouse.  Grouse by cha_reckoning, on Flickr
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Jul 24, 2014 22:11
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ExecuDork posted:I know you gave us a write-up a while ago about your techniques, both shooting and editing, but I was wondering specifically if you had any advice regarding shooting through glass. Shooting through glass is really hit or miss. The main problem with the stuff at zoos is that it's primarily built for strength, with optical clarity a distance second. Sometimes the windows are glass, sometimes they're acrylic, sometimes they're polycarbonate, sometimes they're a combination these and/or other space-age materials. But regardless what it’s made out of, smaller is usually better. Herps and inverts don’t require much strength for containment/safety purposes and the exhibits are small enough that the windows can afford to be like 1/4 to 1/2” thick. But as both the animals and exhibits start to get larger, that’s when poo poo starts to get crazy. Birds and small mammals can be around 1” thick, carnivores and great apes can be around 2-3” thick, and hippos and other exhibits with underwater viewing can easily be 4” thick or more. All the crazy refraction from that coupled with the less-than-optimal optical quality of the glass (e.g., the windows in our great ape exhibits consist of three 1” sheets of bulletproof glass laminated together,) and you’re already fighting an uphill battle before you even touch your camera. On top of this, the thicker windows usually have a weird bluish-green color cast (that somehow seems to change from photo to photo) and any direct sunlight falling on them will make everything look hazy. So it’s super easy to end up with a photo that looks soft, has a splotchy and inconsistent focal plane, low contrast, and looks like you ran it through a lovely Instagram filter. Your best bet is pretty much to be as perpendicular to the glass as possible. Also, if you’re using a hood and can get right up to the glass, shooting straight on will more or less eliminate any issues with reflections you might have. I do tend to get a lot of people coming up to me complaining about reflections (right after they stood 10 feet back from the glass to try and take a photo.) It’s really pretty simple: if whatever is on your side of the glass is brighter than what’s on the other side, you’re gonna see a reflection. And you don’t necessarily have to mash your camera right up to the glass every time; if you can find something dark in the reflection, you can shoot through that. Heck, if you wear a dark/black shirt you can be able to stand back a few feet from the glass and, as long as you’re shooting through the reflection of the shirt, still be able to get a clean image. And because I don’t want to be limited to shooting perpendicular to the glass all the time, I made a secondary hood (out of a strip of velcro and some black foam sheet that I got from a craft store) that’s angled at 45-degrees which I can just throw on the end of my hood when I need it. Although anything more than that and everything will get pretty wonky with the refraction, even with the thinner stuff. Dirty glass is another issue, but usually is not at all noticeable when you’ve got a telephoto right up against the glass. Bringing something to clean the glass is probably a handy thing to have, but I’ve just been too lazy to actually do it. Plus I do most of my photography first thing in the morning and the windows are usually cleaned at this time; bonus is that there are far fewer people wandering around, the light is better than the rest of the day, and many of the animals are most active then. Honestly, I’ve found the visitor side of the glass to be far dirtier than the animal side; in fact, I actively avoid touching the windows because I routinely get to see how many disgusting children have licked and sneezed all over it. For the most part, I’m just capturing the animals doing whatever they’re doing. It’s a lot of patience and waiting, but it really helps to be an animal person and be able to recognize patterns in behavior, to know the natural histories of the species to understand their mannerisms and tendencies, and to anticipate how they’ll act. And taking a whole shitload of pictures and throwing out most of them. Knocking on the glass is a waste of time and guaranteed to make the keepers hate you. And depending on the individual animals and species, it can become a major source of stress. But really, it achieves nothing. The vast majority of the animals have learned to completely zone out everything that is happening beyond the glass and won’t respond to or acknowledge you in any way. Some of the primates species may be interested in certain things and come over just to check them out, but they’re not going to come running down to see you just because you’re pounding your fists on the window or making kissing noises at them (I seriously don’t understand why people do this.) Headphones work fantastically most of the time. Generally people know not to bother you, and you also don’t have to hear the inane comments of the horrible morons around you and their screaming children. You’ll occasionally get that one obnoxious person who can’t take the hint and just has to know if you work for the zoo or how much your camera cost, but they’re usually satisfied with a one-word answer and I’ve never had any issues with someone who just won’t leave me alone. That's a lot of words, so here's some pictures to even it out.  Chimpanzee by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Coquerel's Sifaka by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Victoria Crowned Pigeon by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Yellow-Banded Poison Dart Frog by William T Hornaday, on Flickr Oh, and bring a tripod for herps.
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Jul 25, 2014 03:28
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A couple from Colorado. IMG_9356 by EPICAC, on Flickr  IMG_9246 by EPICAC, on Flickr
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Jul 28, 2014 03:46
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This weekend I went camping at Blake Island, WA. The bird shots are over in the bird thread. Black-tailed deer. There was a small herd that seemed to prefer grazing near the campground.  The youngest member of the herd. Kept grazing next to our campsite.  The raccoons of course were fearless. This one knew to use the puddles in front of the water faucets to wash his paws and drink from.  
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Jul 28, 2014 03:48
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 DSC_0157 by witchinator, on Flickr  DSC_0205 by witchinator, on Flickr  DSC_0045 by witchinator, on Flickr
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Jul 28, 2014 11:39
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Just starting to go through 6 weeks of photos from Ghana. These Agama lizards were everywhere and very cooperative for photos. Sadly there weren't any chances to see big animals, and the single monkey and pangolin I saw were being sold as very ripe dinners.   Stately Agama by Icybacon, on Flickr EPICAC posted:
Love the Pika!
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Jul 30, 2014 01:20
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Thanks for all the advice, William T. Hornaday. A few more from my visit to the Calgary zoo at christmas:  Asian Elephant 1 by Execudork, on Flickr Snow Leopard 2 by Execudork, on Flickr Snow Leopard 4 by Execudork, on Flickr Snow Leopard 5 by Execudork, on Flickr Fallow Deer by Execudork, on Flickr Markhor 3 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Jul 31, 2014 00:38
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William T. Hornaday posted:My standard gear is a Canon 7D, a 70-200 2.8L IS, a 12 mm extension tube, a 580EXII, and a 24-70 2.8L (that I almost never actually end up using.) I'm gonna be getting a 400 5.6L sometime soon which should be fun, but honestly the 70-200 is my favorite thing in the world and I'll probably still be using it 90% of the time. Interesting... does that mean that your shots are generally handheld with IS, or are you using a tripod? Also, what's the extension tube for? Do you find it makes any difference at that zoom range?
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Jul 31, 2014 07:54
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Does dead-in-mysterious-circumstances wildlife count for this thread? This porcupine apparently died in this tree.  SD 136 Dead Porcupine 1 by Execudork, on FlickrPorcupines climb trees as part of their normal behaviour - they eat bark and other tree parts, and they will climb a tree to escape a perceived threat. This one had been dead here for I think a couple of days. It's right next to a country highway that sees some, but not much, traffic. People will shoot anything, and I didn't thoroughly investigate. My thoughts: 1) Disease 2) Shot by small-calibre bullet (e.g. .22), bullet entry wound in a position not clearly visible from the road 3) hit by car, climbed tree, died of injuries. What kills porcupines?
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Jul 31, 2014 16:40
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Calgary Zoo, you say? I'm there often. Oh you by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr Cougar siblings by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr Amur Tiger by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr Eurasian Lynx by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr Great Grey Owl by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr Giraffe by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr Mandrill by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr Mongoose lemur by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr
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Aug 1, 2014 17:24
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Poor bear got his nose installed crooked.
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Aug 1, 2014 17:25
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Picnic Princess posted:Calgary Zoo, you say? I'm there often. Awesome. Those tigers were some of my favourites.  Tigers in the Snow 2 by Execudork, on Flickr Tigers in the Snow 8 by Execudork, on Flickr Tigers in the Snow 9 by Execudork, on Flickr Tigers in the Snow 15 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Aug 1, 2014 20:11
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Spent most of my day at the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in NH. That Frog by cha_reckoning, on Flickr  Smug by cha_reckoning, on Flickr I found this guy up high in a bird house. Looked so proud of himself for getting in there.  Owl by cha_reckoning, on Flickr  Otter 2 by cha_reckoning, on Flickr  'Merica by cha_reckoning, on Flickr  coyote by cha_reckoning, on Flickr -CHA fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Aug 4, 2014 |
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Aug 3, 2014 05:41
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Jimlad posted:Interesting... does that mean that your shots are generally handheld with IS, or are you using a tripod? The only time I use a tripod is with herps, because the lighting usually sucks and they tend to just sit perfectly still for very long periods of time, so it's pretty convenient for slow shutter speeds and focus stacking. Otherwise everything is handheld; just relying on available light (when outside) or a flash bounced at the ceiling and/or wall (when inside.) The extension tube cuts way down on the minimum focusing distance of the lens. When on a zoom lens it tends to gently caress everything all to hell and can be a bit of a headache to use, but you kinda learn to deal with it after a while. I use it a ton on my 70-200; that's what most of my closeups are with.
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Aug 3, 2014 13:23
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Wow, I'm surprised they let you use flash. I always thought normally that's a bad idea with wildlife? Anyway, I think you've inspired me enough to go and try photographing animals. I just got a nice new 135mm lens so next weekend it'll be off to the zoo for me.
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Aug 4, 2014 01:07
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Jimlad posted:Wow, I'm surprised they let you use flash. I always thought normally that's a bad idea with wildlife? Anyway, I think you've inspired me enough to go and try photographing animals. I just got a nice new 135mm lens so next weekend it'll be off to the zoo for me. 'They' is basically me. Don't use flash on nocturnal exhibits, or if there's a sign telling you not to, or someone tells you to stop, or it's clearly bothering the animals. Otherwise it's fine.
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Aug 4, 2014 13:34
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small wildlife (Male) Banded Demoiselle aka Calopteryx splendens
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Aug 5, 2014 07:49
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