first attempt at animals / first outing with 200mm f/2.8 II

[Moooney]

didn't even bother taking pictures of half of the animals at the zoo due to very harsh noon day sun, but these are some that i tried to salvage. any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Mooney/IMG_9234.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Mooney/IMG_9273.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Mooney/IMG_9287.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Mooney/IMG_9325.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Mooney/IMG_9356.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Mooney/IMG_9397.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Mooney/IMG_9427.jpg

i think i only cropped the first image a bit - the rest were framed as is, i believe. my processing can be a mixed bag of tricks since i just i attack each picture seperately without any due process.

[Robert_Lay]

Only the first shot seems to have any serious exposure problem - burned out highlights. The rest are pretty good!

[Moooney]

thanks for looking! i will take another look at the first one and see what i can do.

[DragonDan]

Dig the eagle, although I'd have preferred a different crop or the entire bird shown

[krb]

Dig the eagle, although I'd have preferred a different crop or the entire bird shown
Agree. That eagle looks really good but I think I'd like to see either a tighter crop on the face or a little wider shot so I can see the talons.

[Moooney]

Agree. That eagle looks really good but I think I'd like to see either a tighter crop on the face or a little wider shot so I can see the talons.

while i was there i wanted to get a different background to better contrast the head, but couldn't. taking pictures of caged animals is one time where 'zooming with your feet' isn't available, and the prime was limiting - but, i wouldn't have wanted to lug a 70-200mm around the zoo with me, either.



as for the first pic, according to the hisotgram nothing is completely blown. perhaps photobucket compression has lost a bit of detail.

[Moooney]

i'd like to add that the crocodile shot was taken in low light at 1/30s @ 200mm handheld. do you guys think that it is acceptably sharp?

[mcluckie]

Come on, crop this stuff. Maybe you need a longer lens. I had the 200 2.8 for a while, nice lens.

[Moooney]

Come on, crop this stuff. Maybe you need a longer lens. I had the 200 2.8 for a while, nice lens.

wow if you think these need to be cropped, you would probably hate my concert photos. they are in flickr link below if you want to take a look. :)

[mcluckie]

Gobble Gobble is bad, the rest just maybe composition. In the turkey shoot, so much is cut off the bottom with tons of space on top. I just want to grab that neck and pull it up. If you can't get more on the bottom (there), balance it with being tighter on top.

Bald Eagle is too centered (l to r) and the (maybe OK) space on top makes it all look much lamer. But then I'm famous for cutting off tops of heads.

[mcluckie]

Attack in Black 2 @ SappyFest is good, but get the guy out of the middle. Theres nothing but distraction in back of him; get rid of it.

Wintersleep 5 @ SappyFest: real nice; so is Attack in Black 1 (a tad lose on top)

You gotta ask yourself what you're shooting, the room or the band. White things will draw your eye first, but then where does it travel? Find the flow, man. Does the top 1/5 of stage lights need to be there -- I think we know its a stage. The Julie series is good, ask yourself why if you agree.

[Moooney]

mclickie, thanks a lot for looking and sharing your thoughts. it's interesting that you like the julie shots - i liked the moments captured, but i thought maybe the exposures weren't so great, or at least i figured that someone with a better eye than i would think so.

it is interesting that you like wintersleep 5 - it is my least favourite picture of the set. i only included it because i didn't have any other shots of those band members. attack in black 2 was the only picture that i was really happy with, although perhaps i will revisit it with a different crop. thanks again.

[jetcode]

I like it and I think you did well ... the pigeon is my favorite

[Moooney]

thanks! i'm really loving the creamy bokeh this lens produces. i think i'm going to try shooting some hockey this winter, and hopefully can find some other uses for this lens.

[mcluckie]

mclickie, thanks a lot for looking and sharing your thoughts. it's interesting that you like the julie shots - i liked the moments captured, but i thought maybe the exposures weren't so great, or at least i figured that someone with a better eye than i would think so.
Exposures are easy to fix, or at least fix the next time. It's the image that matters! (unless you're my student, then it all matters.) At least a bad exposure shouldn't get in the way of looking at your photo; yours didn't. Almost any exposure is good at a concert. Just get a black, a white, and say the rest was planned. Oh, and crop 'till it bleeds.