Wildlife Piki's

Ok well I was fortunate enough to stumble by this lot tonight.
All taken with my 70-300mm.

Any thoughts or comments appreciated!

[IMG]http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv129/titchgamer/new%20camera%20shots/deer.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv129/titchgamer/new%20camera%20shots/deer2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv129/titchgamer/new%20camera%20shots/duck.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv129/titchgamer/new%20camera%20shots/duckfamily.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv129/titchgamer/new%20camera%20shots/goat.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv129/titchgamer/new%20camera%20shots/pig.jpg[/IMG]

I quite like the Pig. Nice eye contact and foreground interest with a slight blurring to the background.

Hi Andy,

Glad to see you are still practising. I think I like the goat the best its a really good photo and nice unusual angle. I also like the pig, nice angle again. The dusk is good never sen one of those before. The ducks are good again a strage angle. Shame the ducklings are a little out of focus however, I apreciate that they were moving and so getting a sharp shot on AV would have been almost impossible I like the first deer but again the second one is slightly out of focus and you have missed a tiny bit of its antlers.

A prety goo attempt. Keep going - if it was easy everine would be at it

Nice shots that could do with a bit more sharpness. None of them are really crisp, so maybe have a look at camera movement as a possible cause of that. If so, a higher shutter speed or ISO or both should do the trick.

Focusing on the eyes is also a good idea, as the eyes are probably the most important part of any portrait, be in human or animal.

Have fun!

Thank you all for your comments.
The goat was a funny one, he was scratching his chin on the fence lol.
The family of ducks was quite hard to get seen as all of them were moving at the same time so that was the best I could muster, I did take a few other shots of them focusing on one of the parents or one of the ducklings I just didn't upload them.
As for the deer well I was surprised they came out that well actually, they were taken hand-held and they were on the extreme side of a field to me, so I had to take them on 300mm.
Camera shake very possible for them!!
Although the second deer has all it antlers J?

Anyways ile keep trying!!!

Andy,

I mean't you have just missed the end off the edge of the picture.

Its all there honest LOL its prob just off ure browser window?

Sorry Andy,

I can see it now

hehe s'ok J. You confused the hell outa me at first!!

Pity there OOF as they are a good set of pic's.

OK everyone this is prob me being stupid here but they all look in focus to me?
With the exception of the 2nd deer (was long range and heavily cropped)
and the picture of the duck family.

So what I need to know is how are the others out of focus (I know my eyesights crap like but not that bad surely!?)
and how to improve for future ocasions.

Thanks

1' 2 and the last one are all out of focus to me

Hi Andy,

Are you using MF or AF? You say your eyesiht is crap what do you mean by that? From my ow experience of using my Sigma 135 - 400mm lens I knowust how hard it is to hold the camera still when hand holding and I now no longer feel I can do this at all. However, I believe you said you were using a tripod? I have been out today again using both my macro andlong lens on the tripod and even using this I have found that on MF using macro I can mess up a shot if I am touching the tripod or just breath Mae sure the camera is tight on the tripod and try not to lean on it. Have you set the viewinder up to suit your eyesight? Are you using AV or TV or another setting. I tend to use AV unless the subject is moving and then use TV. I also use the histogram and zoom in on the shot on the LCD scree to get an indicaton of how sharp it is.

I a really not the most experienced person to advise you on this as I am very much still a beginner myself

Good Luck and keep trying

Thanks guys, No the deer were taken hand held at a long distance J.
I think ile take a tripod with me again later and try and find them again to get a beter shot.

I tend to use AF as I am not overly confident in my MF yet.
My eyesight has kind of suffered after years of PC abuse lol.

The viewfinder is set as best as I can get it, which is clear enough but I can never seem to get the whole thing in sight if that makes sence??
As for the shoot mode for general shots like the above i tend to use the green mode, Unless ime after something specific (light trails, movement etc) then I use the others.

Thanks again