The Wildlife Photography Thread

I have a correction on my post of the whales.
They aren't Blue whales but Humpback.
Sorry for the miss info. I guess I got so caught up in seeing them I didn't stop to engage my brain when writing them.
Frank.
 
Wow, those are great Africa shots, K6ON! What focal length were you using?

Meanwhile, I've got this lil frog photo from Idaho. ;)
We saw a number of these guys, so maybe they are doing better in ID than in the Sierra.

 
Thanks Andy, Great frog..we can hope they're doing better than here.
Almost all Africa photos were taken between 400 ~ 500mm and almost all were taken from a vehicle
as we weren't allowed to exit the vehicles. Not good press to have tourists eaten by the critters. :unsure:
I have hundreds more photos so if anyone is actually interested I can post more. If I could afford to go back,
I'd be on my way now. Truly the trip of a lifetime.
 
K6ON said:
Thanks Andy, Great frog..we can hope they're doing better than here.
Almost all Africa photos were taken between 400 ~ 500mm and almost all were taken from a vehicle
as we weren't allowed to exit the vehicles. Not good press to have tourists eaten by the critters. :unsure:
I have hundreds more photos so if anyone is actually interested I can post more. If I could afford to go back,
I'd be on my way now. Truly the trip of a lifetime.
Click to expand...
I am up for more! A lot more! They're great!
 
This guy was in our backyard this morning, cruising the fruit trees.
I was in our bedroom, just out of the shower when I saw this large black shape moving past the grape arbor. It was instant recognition.

He he is, looking over our garden goods.


I instantly ran to grab my camera (7D+400mm)and started shooting shots through the back screen door. With each burst of shots he looked my way. The bear was scenting the breeze with nose aloft.
When I first saw it, I thought maybe it was chewing something. The nectarine tree is right there and has been dropping soft fruit, which the deer have been eating.

I opened the door and crept down the stairs barefoot, shielded by the tomato beds. Mr. Bear sensed something was up and moved farther out into our orchard, behind a new trellis we built last fall. By the time I reached our back gate, he had moved another forty feet. I shot a few frames through the gate and the trellis, trying for a clean shot.

The dark bear against the dark forest was a challenge, and I started pushing my iso and slowing my shutter speed from 1/1000 to 1/320 to pull in some light. All these shots have +2EV adjustment to make them usable, but are still 'noisy'. [apologies for photo-geek talk, but I suspect WS, CM, MBC, S3P and others will catch my drift]



I've emailed the neighbors to alert them of our visitor. I suggested they keep their pet food inside, and trash put away. We don't want our neighbor bear to get on the wrong side of the law! :unsure:

As I opened the back gate and moved farther into the orchard, Mr. Bear trotted off, looking over his shoulder a few times. I must have looked funny too, wearing nothing but a pair of trunks and pointing a big lens his way. He's welcome back, but I hope he won't pull down my fences, and be content with gleaning the fruit from the apples, nectarines and plums out back.


The local paper, The Union (since 1850!) has asked to run the images. I'm agreeable, but requested they run some bear-wise info for those that aren't country-wise. :) Truthfully, our area has had more than the usual sightings this year.
 
Geek talk and bear shots work for me. I was also wondering about bare shots with the mention of shower :eek:

Great story and photos!
 
Lighthawk said:
This guy was in our backyard this morning, cruising the fruit trees.
I was in our bedroom, just out of the shower when I saw this large black shape moving past the grape arbor. It was instant recognition.

He he is, looking over our garden goods.


I instantly ran to grab my camera (7D+400mm)and started shooting shots through the back screen door. With each burst of shots he looked my way. The bear was scenting the breeze with nose aloft.
When I first saw it, I thought maybe it was chewing something. The nectarine tree is right there and has been dropping soft fruit, which the deer have been eating.

I opened the door and crept down the stairs barefoot, shielded by the tomato beds. Mr. Bear sensed something was up and moved farther out into our orchard, behind a new trellis we built last fall. By the time I reached our back gate, he had moved another forty feet. I shot a few frames through the gate and the trellis, trying for a clean shot.

The dark bear against the dark forest was a challenge, and I started pushing my iso and slowing my shutter speed from 1/1000 to 1/320 to pull in some light. All these shots have +2EV adjustment to make them usable, but are still 'noisy'. [apologies for photo-geek talk, but I suspect WS, CM, MBC, S3P and others will catch my drift]

The local paper, The Union (since 1850!) has asked to run the images. I'm agreeable, but requested they run some bear-wise info for those that aren't country-wise. :) Truthfully, our area has had more than the usual sightings this year.
Click to expand...
Cool sighting -- and image capture, Andy. :)
Geek talk seems appropriate 'cause it shows what you have to deal with when you're not able to wait for the light to be right and can't pick your vantage point and have to hurry. For me, if a photo is taken to share the subject -- because it's unusual, then little details like "noise" don't matter. Because the subject is the point...and looking at the image with a magnifying glass is missing the point. ;)

I guess it's not a good thing to have bears in the backyard -- because it's bad for the bears...but I wish I saw a big omnivore like that -- or maybe a big carnivore -- in my backyard, instead of just those antlered herbivores.
 
Thanks MarkBC and everyone. Yes, I was very lucky to catch Mr. Bear during daytime in my backyard. Even better to have a camera/telephoto ready to go after I unlocked the pelican box I store gear inside.

Last year I was able to get close, without being rushed, to see/photograph a bruin napping in a tree at a friends house up at Incline Village. I think that gave me a better understanding and more confidence to follow this guy and take photos (from a respectful distance).

The only other bear I've seen in our neighborhood was running down the road at night, so this was a treat. We have had a trash can dragged into the woods last year, and earlier this year I found a can of beans badly dented by bear tooth taken from our garage. We're being more careful to keep our garage shut at night now.
 
6702376321_789275e044_b.jpg
 
Frank, Mr. 3pin, thanks for the kind words. This song dog is Sweet Sally, one of the more calm coyotes at the Refuge. BTW, all of the young females are named Sally, or at least they were. Hopefully, the numbers will come back to what they were before the culling.
 
It's fun to see them.We even get one in our green space behind the house. Sometimes see one walking in the morning.
Don't have any pets so no worries there.
She is a good looking animal.
Frank
 
Nice photos! Saw a coyote foraging along the Mississippi in St Paul on Friday. I was crossing the river on a highway bridge and looked over into the gorge to see it. Saw one in a Minneapolis park stalking a squirrel a few years ago. I think the coyotes are doing fine in general.
 
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