Going on my 1st Zoo trip tommorow (weather permitting)

AnimalRights

Not sure what cam to bring, 5D2 or 40D.
40D with the crop factor is maybe tilting me that way as my longest lens is 70-200 with a 1.4ext
On iPhone why short post.

kensutz

Bring both. Simple solution.

CabanSail

It's always good to visit the relatives at this time of year

Ricky91t

Iphone has a qwerty keyboard...Shouldn't be short..I'v made far longer posts on my standard mobile keypad :pac:

AnimalRights

Yeah it has but in work at the mo too. Tis a great KB

Dodgykeeper

I will be there aswell, I will be the one with a real camera!

Balfey1972

Animal Rights, I was there on Saturday last. Just brought my 400d and 70 to 300 lens. Worked a treat. I know you thought the images i posted were too tightly cropped. The ones i selected to post were the more detailed ones, I know its a personal thing. I have more posted on my flickr page here.

Was a great day, harsh sunlight but who's complaining this time of the year.

Have fun, don't be too dissappointed as alot of the tigers, giraffes etc are indoors. Hope the weather holds and there are not too many brass monkies about !!

whyulittle

I'd still be up for a meet at the zoo some time soon.

dreamer_ire

Heading to Belfast zoo tomorrow with my new baby (d60) and soooo looking forward to it.... not sure my OH is tho!

My question is should I bring my tripod or given this is my first day out with it am I better off to just work on that for the day?

Buzz Lightyear

AnimalRights wrote: »

Going on my 1st Zoo trip tommorow

Aw all those years without seeing your family. Don't forget the bananas and grapes.

Dunno what the forecast is like but you should be able to get some great shots with the 70-200 even without the tubes. Good luck

Buzz Lightyear

dreamer_ire wrote: »

Heading to Belfast zoo tomorrow with my new baby (d60) and soooo looking forward to it.... not sure my OH is tho!

My question is should I bring my tripod or given this is my first day out with it am I better off to just work on that for the day?

Heading to W5 myself, gonna try get on the big wheel after if its still there in the city. You might find the tripod is a bit awkward for the likes of the zoo. Your trying to capture moving animals, if you need the tripod for the low levels of light, chances are the animals will move. Just up the ISO to a reasonable level and open the aperature. Personally I'd leave the tripod in the boot.

AnimalRights

I wake up and look out my window and I see White Skies!!!! :mad:

I wanted Blue.

Paulw

AnimalRights wrote: »

I wake up and look out my window and I see White Skies!!!! :mad:

I wanted Blue.

Welcome to Ireland.

You just gotta make the most of the weather we have. At least it's dry.

AnimalRights

Drizzle here in town....
Might abandon this til Friday or Monday.

CabanSail

AnimalRights wrote: »

I wake up and look out my window and I see White Skies!!!! :mad:

I wanted Blue.

Expose for the subjects & drop the skies in later.

I have some skies from 2006 when they were still Blue

AnimalRights

CabanSail wrote: »

Expose for the subjects & drop the skies in later.

I am not one of these change the pictures picture type of guys, I do prefer to take a pic and leave it as real as possible.
I think too much tampering in PS is not Queensbury rules tbh..

Paulw

CabanSail wrote: »

Expose for the subjects & drop the skies in later.

I have some skies from 2006 when they were still Blue

I have some stunning blue skies from Utah earlier this year. Also have some with little puffy clouds. Perfect for adding to most photos.

However, I would personally not make this kind of alteration, unless it was for a print for use in my own home.

That's more digital art, than photography. :cool:

Fajitas!

Paulw wrote: »

That's more digital art, than photography. :cool:

/tin of worms opened

They didn't call it that back in the darkroom in 19-dickity-3, heaven knows why they'd call it that now! :pac:

AnimalRights

weather has improved...Thunderbirds are go!
Extra layer of clothes/hat /fingerless gloves/ PLO headscarf!
Can't wait for the City Arms after it.

Chochese

Paulw wrote: »

That's more digital art, than photography. :cool:

*Takes can opener from PaulW*

More of a photo montage or a photo illustration than digital art :P

ThOnda

Tin thrown into the bin - who cares? The final picture is what should interest us more.

Calina

Yo, the issue with dropping a blue sky afterwards is sometimes the subjects of the photo are clearly not lit according to the sky. Missing shadows and the like. Fixing it is a bit of a drag. In principle, however, I don't have a problem with it, it's not, in my view, digital art, in the purest sense of the word but if you go and look at photomanipulations on deviantart, you'll get a better sense of what constitutes digital art

That's the first thing.

As for the original poster's query, this response is maybe too late, but frankly the decision is yours because you are the one making the photographs.

AnimalRights

Well finally made it to the sanctuary of the pub after 3 hours in the zoo.
I brought too much stuff, my shoulders sagged in more than before Jordans breast reduction op!
I totally apprecite peoples zoo pics now,it's far harder then I thought it would be.
Walking for ages, dirt on the plastic,too many kids, animals moving b4 ire ready.
I swear to god/Allah at the sealions enclosure I was there for at least 15 minutes waiting for the right pic, I couldn't predict when they were gonna rise from the water.
I bet I have few keepers too, I got tired and irritable and never set myself for correct pics.
Funny thing is the very 1st pic I took was of the tiger and fairly sure that was 1 of my keepers.
I don't want to see a zoo again for 3 years!

kensutz

Which means we have to plan an outing within 3 years :pac:

Borderfox

You need plenty of patience in the Zoo to get good shots. Get them up Janer!!

AnimalRights

Have used up my quota and unless Marcus takes pity on me it will be 2 days!!

AnimalRights

I used a friends account to upload.
Most are hand held as it is a nightmare trying to use a tripod, well for me anyway, 1 of these are Monopod, The large Tiger one.

















Few more on the page and b4 anyone says it I am not a fan of tight crops!

Borderfox

Some nice shots there Janer, personally I wouldnt have used the 40d at all today. The stuff from the 5d2 far exceed's it.

Buzz Lightyear

Well AR you said it your self. The first one of the tiger is a keeper. Wonderful shot, beautifully caught and one to frame. This alone should have made the trip worth while.

AnimalRights

Really?
Not really had a proper look, remember I am someone who keeps none of their photographs.
I used the 24-105L mostly with the 5DII and only took it out near the end when I was tired and not concentrating much.
the 70-200L + most times the 1.4EX was on the 40D.

AnimalRights

Buzz Lightyear wrote: »

Well AR you said it your self. The first one of the tiger is a keeper. Wonderful shot, beautifully caught and one to frame. This alone should have made the trip worth while.

Ironic isn't it.

challengemaster

With a 5DmkII, that has upto ISO 25,600, why would you be shooting anything other than handheld during the daytime?

Second Tiger pic is probably the best picture you've ever uploaded. Ever. Needs a slight bit of tweaking, but the colours and sharpness is class.

First tiger pic needs a levels adjustment tbh. Maybe a bit more tweakage too.

Nice shots overall

AnimalRights

I used the 40D for most of the shots for the extra reach, I don't take a sharp enough picture to crop to take advantage of the 21mp.
And I only brought the tripod/Mono from reading what people have posted on these forums b4!
Next time I def will leave everything at home bar 2 lenses and the 5D II!

Oh TY for the compliment, I know how much I appeal to your better senses.

PS whats a level adjustment?
I'll give it another quick go because it does look lifeless compared to the 2nd.
There may have being sun out for the 2nd though to be fair .

gloobag

Sorry, I had to do it. It was such a nice pic, but it was looking a little flat. Spent about 5 minutes doing my usual adjustments in ACR (could also be done in Lightroom). I just worked on the jpeg ripped from your post, you could push a RAW file a lot further if you wanted to.

AnimalRights

NP Gloobag.
I tried to rework it but only knew the basics +sat etc


New

old

your grass looks more realistic.
What did you do and explain in laymans terms none of this fancy jargon like.

challengemaster

gloobag wrote: »

Sorry, I had to do it. It was such a nice pic, but it was looking a little flat. Spent about 5 minutes doing my usual adjustments in ACR (could also be done in Lightroom). I just worked on the jpeg ripped from your post, you could push a RAW file a lot further if you wanted to.

Lovely edit. I'd do a small edit on the eyes and the right side of the picture, orange grass is a tad distracting now

gloobag

Click on the attachment in this post to see a screen shot of the settings I used, all the controls in ACR can also be found in Lightroom (they're pretty much the same in that respect). As I said, if you used the RAW file and spent a bit of time on it you could probably do great things with it.

AnimalRights

Just in and looking at the 3 pics your version is head and shoulders above the rest.
Feck it, I used my Lightroom and got this after 3 attempts, imagine if I spent this much time on each picture!!

Paulw

Some really lovely picts.

To get rid of that reflection on the glass, next time, try to get your lens as close to the glass as possible. A lens hood is brilliant, since you can put it on the glass, and you should then get very very little reflection.

Love the tiger photo.

AnimalRights

I did have a lens hood on Paul but maybe I just didn't have it close enough to the plastic, was a lot of people at the big cats and Gorillas.
Another problem was all the glass had condensation on, it must have being a moisture heavy day.

Balfey1972

Buzz Lightyear wrote: »

Well AR you said it your self. The first one of the tiger is a keeper. Wonderful shot, beautifully caught and one to frame. This alone should have made the trip worth while.

+1 here. love that shot.