The challenge for the next two weeks is Winter Wildlife Photography. A great resource is Tim Laman’s lecture on this subject, which we viewed last Tuesday. There were some excellent technical suggestions for a higher chance on success. You can review the lecture on the Calgary Library website under the Kanopy app. Do a search for “Landscape Wildlife Photography” then select lecture 14.
During the review we discussed aperture and depth of field (DOF). There is a great DOF explanation on the “Cambridge in Color” website, as well as a DOF calculator. Here are the links. The main website https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/ is a portal to many great articles on photography. The DOF tutorial https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm gives insight on the subject. The calculator helps with planning a project https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/dof-calculator.htm .
Bill made me aware of another DOF calculator, where you can select your actual camera rather than know what crop factor you camera has. Here is the link https://www.photopills.com/calculators/dof Unfortunately it is missing the newer Canon Cameras such as the R5 or R6
Please upload images no larger than 1600 pixels wide or 1050 pixels high.
28 Responses to 2023-01-24 Winter Wildlife
Joe Horler says:
January 25, 2023 at 11:11 am
Photo captured at Burnside Area in Fish Creek Park at3:15pm Jan 24th.
Fujifilm XT-5 on tripod at 400mm (crop) ISO 125-/F11/SS of 1/1000
Henri says:
January 28, 2023 at 12:10 pm
Great shot Joe. Maybe you could make this more of a “High Key” image, and bring out more detail on the bird. The blue-ish sky does not add a whole lot in my mind.
Karen Sandra McDaniel says:
January 26, 2023 at 7:37 pm
I went out to Mallard Point to check out the birds on Wednesday and came upon a flock of little non-water birds chirping madly in some shrubs. Interested to find out what they were, I took this picture. I figured it was a sparrow of some kind but I was stumped. Always used to finding the male of this species, I was surprised to take a picture of a female English House Sparrow with the brown and beige highlights. The male has black highlights. Picture is cropped and resized. There is beauty in the most common of birds.
AP, 400 FL, A F8, S 1/1250, ISO 4000, Auto WB, CW Metering.
Henri says:
January 28, 2023 at 12:13 pm
Lovely shot Karen. I like the “fluff” and how you cropped it, the talons are tack sharp. Great bokeh as well.
Karen Sandra McDaniel says:
January 28, 2023 at 12:31 pm
Thanks, Henri.
Karen Sandra McDaniel says:
January 28, 2023 at 12:41 pm
At the last zoom meeting, I mentioned an excellent presentation on snowy owls. The researcher and presented is Denver Holt. You can go to YouTube and search his name the the presentation called “Denver Holt: 30 Years of Studying Snowy Owls and Brown and Collared Lemmings at Utqiagvik, Alaska” will come up. It is an hour long but absolutely excellent! Also there is a Smithsonian article on why the snowy owl is disappearing. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/snowy-owl-disappearing-180970314
Joe Horler says:
January 29, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Henri, thank you for the comments and suggestions. I have re-processed my bald eagle image using Luminar NEO’s HighKey capability and then adjusting highlights and shadows and sharpening. Much improved and the eagle is more defined.
Henri says:
January 31, 2023 at 10:19 am
The image remains a bit “muddy” with the bird and the pine tree under exposed. That is my interpretation, others might disagree. Here is my attempt to “salvage” this image with the levels tool and the selection of a “white” point.
Karen Sandra McDaniel says:
February 2, 2023 at 8:37 am
I like this better, however I would crop it differently focusing on the bird and a bit of the tree to show where he was sitting. I have photographed many eagles and I really just focus on the bird. Just my suggestion.
Henri says:
January 30, 2023 at 6:22 pm
We had an enjoyable walk today in Bowness Park where we saw a number of squirrels. I had the camera on manual and calibrated my exposure on a tree trunk filling the entire screen with just bark and fixed my shutter speed, ISO and aperture so I did not have to worry about the camera doing automatic exposure adjustments in the snow. Then set my zoom to the max at 200 mm and slowly walked up to this critter while having the camera in burst mode. I had the focal point set to single point with secondary surround points as recommended by Tim Laman in our lecture last Tuesday. I was pleased with the results. f/8, 1/80 sec, ISO 800
Bill Stiwell says:
February 5, 2023 at 12:09 pm
I like your explanation and more to the point your execution of what you were trying to accomplish Henri.
The squirrel and log in focus and the winter background becomes unimportant.
Henri says:
January 30, 2023 at 6:31 pm
Here is a profile shot, same settings as the previous image. Cropped significantly and sharpened in Photoshop
Frankie says:
February 2, 2023 at 12:06 pm
Great technique Henri, thanks for explaining what you did. Outstanding results!
Ron says:
February 4, 2023 at 11:08 am
This jackrabbit likes to hang out in our front yard, with the building sheltering it from the cold. ISO 200, f/16, 1/50. Lighting adjusted in Apple Photos, sharpening in GIMP.
Debbie McCluskey says:
February 4, 2023 at 3:53 pm
Out for a walk at the old Penhold base looking for wildlife outside of my bird feeders. Not a deer or coyote in sight but a magpie took pity and posed for me. Birds love to find perches surrounded by branches. This was taken with my 300 mm lens, F5.6, ISO 100 and exposure – minus 1/3.
Fred Schwering says:
February 4, 2023 at 6:15 pm
Lesser Scaup in open water. Photo taken in Aperture priority. I set the aperture at f/3.5 and used spot exposure on the dark part of the duck’s body and auto focus on the duck’s body. Cropped using Photo Gallery. Lightened the shadows in Photoshop Elements. Used haze removal in Photoshop Elements to darken the water and bring out some of the blue colour.
Aperture Priority: f/3.5, ISO 160, s 1/500 sec, FL 300mm, WB auto, Spot metering.
Fred Schwering says:
February 5, 2023 at 11:05 am
Here is another shot of the same duck. I used the same camera settings but a slightly different editing technique. Using the Photoshop selection tool, I selected just the dark parts of the duck. Then I used the Adjust Lighting tool to only lighten the dark areas of the duck, leaving the water alone. Next I inverted the selection to remove all parts of the duck and select only the water. I used the Haze Removal tool aggressively to only edit the water. getting a darker and more saturated look. The results are similar but I think it is more dramatic. I think that the gold eyes of the duck adds to the intensity.
Bill Stilwell says:
February 5, 2023 at 12:12 pm
I prefer this one, especially with the “oar out starboard way”
Shannon says:
February 5, 2023 at 11:27 am
Calgary Zoo Squirrel – Shot with a Canon 6D Mark II – 1/100 sec. @ f/4.0, 200mm, ISO 100. Cropped photograph in and increased exposure to brighten up the image in LR.
Beth says:
February 5, 2023 at 12:32 pm
Sunday Morning at Mallard Point about 9 am. Slightly overcast. Taken with with my 70-300 lens with a 1.4X extender at f/13, 1/125 sec, ISO 250
Bill Stilwell says:
February 5, 2023 at 12:35 pm
Been at this location on four mornings since this assignment was set. No luck catching sight of the coyoye(s) that frequent this park boundary again today.
At least the moon and chinook arch cooperatied.
Taz 1 day away from grooming haircut, hence his eyes are almost fully covered.
Kit lens on Sony A6000 16-50 at 50 mm, ISO 160, f 5.6, 1/60s.
Cropped and sky enhanced with Luminar 4
Beth says:
February 5, 2023 at 6:48 pm
Field just off T’suu Tina Parkway. Zoey hunting for wildlife, no luck but fun just the same. Taken with my Sigma 16mm lens at f/14, 1/60 sec, ISO 250
Paul Fesko says:
February 6, 2023 at 6:34 am
I had a 50mm lens on my camera so this image is heavily cropped. 1/400s, f8.0, ISO 100. Edited in LR.
Jim Springer says:
February 6, 2023 at 1:54 pm
I was out on Grand Valley Road a couple of days ago and saw these deer laying in the brush with a few other white tails around them. This photo appeared to me as though they were just laying there enjoying the morning sunshine and having a conversation. Shot at 1/800 sec, f9, ISO-640 using a focal length of 800mm.
Tony Campos says:
February 6, 2023 at 9:47 pm
Through the window shot. Adjusted exposure and sharpened in gimp.
f/7.1, 1/500, iso 360
Tony Campos says:
February 6, 2023 at 9:55 pm
f/7.1, 1/500, iso 220
Frankie says:
February 7, 2023 at 12:26 pm
ISO 3200, 240 mm, f/16, 1/3200 sec
Frankie says:
February 7, 2023 at 12:39 pm
Magpies puffed up to keep warm.
ISO 800 240 mm f/13, 1/2000
