Wildlife Photography: Zooming with your feet may get you mauled

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > Wildlife Photography: Zooming with your feet may get you mauled

«‹›3 »

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I apologize in advance for this corny Valentine's Day picture:

# ¿ Feb 14, 2015 18:04

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 21:28

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Graniteman posted:

You could seriously sell a book of your animal portraits. I would buy one for sure. Also, you make me loving sick that I don't take pictures like you.

Echoing this sentiment. Love your work Mr. Hornaday.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2015 18:25

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I've been going through my old safari shots and processing anything that catches my eye.

Turd Nelson posted:

African Wild Dog by Jenseales, on Flickr

All 3 are great, but this one is spectacular!

# ¿ Aug 1, 2015 18:18

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Here's a bunch more from Kenya. I know any sort of photo border is usually ridiculed in this forum, but it's just something I'm trying out. I'm interested in opinions for or against it.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2015 17:13

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Message received about the borders.

Here's a few more that I've recently processed...

Turd Nelson posted:

Portrait of a Lion by Jenseales, on Flickr

Lion pride by Jenseales, on Flickr

Both are real nice. How long did you have to wait for the lions to all look in the same direction?

# ¿ Aug 8, 2015 16:59

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

xzzy posted:

Those idiots are way too loving close to those bison.

I wish that most people were this far away from park wildlife. I think the count at this point for the year is 5 people gored by bison in Yellowstone. As long as they get their retarded selfies with the animals it's all good though.

I had to hike around a huge field full of bison yesterday. The look on those big males when they first notice you and turn in your direction is terrifying. I've felt safer running into a bear while hiking than I felt yesterday.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2015 17:07

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Some zoo pics I forgot I had:

InternetJunky fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Aug 20, 2015

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 17:45

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Roger Troutman posted:

These are all great but this one in particular is fantastic.

Thanks.

Roger Troutman posted:

A couple zoo shots. I'm new to photography, my primary concern is that I'm overdoing these in post. Any advice?

IMG_9859-1 by Jeremy Sparks, on Flickr

IMG_9584-1 by Jeremy Sparks, on Flickr

Poor guy. by Jeremy Sparks, on Flickr

I'm probably the wrong person to give advice on this since I'm heavy-handed with my post work as well, but I don't see any issues with your shots. They look great to me.

Speaking of over-doing post work, here's a vole (I think):

# ¿ Aug 25, 2015 16:46

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

xzzy posted:

I would crop it down a bit, at least trim off those leaves on the left.

And I don't know if the darkness is the original is underexposed or you did it in post but it's way over the top. It's in sunlight, it should look like sun.

The original was certainly much lighter, but the setting was in a very dark forest and the vole happened to be in a beam of light coming through the trees, so I was trying to exaggerate that effect by making everything much darker except the vole and his light beam. In that context I'm not sure if your comment means I succeeded in the effect I wanted or failed miserably.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2015 17:15

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Fart Amplifier posted:

The problem, for me, is that the vole and his light beam still look dark.

The grey boxes under "Color Picker" is the color of the blown out-fur on the vole's back. Ideally you wouldn't want it to be blown out, but if it is, you don't want to darken it to gray. Any blown out highlights should just be left white. You can't recover any detail anyway.

Then the rest of the histogram shows that no pixels are brighter than about 148 out of 255. Obviously this is going to be subjective, but if you want the image of an illuminated vole against a dark background, you're going to want more pixels to be brighter, while keeping the background dark.

Very helpful and it makes perfect sense, thanks!

# ¿ Aug 25, 2015 22:41

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

-CHA posted:

Took a trip to the Granby zoo in Quebec.

Gorilla by cha_reckoning, on Flickr

Jellyfish by cha_reckoning, on Flickr

The gorilla is a powerful shot. Cloning out the grass stalks would be pretty simple and really help draw focus to the eyes. The jellyfish is another great shot -- great colours and it has a very serene feel to it. I'd be tempted to dim the bright white patch that's at the bottom left however.

huhu posted:

Cows in a field-2 by Esa Foto, on Flickr
Wasn't sure exactly where to put this but "zooming with your feet" thing holds true so I chose here. Thoughts on the one cow turned sideways? At first I was pissed he wasn't facing straight on but then I felt maybe it added to the shot.

Also any thoughts on editing would be appreciated. Here's the original:
wildlife-maybe 02 by Esa Foto, on Flickr

Why not just switch to an 8x10 crop and trim out everything left of the wrong-facing cow? I tried it quickly and think it really works well. Having all the cows face the same direction really makes the shot I think.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2015 18:03

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Not sure why I got this type of brushed metal bokeh, but I don't mind it in this case:

# ¿ Sep 18, 2015 17:20

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I didn't expect this to come out as well as it did, but this is the result of taking 5 second exposures over and over until a bat tripped a laser which in turn triggered a set of flashes.

Pallas's Long-tongued Bat, Costa Rica

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 22:07

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Some Costa Rican reptiles and amphibians (some wild, some from private reptile collection that were made available to photograph):

Costa Rican Rattlesnake

Tree Frog (?)

Glass Frog

Eyelash Viper

Hog-nosed Viper

Green Iguana

Parrot Snake

Red-eyed Tree Frog

"Jesus Lizard" Common Basalisk

Speckled Palm Viper

Striped Palm Viper

Strawberry Poison-dart Frog

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 20:25

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Trying to salvage some old Kenya shots. Safaris are awesome, but you don't get much variety in backgrounds/surroundings so I'm trying to see what I can do in photoshop for some of these boring shots.

Moon Potato posted:

I watched the gently caress out of that. It's easily some of the best wildlife cinematography I've seen.

My debut as a camera operator for the BBC Natural History Unit just aired. It's on iPlayer now for anyone in Britain or using a proxy plugin:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vpb86
I shot the opening segment and some of the narration/B-roll around the coast.

Some animal portraits from the Sequoia Park Zoo from yesterday:

River otter

Bush dog

Muntjac

I don't suppose you know of a free UK proxy, do you? I'd love to see the footage.

Your three zoo shots are great. I wish there was a whole series like this.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2016 18:16

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I found a bear yesterday

# ¿ May 3, 2016 01:43

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

torgeaux posted:

Sweet. exif?

That's weird, I thought I was exporting the files with the exif data. Anyway: Canon 1DX, f/5.6, 1/500, ISO 800, 420mm

# ¿ May 3, 2016 15:03

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Stopped to shoot some blackbirds against the yellow canola fields, and this guy's head popped up right in front of me.

Ika posted:

The cheetah cubs are getting big, and three or four of them decided to play with their food instead of eating it. Or rather, they didn't figure out there was enough for everybody.

Any comments or suggestions? It was a bit difficult keeping track of all of them, so quite often one would run into the frame from an unexpected direction. I'm not sure whether I should leave those in there as action shots, or try and cut them out, or toss them, and only keep ones with am integral number of cubs visible. Alternatively would it look better if I cut off more of the partially visible cheetahs?

I think the quoted shot is probably your best shot so far in this thread. For the group shots I would recommend getting a bit more room in your shots. You're capturing some great action!

# ¿ Jul 4, 2016 02:10

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I haven't been out with a camera for a long time, so I'm going back through old stuff trying out different processing

# ¿ Sep 30, 2016 17:03

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

The one thing I really was hoping to get a chance to shoot on my recent trip to South Georgia was elephant seals fighting, and I ended up taking this picture about 5 minutes after landing on the first beach there.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2016 17:03

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Star War Sex Parrot posted:

I saw elephant seals too! The northern ones though, not the southern ones

Whereabouts do you find the northern ones? Are those young ones fighting? They look so different from the ones I saw.

Jadeilyn posted:

This sea lion was taking a nap in the harbor. What a life.

California Sea Lion by Elanna, on Flickr

Hilarious shot.

Sea lions are dicks to penguins though. By dicks, I mean they play with and slaughter them pretty gruesomely. Here's a poor Gentoo getting caught trying to get out of the water

...and then there's the Leopard Seals. We watched a group of 6-8 of them grab more than 30 King Penguins within a few hours (the poor penguins were caught up in a layer of slush on the top of the water and couldn't get back to or away from land). It was like watching a penguin version of Jaws.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2016 17:02

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Another Elephant Seal shot. I was trying to get a shot of the tiny Antarctic Pipit so ended up with the wrong lens on my camera when these two decided to go at it.

Dread Head posted:

That's a great shot.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2016 16:45

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Fur Seal

# ¿ Dec 8, 2016 16:07

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

The good life

accipter posted:

That's a great shot. It would have been heartbreaking, but fascinating to watch. I totally jealous of your trip.

Heartbreaking is a pretty good description. So many poor penguins gobbled, and for each one eaten there was a fat, brown baby penguin waiting patiently on shore for their return.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2016 04:12

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Sad Seal

# ¿ Feb 2, 2017 18:05

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Are the California Elephant Seals a different species versus the ones around Antarctica? The males look so different!

I'm on a recent B&W kick. I'm going through some older photos to see if I can pull out a decent image from some mediocre shots.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2017 18:10

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

William T. Hornaday posted:

Went to Alaska.

Brown Bear by William T Hornaday, on Flickr

It was fun.

Some real great stuff as usual. Was the puffin just a random sea bird in the area or was there a colony you could get to? I'm planning an Alaskan trip as well and would love to check them out.

The bear shot I quoted is just awesome/terrifying. I can't figure out how you took that shot though That's a "bear eating your face off" angle.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 03:29

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I've been so busy I've had to resort to digging through old shots to find interesting images.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2017 20:58

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I continue with my trend of going through old photos.

ZarathustraFollower posted:

(I am doing research on venomous snakes for my Ph.D so I have the permits to work with these animals.)

Sounds awesome, please tell more stories about what you're doing. Also, cool pictures.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2017 15:45

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

benisntfunny posted:

Here's some Zoo pics

These are fantastic.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2017 18:26

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I have no idea how this happened, but I just found an entire 1/2 day of photos from Kenya that I didn't realise I had. It's been driving me nuts because I knew I had shot a few hundred pictures of this mother and child elephant but it's been a few years so I was starting to doubt my memory. Oh well, early Christmas for me!

# ¿ Nov 8, 2017 17:48

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I haven't been out to shoot in months now so I'm stuck playing around with old photos.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2017 04:10

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

A couple more old shots I'm finally motivated to go and process:

VelociBacon posted:

thought it was a funny look.

Ah, the majestic cross-eyed raptor.

Megabound posted:

I just got my first DSLR 2 days ago after only having a camera phone for 10 years. Been having a lot of fun with the local wildlife.

Gold Orb Weaver by Caleb Brian, on Flickr

Congrats on the upgrade. Great shot of a weaver.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2018 23:43

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Found some wild horses on Sunday:

DJExile posted:

I'm getting 10 days in March between Tanzania and Kenya. Scrolling through this thread has basically cranked the hell out of my excitement.

I loved it in Kenya so much my wife and I almost signed up for a similar trip again despite the fact we'd probably have to move into a cardboard box if we did. Enjoy your safari and post lots of pics.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2018 20:53

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Things you find while looking for owls:

Zero One posted:

Wow, intense! Love this shot.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2018 01:49

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Pablo Bluth posted:

Jealous of the porcupine encounter. It's a species I've fancied seeing since Jenaya Launstein got a photo of one in to the WPOTY.

They're not that rare here, but finding one that isn't 100' up in a tree or covered in branches is next to impossible. I got pretty lucky with this one.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2018 00:11

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Pablo Bluth posted:

Well, he's...he's, ah...probably pining for the fjords.

The dumb thing about all this is that the picture is pretty cool even without the anteater.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2018 14:48

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Just got back from Alaska looking for some bears. Good news, they still have bears there! Here's a couple of them:

BetterLekNextTime posted:

Minority opinion: I actually don't hate the bison photo.

I don't know if you guys are talking about the original overcooked image that was posted or the latest version. I like the latest version, but there is a very blue tint to it. Blown sky and snow is pretty hard to escape when your subject is that dark, especially when not shooting raw.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 21:36

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Pablo Bluth posted:

I don't know where IJ went but IMO Lake Clark is the place to go if you can manage to sort it the logistics. It's way up near the top of my bucket list.

This is indeed where I went. Specifically, Silver Salmon Creek Lodge (http://silversalmoncreek.com/). It's an ideal place to photograph bears because they come to the tidal flats at this time to eat the grass and go clamming, and they are around a lot of people so they basically ignore you and you get to see natural behaviours.

If you go I can't stress enough the importance of getting a good guide. Our guide was phenomenal in the sense that he understood where we needed to be for photo opportunities and he knew enough about bear behaviour to get us into shooting position for some incredible shots. Also, go for a few days at least. We got different stuff every day.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2018 02:00

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 21:28

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Pablo Bluth posted:

Where you with a personal guide or part of a organised group thing?

I signed up as part of a small group, but even then you go out with a guide from the lodge, and they are in full control of everything to do regarding where you can go and how close you can get. I really want to go back, and if I do I'll just book directly through the lodge rather than as part of a group.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2018 03:23

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > Wildlife Photography: Zooming with your feet may get you mauled

«‹›3 »