Animals of Australia

[stubbsy]

These are some of my shots from the forum outing to Featherdale Wildlife Park yesterday. The great thing about Featherdale is their focus on native animals with whom you can get up close and personal (though I did use my 70-200 VR Nikkor most of the day). As always, critique is appreciated. Thanks for looking.

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[chrisk]

the first thing that struck me about these shots is the beautiful "crispness" to them. great exposures, great clarity, great colour. they look fabulous.
particularly love the koala one. very nicely done.

[Dave-D40]

Wow

But i like the wombat shot best. great work.

[Geoff]

Hi Peter, good photos but not your typical standard/quality to be honest. Maybe it's because you don't shoot animals/wildlife every day (except when you take shots of me hehe).

I find the focusing in the koala shot out. What focusing method did you use here? Everything but it's face seems nice and sharp. It's not OOF but just softer that the rest of the image. It's still cute though.

Croc shot - my favourite, crips, vibrant and 'in your face'...nice work and a lovely DOF.

Ibis - not much to comment on this, except the focus, DOF and sharpness is wonderful, I think a slightly tighter crop could work better here though, what do you (and others) think?

Wombat shot is cool, again great sharpness, colour etc.

Maybe my opening paragraph was a bit harsh, but I know you can take it.

Thanks for sharing, any more?

[Big V]

The koala is iconic

[DaveB]

I agree with Geoff about the koala: its hands seem more in focus than its face.

The croc's background is a bit distracting, and the ibis's background (the bright band above/behind its head) definitely keeps dragging my attention away from the bird.

Love the hairy-nosed shot.

[ATJ]

Peter,

I don't have a problem with the focus on the koala and I do think it is iconic. I find the twigs across the face a little distracting.

I love the crocodile but wish the tip of the snout wasn't cut off. The background is a little distracting. Did you try different apertures to see if you could throw the background more out of focus while still retaining enough DOF on the croc?

The Ibis is great, but the white in the background at the top is distracting. Could you have got a bit higher to get rid of it?

The wombat is great. I think I would have gone with a square crop.

[stubbsy]

Wow you're a tough crowd Thanks for all the feedback, it's very much appreciated.

I find the focusing in the koala shot out. What focusing method did you use here? Everything but it's face seems nice and sharp. It's not OOF but just softer that the rest of the image.

I'm also concerned about the softness on the koala's face. I was shooting from the ground up into a tree and he was maybe 20 metres away. Shot at 1/400 F4 and generally I'd attribute the problem to shallow DOF due to the aperture size, but I'm not certain given the distance he was away from me. For focus I was using the auto area AF when this shot was taken (had my camera set wrong - I normally use dynamic area AF), but I'm starting to worry I may have a back focus problem since none of my images seem particularly sharp, but I need to do some more structured testing. Looking at the image in Capture NX the focus area was his front claws.

The croc's background is a bit distracting, and the ibis's background (the bright band above/behind its head) definitely keeps dragging my attention away from the bird.

I love the crocodile but wish the tip of the snout wasn't cut off...The Ibis is great, but the white in the background at the top is distracting. Could you have got a bit higher to get rid of it?

The croc (1/1250 f5.6) was a problem since there was not much room to change angles so I was stuck with the background, but it's my lack of thought that chopped his nose. For the ibis - I agree the background is distracting and actually noticed that at the time, but I could not get an angle without this. Next time I'll move the bloody bird

The wombat is great. I think I would have gone with a square crop.

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[blacknstormy]

Gorgeous photos, but that wombat shot is superb !!! ( BTW I prefer the original crop)

[christiand]

Hi Peter,

nice shots.
If I may do some critique:

1st image: the paws of the koala are superb and so is a twig of that tree - his (her) face is unfortunately OF :(
also the dynamic range is too high for the lighting situation - I think.

2nd image: what happened to the very tip of the crock's nose ? (he lost the tip due to cropping ?)
Again dynamic range ? - was it lunchtime light ?

3rd image: what is the white band in the upper third part of the photo of the ibis ? again - dynamic range or
shadow and highlight somewhat not ok !

4th image: Willy or Wilhemine - the wombat - great, nicely done.

More Oz Animals:

nice photos - however I think the dynamic range in the lighting situation (time of day ?)
for these photos is too high - fill flash or softer light - next time ?

Best regards,
CD

[biggerry]

That wombat shot is a stunner, I like the original uncropped version, the burrow provides a frame for the tubby little fellow

[hrpremier]

I know the koala shot is iconic but I believe its the best by far. Most Koala shots the "bear" (I Know its not a bear) is cuddled up into a fork asleep. This one seems to be streching out whilst still sound asleep. Maybe its face is out of focus due to the green folidge between subject and camera. Well Done.


Also love the wombat shot. Nice low composition and its as if hes not even aware your there. A natural looking shot in a controlled environment. Not easy to achieve.

Jase

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