First Attempt at Wildlife

[suzannebe]

Hi, I'm a newbie to dslr , I headed to the zoo today, only have my camera since xmas, here's my 1st attempts at taking some animal shots ,

[Pentaxian]

I like the third one down, although he's a little too centered in the frame. Try to give him more room to walk into. Great shots though. I've found that bringing along a monopod to the zoo has helped improve my sharpness a lot.

[peeperita]

looks like a good day at the zoo...

you have every right to be proud of your captures....(pardon the pun).....lighting conditions at the zoo are notoriously bad......but, you seem to have managed quite well....

happy shooting...

peeper

[Mr. Clipit]

You certainly did do a good job of compensating for zoo-like conditions at the zoo. My only remark is that all of these furry (and feathered) friends are looking off to the right, and I'd like to see what they're looking at. Putting them more to the left would help, especially with the third one down, as Pentaxian said

[Matthew James Norman]

Third one gets my thumbs up! Great capture.

[albert.cantaloupe]

Great captures. I particular like the penguin shot. My only advice is to possibly anchor your body or bring a tripod/monopod so that the images are not so blurry.

Happy New Years.

=)

[clockdoc]

Nice zoo captures. To hitchhike on an earlier comment about all the subjects facing to the right, because of the direction of their gaze, you will find that the viewer's eye will tend to move out of the frame much more quickly. As an experiment, flip a few of the horizontally, from left to right and see if it makes a difference to your eye. I realize you had no control over thier placement but just wanted to mention this minor point.

[suzannebe]

Thanks for all the replies, I never really thought about the way they were looking, I was just so intend on capturing them while they were still, you all have such a wealth of knowledge and I am learning every day, thanks for your help and suggestions , I know the shot below is a little blurred but I just liked it,

[clockdoc]

Very nice! Perhaps cropped a little too closely for such action. Is there more room in the original image? The image is sharp where it needs to be and the motion of the wings is fine. Keep up your enthusiastic approach to photography and you will do well. I am happy to help where I can.

[suzannebe]

Hi Clocdoc,

Ok, I am going to ask a really stupid question, probably stupid but I suppose if i don't ask I will never learn, when I took this picture the swans were further away and i used my new zoom lens and when you look back at the just taken image on your camera they looked further away etc... but when loaded onto my mac I had to crop to get the closeness I wanted, am I doing something wrong ? as you said I should not have cropped to much for this type of action, but if i didnt crop i didnt get the closeness i wanted ?? sorry if i sound crazy but its the best way i can explain what i mean ?