seal

[Benjy]

walking along by local river when this fellow appeared,very unusual in this freshwater river,any comments welcome,still learning photography....

[Dizzy]

Hi Bernard,

When the salmon are spawning it's not unusual for a seal to travel into fresh water
in search of a meal, as in a river the fish don't have as much room to escape, and
the seal can fatten up on a fresh salmon dinner.

I live on a river here in the Pacific NW of the US, and we are about 55 river miles
from the salt water. We get 5-6 different salmon runs each year, and there's a seal
that will travel all the way up here to munch on the salmon in the deep river hole
right off our beach. He'll spend hours "fishing" in one area, and if he comes back
this year he'll be the subject of many photo's.

Mike

[codachrome]

Nice image....emmm you sure its not a meercat?

[Geoff F]

Those are tricky shots to get well, Bernard.

Obviously the light was poor so your shutter speed may have been a bit low. And not a lot of sharp contrast to achieve easy quick focus.

With this image, I think I would try a tighter crop at a different width/height ratio. Maybe 5 x 4 ratio to concentrate more on the seal. And then try a little selective sharpening to apply just to the seal not the water.

[Benjy]

Hi Mike,thanks for your comments,one minute after the shot of the seal, it was splashing about then appeared with a biggish fish in its jaws the river runs out of Loch Lomond local anglers are moaning about lack of catches maybe this could be part of the reason,I,ll try to upload the seal with fish the quality is bad but it all happened in a rush and I am still trying to get my head round all this photography stuff without much success I might add,CHEERS

[Benjy]

Hi Geoff,many thanks for your advice,your correct as it was a wet dull day and I usually just take photos as the chance comes along,still trying to get my head round all this photography stuff,shutter speed,iso,apperture ect,don,t seem to be making much progress when I see the excellent photos on here,Thanks

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Bernard,

In this case, I think the problems were largely beyond your control; not much light, action too far away for focal length of lens, etc. so don't be too hard on yourself.

~ still trying to get my head round all this photography stuff, shutter speed, iso, aperture, etc. Don't seem to be making much progress when I see the excellent photos on here, Thanks

I think I am very fortunate in having an engineering background, this means I have to understand how things work, which in turn, must make it easier for me to understand relationships like shutter speed, iso, aperture, etc.

I guess what I am saying is, even though you may have no apetite to learn how these things work, doing so is probably better than trying to remember 'parrot fashion', once a principle is understood, it is easily applied again and again.

e.g. (odd analogy) I can't remember my 12 x table, so to answer "what is 11 x 12" is a problem, but if I understand the principle that twice 11 x 6 (an easily memorable 66) is the same, I get to 132 quickly, or I could go for 144 (12 x 12) - 12, am I making any sense?

If you haven't tried, do have a read of the tutorials here, perhaps starting with Camera Exposure and ask questions for any bits that don't make sense and remember this; the only daft question is the one you don't ask.

Then look at Depth of Field control.

Once you 'get' which things are important under which circumstances, and how to trade one for another, you'll make progress.

Cheers,

[Benjy]

Hi Dave,thanks for your advice, as you say I should spend more time on the Tutorials rather than latest threads which is excellent by the way Cheers

[Dizzy]

Hi Bernard,
e.g. (odd analogy) I can't remember my 12 x table, so to answer "what is 11 x 12" is a problem, but if I understand the principle that twice 11 x 6 (an easily memorable 66) is the same, I get to 132 quickly, or I could go for 144 (12 x 12) - 12, am I making any sense?
Cheers,

Holy Equations! Dave, that is exactly the same process I used to overcome my
own weakness in solving basic equations that used larger numbers.

As much as I love the "absoluteness" of mathematics, I also had a problem
getting my head wrapped around some of the calculating methods in the fashion they
were taught. I've found that this is a much more effective method of multiplying,
dividing or adding large numbers.

[rtbaum]

OMG, someone else's brain works that way!!!!!!!

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Dave,thanks for your advice, as you say I should spend more time on the Tutorials rather than latest threads which is excellent by the way Cheers

I spend all my time here in Latest Threads and almost none doing my photography