Mountain Lion

[thisbejonas]

Well we went to the zoo and I took 416 pics kept 221 of them even tho not all of the 221 were "good" ones but they had enough value to keep as they are my kids/family etc. This was my first outing with my new 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM lens, all pics were shot hand held ( long day lugging that lens around ) This is one of my fav pics I got but putting it here to get critiqued. Please feel free to look at my other zoo pics on flickr and leave comments on them as well. Does anyone know how you get invited to those award groups on flickr, I know my pics arent the best in the world but I think I have some that are as good or better than some I hvar seen in those award groups. BTW all the photos are in thier original form no cropping etc has been done.

[clockdoc]

I see you were shooting in the Manual mode. The exposure of the lion in your flickr account shot 1/100 at f/2.8 looks better (lighter) than the one posted which was shot at 1/200. Your ratio of 221 out of 416 is not a bad ratio. Now your have to have another look at them to weed out a few dozen more. It is a diffucult process. Enjoy your new lens!

[FocalFrenzy]

I like this shot. The concentation on the face is great. The only thing I would have done differently is, to place the head in the mid to upper left of the composition and leave more space center and right to either show what he's looking at or to imply that his attention is being drawn there. You may be able to achieve this effect with just a crop. It's amazing, that only 2 1/2 months ago, I had no idea about composition or even what the rule of thirds is. This site has taught me so much. I'm sure there's lots you'll learn and be able to contribute here as well. Nice shot, and I look forward to seeing your Flickr account.

[thisbejonas]

Originally Posted by clockdoc

Your ratio of 221 out of 416 is not a bad ratio. Now your have to have another look at them to weed out a few dozen more. It is a diffucult process. Enjoy your new lens!

Well Im not going to get to picky on the rest of the pics as they are still good enough for regular old snapshots of my family outing. So the 221 counts photos that I dont consider "good", more like average snapshot quality but I did them all in manual mode just for some practice and to get used to the lense and man does that lens work alot different that the kit lense I got. I think in reality I got more like 15 or so "good" pics considering my experiance level (about a month with the DSLR). Zoo animals are sooo uncooperative always pacing around or hiding in the shadows. Like the photo above the mounatin lion was walking so it was hard enough for me to get him in the frame like that. I was trying to lead him a bit but if you had seen the 20 or so pics I trashed of him lol, well I think I got lucky to get what I got. Thanks for the input.