Small Collection of Western Wildlife

[Matt B]

I've lurked on this forum for a little bit and finally decided to make a profile and share some work to get some honest opinions. I picked up my first DSLR about 6 years ago but have only felt like I know what I've been doing for the past few as I continue to learn and work on things. Most my focus had been on landscape with the occasional wildlife, but last year I wanted to get more "into" wildlife so I took a two week road trip to South Dakota and Wyoming. The trip was not solely for wildlife but I figured it would be a great opportunity and provide more diverse large mammals than is available to me where I live in Wisconsin. My main setup for wildlife was a D500 and 200-500 while I used my D800E and various lenses for landscape work.

I will preface this by saying my technique for handholding needs some work and often times I got so excited by seeing the animals that I was not always paying attention to my shutter speed (was shooting in manual with auto ISO) and making sure it was appropriate. For instance, the black bear below was a surprise that popped up while driving and I forgot to bump it up from 1/80th. I had plenty of shots not turn out, but the main thing I wanted out of this trip was to learn, and I have plenty of material that is teaching me what I did wrong and how to correct it in the future. I recently downloaded a plugin for Lightroom that show focus points and I was surprised to see just how many shots (the vast majority) did not have the focus locked on where I wanted. This goes back to bad technique but is somewhat relieving knowing thats part of the reason things didn't turn out. My copy of the 200-500 is very sharp, so technique is my main thing to focus on (no pun intended).

So here goes. All animals were shot within national parks with the bighorn sheep being in the Badlands; black bear, trumpeter swan and pronghorn in Yellowstone; fox and moose in Grand Teton. I would especially like opinions on composition and cropping since I feel like that's one of my weak spots. I was able to get most animals to fill the frame, but the bighorn sheep facing me and the pronghorn were ones farther away where I'm not sure I made the best cropping choices.

#1

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

#2

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

#3

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

#4

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

#5

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

#6

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

#7

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

 

[Charles Loy]

Cool! 4 and 6 are my favs

 

[GregwithaG]

I'm new to this site as well and have only been shooting a short while longer than you, so take my comments appropriately. Overall, I like them. My favorites are 1 and 6. I love the silhouette in #1. I think that makes a very striking shot. For #5, I would have moved the subject further left so there was more open space in front. That way it doesn't look crowded. I might also pull back a bit to get the full reflection in the image. It adds nice symmetry. Otherwise, great job. I look forward to seeing more of your photos.

 

[Butlerkid]

Welcome! First, it is helpful to number the images so that people can comment on specific images.

#6 The fox is a lovely shot with nice eye contact with the viewer. Very good handling of the snow without blowing out highlights.

In general it is better to have the subject moving/looking toward the camera, or at least parallel to the camera. I try to avoid "butt shots" whether it be animals, birds or people! LOL!

#4 Black gear is nice also. Your choice of DOF nicely blurred the busy background.

Keeping shooting and posting!

 

[Charles Loy]

#3 shot, if there was an animal or other ahead that he was looking at shown in the image, it would be a better snap, but as is - yeah it is a butt shot. Keep sharing

 

[Matt B]

Welcome! First, it is helpful to number the images so that people can comment on specific images.

I even meant to do that and forgot. I went back and added them.

Agree with the comments about butt shots. I was trying to avoid them and was able to in most cases. I keep wanting to like a photo from the series of shots I got of that pronghorn since I liked the contrast of the sagegrass and the fall colors on the hill, but I was never able to get to him to look towards me. He was too fixated on a group of does being guarded by an even larger buck about 200 yards uphill.

This was probably a better pronghorn shot to share. This was in the same area about an hour earlier, he just wasnt as close as I would've liked, so this is a bit of a heavy crop.

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

 

[Matt B]

I'm new to this site as well and have only been shooting a short while longer than you, so take my comments appropriately. Overall, I like them. My favorites are 1 and 6. I love the silhouette in #1. I think that makes a very striking shot. For #5, I would have moved the subject further left so there was more open space in front. That way it doesn't look crowded. I might also pull back a bit to get the full reflection in the image. It adds nice symmetry. Otherwise, great job. I look forward to seeing more of your photos.

I agree. That's one I didn't that great a job of framing so I didn't leave myself much room to work with editing. Looking back, the full reflection is something I really would've like to have.

 

[DRwyoming]

I would especially like opinions on composition and cropping since I feel like that's one of my weak spots.

Welcome to the forums and thanks for sharing some images.

In terms of cropping and composition when my main subject is moving across or even looking across the frame I try to make sure there's extra room in the direction of travel or the implied direction of sight. So I might have placed the Trumpeter Swan a bit further to the left of the frame or cropped away a bit of the empty space behind it. Same basic idea for the silhouette image. The classic sideways portrait shots where the subject is looking back across the frame or back at you are a bit different and I like the way you handled that for the Moose, Fox images and Bear images.

Overall your cropping choices look good to me. I always try to think about whether including more environment around the main subject helps to tell a bigger story or at least includes interesting visual elements (e.g. the snowy trees and grass or sometimes autumn colors) or whether a larger and more personal primary subject would create a stronger image. No right or wrong, just different kinds of stories to tell.

Nice set, keep 'em coming.

-Dave

 

[The Sarge]

Beautiful shots, thanks for sharing..

 

[NorthernFocus]

I guess I missed this thread first go around. Nice, widely varied collection.

 

[Viathelens]

Hi Matt. I understand when you said you get excited…this June in Yellowstone I finally got a shot I had been wanting a long time, a wolf trotting in the snow: I think I might have been shaking from excitement!

I think you are, in general, doing really well, especially with exposure. Your obviously working to simplify the background in the scene with the subject being clear and apparent. I think composition is something you might want to work on next. Generally putting an animal dead center does not work as well as putting the animal in a “one-third” axis point position, to either side of the overall scene, if possible, this can often be done in post. This would apply to #5 & #1. Be sure to leave room for the animal to progress forward in the overall scene. In LrC you can often use the Transform>Scale tool to enlarge the subject and then move it around a bit. In #3 the shot would have worked very well had you waited and took the shot when the animal turned toward you, looking at an animal’s eyes is generally preferable to looking at his "behind." Having said this there is a very successful professional photographer who sells a “butt shot” for over $100,000 a pop and it is one of his most sold pieces! Don’t overlook a good butt shot if some emotional element is there! In #4 and #6 was it possible for you to move your feet a bit to get the shot without the bush in the way? A bush or stem across the face of an animal detracts from the subject: on the fox it looks like moving to the right just a bit would have prevented the weeds on his nose. I know sometimes we cannot move, but I’ve often seen photographers in a pack taking a shot together that is not ideal when moving just down the road a bit that same shot would improve. Remember to think with your feet whenever possible. Watch what the animal does and then move into a position to get the animal’s face clear of weeds or even moving toward you. Try to be a step ahead. (That is a beautiful fox, one of my favorite animals.) I think "a step ahead" also works with shutter speed, your shutter speeds are very low and can work well with an animal that is not moving. For moving animals you generally need 1/500 of a second or so and the shutter speed needs to be matched with the motion of the animal, which you learn as you go, generally by not getting the motion shot! With shot 7 you did a good job of getting the animal's face looking at you and free of weeds. I think you are doing a very good job of progressing in wildlife photography and with a little composition knowledge you’ll get a lot better yet. Be careful when cropping as sometimes the image you cropped works fine for digital posting but not so fine for printing, yet something else to learn.

 

[Woody Meristem]

Those a very nice. I think I'd cut some off the left side of #1 and #5 to effectively leave more room in front of the subjects and less behind them.