Photo Comp September 2013 "Creatures"

[RiK]

Hey there folks. Septembers topic, as chosen by Geenius is
'Creatures'.

Seemingly due to a serious lack of voters I won the comp! I'm sure it won't happen again.

Anyway, choice for September is Creatures. I'm really looking for anything small and beautiful in its own way. Anything smaller than a domestic cat sized living, breathing thing. I want some inspiration for what I enjoy shooting myself, such as below.



Information on settings and setting up for the shot wouldn't go amiss either:

Shortlist:

Cheers RiK

My top 3:


Just ... stunning!


Crystal clear and beautiful colour. Great shot.


I struggled to choose between this and the robin pic. Really like them both.

Props to Surfr (I like butterflies!) and GoatFoam (if the wasp pic was recent and a bit sharper it would have made my shortlist)

[RiK]

Hokay then, here's one for starters…


BristolZoo-9585 by Richard Olpin LRPS, on Flickr

Shot hand-held in the butterfly house at Bristol Zoo.

You wanted techie stuff:
Canon 5D Mark III with EF 70-200 f/2.8L II lens @ 200mm.
Shot in Aperture Priority mode with +2/3 exposure compensation to allow for the backlit shot and retain detail in the shadows of the body.
f8 - at that range the depth of field was tiny so even though it was fairly dark I had to stop down to f8 to get the butterfly and reflection in focus, but everything else in Bokeh.
1/80th sec was about the slowest I could get away with hand held, and even then I needed to push the ISO to 6400 to get that.

I cloned a couple of dirty marks from the table surface, but otherwise it's as I shot it.

Unless I dream up something better later on I'll nominate this as my entry for now..

[RiK]

Here's another old one from Bristol:


untitled shoot-3314 by Richard Olpin LRPS, on Flickr

Tech:
Canon 5D Mark II with EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
Handheld. ISO 1000, f/4.0 for 1/80s
Shot through glass

[RiK]

This little feller was *tiny*. You really can't tell from the photo, but in reality it's head was only about 2cm long.


BristolZoo-9186 by Richard Olpin LRPS, on Flickr

Nerd Info:
Canon 5D Mark III, EF 100mm 2.8 Macro lens @ 100mm with 25mm extension tube.
ISO 12800, f8 for 1/50s.
(Looking back at the EXIF data I was actually at -1EV on the exposure comp, so I could have got away with ISO 6400)

Handheld, but the front of the lens was jammed flat against the glass.
The snake's head was about 1½->2" the other side of the glass.

[RiK]

I've got plenty more, but wont spam up the thread. Let's see some others first eh!

[Zoot]

Haha Geenius - you pick "creatures" just 7 days after I sell my macro lens?

RiK - loving that your "macro" shots are at the far end of a telephoto - that's precisely why I got rid of my macro. I can get shots that are just as good with my f4 70-200 with the added advantage that I can be far enough away so that I don't spook the critters.

[Geenius]

You wanted techie stuff:
Canon 5D Mark III with EF 70-200 f/2.8L II lens @ 200mm.
Shot in Aperture Priority mode with +2/3 exposure compensation to allow for the backlit shot and retain detail in the shadows of the body.
f8 - at that range the depth of field was tiny so even though it was fairly dark I had to stop down to f8 to get the butterfly and reflection in focus, but everything else in Bokeh.
1/80th sec was about the slowest I could get away with hand held, and even then I needed to push the ISO to 6400 to get that.

I cloned a couple of dirty marks from the table surface, but otherwise it's as I shot it.

Perfect. Cheers for the info

[RiK]

RiK - loving that your "macro" shots are at the far end of a telephoto - that's precisely why I got rid of my macro. I can get shots that are just as good with my f4 70-200 with the added advantage that I can be far enough away so that I don't spook the critters.

Well in fairness, the only one of those shots that could be considered a proper macro shot is the snake's head, the others are simply close-ups. Macro really means that the image on the sensor is the same size, or bigger than the object is in real-life.

[Zoot]

RiK - loving that your "macro" shots are at the far end of a telephoto - that's precisely why I got rid of my macro. I can get shots that are just as good with my f4 70-200 with the added advantage that I can be far enough away so that I don't spook the critters.

Well in fairness, the only one of those shots that could be considered a proper macro shot is the snake's head, the others are simply close-ups. Macro really means that the image on the sensor is the same size, or bigger than the object is in real-life.

I know that, but I am increasingly aware that, unless you want to spend time doing focus stacking, taking true macros is a pain in the bum, especially at f2.8, and I would far rather do it with a telephoto - albeit at cost, of course.

[Surfr]

A couple from the past month or so


Painted Lady Butterfly
Taken on a Nikon D7000 with 300mm F4 non-VR at 1/1000s hand held in Welsh uplands.


Tortoiseshell Butterfly
Taken on a Nikon D7000 with 300mm F4 non-VR + 1.4x Teleconverter at 1/320s hand held in back garden.

[F-ZeroOne]

Couple of old shots:



Still the best bird shot I've ever taken; robins at least will hold bloody still occasionally!



These would have been taking with a Panasonic TZ20 on whatever settings "Auto" decided on.

[(o)(o)]

Image host died...

[RiK]

Obligatory squirrel shot!



5D Mk2, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM @ 102mm, 1/125th @ f/5, ISO400

Lying on my belly for an hour with a bag of nuts and seeds. After a while they just don't care and often the squirrels will come eat from your hand.

[RiK]

Burford-4743 by Richard Olpin LRPS, on Flickr

This little feller was such a cutie. Only a few weeks old and about 6" tall. This was in an open walk-through part of the park and the lemurs are totally chilled out around people. At one point this little chap came right up and grabbed my lens, but unfortunately I couldn't shoot it as it was well inside the minimum focus distance of about 1m..

5D MkII, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM @ 200mm
ISO 100, 1/200s, f/5.6

[Meow]

Creature.