PROJECT 52 Bunty Plumchip

[Bunty Plumchip]

[Bunty Plumchip]

I know these are not the best photos in the world, but I have never managed to get this close to any of our local herd of wild roe deer, and was especially thrilled to get 20 or so shots them whilst lying in the grass at the side of a dyke (where I dived when I saw them emerge) holding a neurotic collie dog in one hand and the camera in the other. Fortunately the Bobster is not a barky dog.






I took them in NEF and have not done any PP other than the cropping.

1/320s
f /8.0
iso 200
95mm
Nikon 70s

I don't think anyone was impressed when I soft focussed the background, sharpened the deer intensified the contrasts and tuurned it B&W in a minicomp. I don't really know what to do to improve them. Perhaps wait until I have more experience and just enjoy the triumph of getting the shots in the first palce and the ten minutes I was able to spend watching them.

[FrankMi]

Hi Carolyn! Many of my initial attempts to get images of wildlife have been total failures and yet, with each attempt I learn a bit more about their habits and what I need to do to improve my changes for getting really great images.

These images a better than most of mine so in my opinion, you are well on your way. Keep on shooting, posting, and getting valued feedback from those that have the skill (it ain't me, babe, no, no, no, it ain't me you're looking for). Sorry. Didn't mean to break into a song but there are those here on CiC that can really 'sing' when it comes to wildlife photography! Then go out and shoot some more, rinse and repeat. In no time you'll be capturing outstanding images.

[Bunty Plumchip]

Hi Carolyn! Many of my initial attempts to get images of wildlife have been total failures and yet, with each attempt I learn a bit more about their habits and what I need to do to improve my changes for getting really great images.

These images a better than most of mine so in my opinion, you are well on your way. Keep on shooting, posting, and getting valued feedback from those that have the skill (it ain't me, babe, no, no, no, it ain't me you're looking for). Sorry. Didn't mean to break into a song but there are those here on CiC that can really 'sing' when it comes to wildlife photography! Then go out and shoot some more, rinse and repeat. In no time you'll be capturing outstanding images.

Cheers, Frank. Sometimes I think I got better shots before I got the DSLR, but hopefully one day Nik and I will be friends.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I meant to comment on your other architecture shots last earlier but somehow missed your Project 52 thread when I was going through and catching up. It looks like an interesting series of buildings to take photos of. The angles I think are actually what make it intriguing - the different lines add the element of depth to the photos that can hold a viewer's attention.

I do think you can adjust the vertical lines through lens and perspective distortion tools which might be a worthwhile exercise. This will make them feel more like an architectural photo (just from a technical perspective) rather than just photos of a building. You'll need to definitely use a program with proper perspective distortion tools but it's a great learning exercise to go through. Don't worry about any lines other than the vertical ones if you do go through it.

I don't think anyone was impressed when I soft focussed the background, sharpened the deer intensified the contrasts and tuurned it B&W in a minicomp. I don't really know what to do to improve them. Perhaps wait until I have more experience and just enjoy the triumph of getting the shots in the first palce and the ten minutes I was able to spend watching them.

Don't be disheartened just because the photos didn't get a great response in the mini-comps. I have to confess that at the moment I'm flat out looking at just the Project 52 threads let along any of the competitions. People have different ideas on what makes a great photo and what appeals to them and sometimes, you'll find a photo that you take just won't have the appeal to the audience who just happens to be looking at the time. On a different day, who knows!

Wildlife photos I think are an interesting subject to do well because in all honesty, it's hard enough to just take a photo of the wildlife. I think where it gets tricky is taking the capture where you have a fantastic background to complement the wildlife, or the animal in question is doing something so astonishing that everyone has to stop and look.

To put it another way, if two people were walking on a grassy field and just looking around, it probably wouldn't capture the interest of a lot of people. To make a photo of a person interesting, one generally gets a close up to catch their eyes and expressions, or takes a photo of them doing something of interest. So from that perspective, your second photo with a tighter crop on the deer, particular the one on the left because it appears to be staring at the camera, and the fourth photo with your deer in action are the ones that have the greatest potential.

Having said that, I'm not a wildlife photographer so everything I've said could be completely wrong

[Geoff F]

The secret with wildlife photography, Carolyn, is to go out every day and take hundreds of shots - then delete 99% of them.

Eventually you get really lucky on one day.

But I find the same thing even applies to farm animals. For instance, this week I found an old broken down fence with two sheep sitting just outside the fence. Perfect, I thought; and I even had the title 'There isn't a fence which can hold a determined sheep'!

But try as I could, I was unable to get a good angle, with the right light, which also had the fence and sheep where I wanted them. Eventually my intended subjects got bored and wandered off.

However, returning to these shots.

For me, in #1 they are looking too straight at the camera.

#2 has potential. I would crop it tighter, particularly at the bottom, and possibly end up with a 5 x 4 ratio. Then a little tweak with Curves, probably with a layer and mask, then I think you would have something worth keeping.

Much the same with #3 although I would crop more from the top and left.

You may get something from #4, eventually, but I think it would probably be more work that it is worth.

Just a few thoughts.

ps. for B&W to work well you need the right shot, with plenty of contrast. Too often something which works well in colour just appears bland in monochrome.

[Bunty Plumchip]

Thanks Mal and Geoff for the help and encouragement.

[Teton Chuck]

Carolyn, Thank you for sharing your photos of roe deer. I have never seen one in the wild. Quite beautiful animals.

As a novice photographer I am hesitate to critique others photographs. I do however spend a lot of time trying to photograph wildlife, so here are a few comments from that perspective.

Considering you are lying in the grass, trying to control a dog, and snapping shots of the deer, you did a very good job. All of the photos have the eyes in focus. Not an easy thing to accomplish. I use a tripod whenever possible. It is much more difficult to get good wildlife photos when shooting handheld.

In reality, Geoff got it right. Plan to spend a lot of time and take a lot of photos to get a few good ones. The other option is to be lucky. Take that one when ever you can.

If you are serious about doing wildlife photography plan to study the organism you want to photograph. Once you understand where to find it and how it lives its life, you can plan how to set up a good photograph. This is not always as difficult at it sounds. However, I usually spend a number of hours, and sometimes a number of weeks, getting the photograph I want.

I encourage you to continue to work at wildlife photography. Perhaps a good way to begin is to take pictures of the birds that visit your feeder, or water fowl in a local park. All of these approaches help get the technique down.

I hope some of this is useful.

Cheers, Chuck

[Bunty Plumchip]

Pictures of the village from across the cliff top fields. What I am findng hard to achieve is to captuure the feeling of infinite space without having infinite foreground space. These views took my interest because of the patch of golden sky above the houses on main street on the horizon. It formed a sort of arc which was echoed by the sweep of the furrows , the tree lines and the drain/dyke. I have no idea why this dyke snakes like this as they are man made (but I aim to find out). It is not a spectacular view as views go, buut the colours and the lines attracted me, and of course the wonderful light we have here in Holderness, which one day I will get right.

[Bunty Plumchip]

[Geoff F]

The problem with the first image, Carolyn, is that you have a plain over dark foreground with no clearly visible items of interest and the main items of note (buildings) are, mostly, just running across the scene in a straight line.

So no chance of achieving a natural looking perspective there. Although it does have possibilities as a sky based photo with a bit of a crop from the bottom (to reduce the dark foreground) and the right side to balance.

I suspect that reducing the foreground will appear to increase 'sky space'.

Incidentally, did you see Gary's recent Project 52 post with the pale foreground and grass field plus trees behind that. He achieved good depth there with the general lines and sharply focused foreground. Although he had slightly too much foreground.

The second shot of the dyke has more potential for perspective; although I think it may benefit from a slight crop of the right side and top.

But getting good perspective running into 'infinity' is very difficult with rather flat landscapes unless you have a line of trees, fences, etc going in the right direction.

[Bunty Plumchip]

The problem with the first image, Carolyn, is that you have a plain over dark foreground with no clearly visible items of interest and the main items of note (buildings) are, mostly, just running across the scene in a straight line.

So no chance of achieving a natural looking perspective there. Although it does have possibilities as a sky based photo with a bit of a crop from the bottom (to reduce the dark foreground) and the right side to balance.

Thanks Geoff- I think the sky was possibly the main interest in the scene. We do get nice skies here. Maybe I should concentrate on learning to capture those and the rest may fall into place, and leave the landscapes for when I am in North Yorks Dales.

I suspect that reducing the foreground will appear to increase 'sky space'.

Incidentally, did you see Gary's recent Project 52 post with the pale foreground and grass field plus trees behind that. He achieved good depth there with the general lines and sharply focused foreground. Although he had slightly too much foreground.

The second shot of the dyke has more potential for perspective; although I think it may benefit from a slight crop of the right side and top.

But getting good perspective running into 'infinity' is very difficult with rather flat landscapes unless you have a line of trees, fences, etc going in the right direction.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I'm not a landscape photographer so I'm always a bit reluctant to comment on these sort of photos. However, I think for me, the first photo has the horizon and the houses running squarely in the middle of the photo. This to me is one of those situations where the rule of thirds would work better - either having more foreground and less sky, or less foreground and more sky. In this case, the sky is the more interesting aspect so I would crop some of the foreground out.

With trying to achieve an infinity perspective, just speaking from a technical drawing perspective, the way we used to achieve this was to draw lines at angles to the frame. So rather than taking a photos with lines running horizontally or vertically, instead have them running diagonally across the frame. this will make the longer in your shot and I think improve your infinity perspective.

[FrankMi]

Hi Carolyn. In post 69 you have a difficult composition to work with. The sky is interesting but most of the blue top could be lost so as to make the clouds more noticeable. The subject at the horizon has very little difference in height across the image so it lacks leading lines for the eye to follow such as when there is more variety in the height. Lastly, the grass, like the blue sky above, has nothing compelling to capture your vision.

There are some cropping things you could try to see if you like the result better. I would crop out most, but not all of the blue at the top of the image. Then I would the crop the top of the grass at the 1/3rd line above the bottom of the image. The image should be much wider than is usable at this point so I would select enough of the image, left to right, to leave you with twice as much width as height and select to include the most pleasing part of the horizon within the width you have left, perhaps with the large red building close to a point that is approximately just over a third of the way to either the left or right side of the resulting image.

If you can reshoot, then I would try to get something of interest, such as a mare and colt, in the field. Another possibility is if there are any trees or a rustic wooden fence near your shooting position, include a part of that as a 'frame' at the sides or bottom of the scene to add depth. Hope this helps!

[Bunty Plumchip]

We have had some wild and stormy weather and some big tides coming in from the North Sea with a Nor'easterly behind them. Lots of broken sea creatures on the beach today. I took the FinePix down as negotiating the cliff with too much stuff is a bit tricky at the moment, ( I have cracked ribs from falling off a ladder) and it was all a bit mucky beachcombing, and I didn't want to ruin the Nikon by dropping it in a rockpool or filling it up with sand.




I didn't know which image to pick for the project- there are more on my flickr photostream. I chose this one because of the tones and textures.


I like this one too.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

The one thing I've discovered about creatures from the sea is the way they so effectively camouflage themselves against their surroundings. It's really hard to make some sea creatures stand out from the background so in this case I think prefer your second shot. Your first shot is almost a monotone and as fantastic as the detail is, I'm not sure there are tones in the overall photo to hold the viewer's interest.

The second photo looks much more interesting by comparison with the bright colours against the background. It's a shame the seaweed is draped over the.... you're always making me try and guess at what it is you're taking photos of! Then again, sea life is often more of an opportunity shot than being able to compose something 100% to your satisfaction.

[Bunty Plumchip]

The one thing I've discovered about creatures from the sea is the way they so effectively camouflage themselves against their surroundings. It's really hard to make some sea creatures stand out from the background so in this case I think prefer your second shot. Your first shot is almost a monotone and as fantastic as the detail is, I'm not sure there are tones in the overall photo to hold the viewer's interest.

The second photo looks much more interesting by comparison with the bright colours against the background. It's a shame the seaweed is draped over the.... you're always making me try and guess at what it is you're taking photos of! Then again, sea life is often more of an opportunity shot than being able to compose something 100% to your satisfaction.

I was like a kid in a sweetshop with all the starfish and jellyfish and sea anemones? (I am sure if Geoff comes along he will know) I like curiosities and things that are on the edge of familiar (to me). I guess my mindset is stuck in recording rather than creating until I get the hang of all this. The project is all about discovering where one wants to be going, so I am trying out all sorts of things to see what interests me most and what (if anything) I might do better than something else with the equuoiment I have.

Thanks, as always for looking and commenting Mal.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I was like a kid in a sweetshop with all the starfish and jellyfish and sea anemones? (I am sure if Geoff comes along he will know) I like curiosities and things that are on the edge of familiar (to me). I guess my mindset is stuck in recording rather than creating until I get the hang of all this. The project is all about discovering where one wants to be going, so I am trying out all sorts of things to see what interests me most and what (if anything) I might do better than something else with the equuoiment I have.

Thanks, as always for looking and commenting Mal.

I think the single most important thing with photography is discovering what you're passionate about taking photos of. Keep at it!

[Bunty Plumchip]

Literally, a snapshot of my 3 year old (twin) grand-daughters at their parents' wedding this weekend. Can't thnk where they get an interest in cameras from.





PS-Not my camera and not posed. They love cameras from both sides of the lens- keeps them amused for hours.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I often find that the unposed shots are the best ones - that's just my personal preference That's a keeper for sure!