jackalphotography: July 2014

Saturday, 19 July 2014

Why i chose the Canon 7D

Why I chose the Canon 7D

I Mainly shoot Wildlife and Nature so this was the best I could afford that suited my needs. Upgraded from a canon 350D. Below are some of the reasons why I chose it.

Tufted Duck in Flight captured using high burst rate
and a great auto focus system on the 7D

1. It's very robust magnesium alloy body resilient to dust, moisture and shocks.

2. Excellent choice of lenses available, my canon 100-400mm goes nicely with it.

3. High burst rate around 8 frames a second.

4. 100% viewfinder so you capture what you can see.

5. 19 focus points to choose from and a great continuous auto focus system.

Live View great for using on
Landscape shots

6. Spot metering.

7. Live view shooting which I like when taking landscape shots because the mirror is in lock up when using live view and it's better for judging exposure when shooting in manual.

8. Great customisation especially the customisable buttons.

Thanks for looking.

Friday, 18 July 2014

Photography Quick Tips, Shooting through Wire Fences

Painted Hunting Dog
taken through a wire fence

Just a few tips on shooting through wire fences at Zoo's and Wildlife Parks with a DSLR.

1. I would recommend a 300mm lens and up but this all depends on how close you can get to the fence, most places have a barrier stopping you from getting too close.

2. On full zoom try and get as close to the fence as possible, try and avoid any part of the fence that has direct sunlight on it because this will increase the chance of it showing up in your shots, so pick a spot that's in shade.

3.Manual focus on static subjects if your auto focus is picking up the wire, on moving subjects I use AI servo (continuous) focusing on my Canon 7D.

On this Jaguar shot that was taken through wire fencing moving towards me i was holding my camera in the portrait position, i chose a focal point closest to the eyes and put my auto focus on AI Servo to keep the Cat in focus.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for looking.

Thursday, 17 July 2014

Bird Photography Tips

On the right is a shot of a Common Starling

Probably the most hated bird in Britain due to a group being able to clear a feeder
from full to empty in 60 seconds. This image was shot in my garden from the shed window, the camera was loosely mounted on a ball headed tripod giving me freedom to focus and recompose. So what do I like about this shot? I am going to break the shot down and hopefully your going to get something from this to help you get better bird and wildlife shots.

1. Composition: The bird is positioned on the left with negative space to the right where the beak is pointing. Always try and leave negative space for the animal to look or move into. ( A no,no for me would be to put the bird in the middle and have the beak nearly touching the edge of the image).

2. Background: Clear background with a nice bokeh affect from the sun hitting the leaves behind the bird, shoot wide open this was at f5.6 to blur backgrounds.(Try not to have branches cluttering up the frame, hard to do this with bird shots I know).

3. Lighting: This was shot in the shade to minimise any problems with highlight and shadows due to it being a very sunny day, still enough light to bring out the plumage colour on the Bird.

4. Interest: I usually look for several things, expression, on birds wait for the head tilt, when the bird gives you the eye press the shutter, catchlight in the eye always makes for a more pleasing shot, that goes hand in hand with eye contact. Try and shoot at eye level if possible and focus on the eyes or the eye closest to you.

Put all these things together and you should have a great image on you hands.

This Starling shot has been Published in Digital Photographer Magazine issue 149 it is also in RSPB Give Nature a Home 2015 Calendar and as had over 40 million views on my G+ Page.