Norfolk Holiday - Wildlife

Very highly Ian!

Perhaps should have mentioned these are all handheld too. The Grebe shots are slightly cropped, others are full frame.

Hmmm, well I think if you chop the top off, especially to below the light grey seal, then it's much more of a shot of the seal that's in focus. You lose some of the depth of the shot without the water at the top, I think, but I can see why you'd want it to go, and it may be a comment I'd make about someone else's shot.

Thanks all for the comments, I was very pleased with these photos.

By the way, does anyone know what type of fish the Grebe's got?

Dan

Awesome shots, nicely taken!

A tasty one as far as the Grebe's concerned

They're all wonderfull but the close up of the seal is my favourite.

Lovely images. The fish is a Zander

Fantastic shots, my children were amazed! #1 is my favourite

It may possibly be a small Zander, but my first thought when I saw the fish was a little Ruff. A thing a bit like a Perch but less colourful and generally smaller.

Thanks Bracken, but having looked at another shot (below), as well as the originals shown already, I think I'm tending to agree with restyles, due to the dorsal fin - it does look as though it's one continuous fin, rather than the two distinct ones of the Zander. You got me looking in the right direction though, the Zander and the Ruffe are on the same page in my little wildlife book.




Thanks,
Dan

P.S. I'm glad I amazed your children Michal.

Thank you for sharing these superb shots with us. I am going to Norfolk later this year and you have inspired me.

Charles.
K100d

Daniel,

What sometimes bugs me is that people will post wonderfully sharp images on the web with the intent of demonstrating how sharp a lens is but include no specs, most notably some estimated distance to the object photographed. Stopped down, some paltry lenses can yield reasonable results at short distances. You mentioned that you were only 5ft away from soma critters, but the rest?

(awesome pix, by the way Sir!)

Al, just for you, here are my estimates for distances, and all the other important settings...

Grebes: Probably about 15-20 feet away. 1/750s at f/4.5, ISO200. Handheld from slowly moving boat. Images cropped to about 75% of full frame.

Seals: Distant shot from perhaps 40-50 feet? Closer shots from 15 feet and 8 feet approx. 1/250s at f/5.6, ISO200. Handheld, no cropping.

Turnstones: 5-8 feet approx. First shot was 1/350s, second 1/180s, both at f/4.5, ISO200. Handheld again, first cropped to about 60%, second one full frame. Lying on stomach.


What I like about the DA*300 is that wide open it's pretty much as sharp as it is stopped down. And it's a very sharp lens. And I use it for all sorts of subjects too, flowers, insects, birds, ferns...



K10D, DA*300mm, 1/6s at f/8, ISO100, tripod, minimum focus distance (4.5 feet I think), 3 second mirror up self-timer with remote release (wireless), overcast day, bluebells in background, reflector to left side, dirty knees, no-one else around, bliss.

Dan

I have one question. How do you do it?

Hi Dan

Beautiful images you got there. I like all of them,

True what you just mentioned above, I have also started using my DA*300 for lots of work that otherwise I would be taking my 100 mm Macro lens. I took a couple of shots impromptu because that was the lens I had attached while shooting some birds and suddenly saw some butterflies and other insects and decided to attempt it as I had no time to change lens and the images turned out reasonably good. And from there on that's what I have been doing lots of times now. It gives me that great working distance from the insects compared to the 100mm Macro even with the 1.7TC attached.

It is indeed a great lens, the more I use it the more I love it

very very nice pics. Having just got back from there I'm familiar with the wildlife. Took a boat trip on Wroxham Broads and got nowhere close to a good pic of the Grebes. I saw plenty of seals (at least 50, near Waxham) but as I was doing a 10 mile run on the beach I don't tend to carry my DSLR!

I could tell you, but I'd then either have to kill you or charge you. Actually, if you really wanted me to describe the taking process, I could. Let me know.

Our boat was out of Stalham, so it might be a quieter bit of river than near Wroxham. We may have just been lucky though, although there were several pairs along the river there. Also, although I don't think this made a difference to how close we could get, we hired an electric boat. Not at all smelly, and no engine ticking over, so vibrations were not a problem.

Dan