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Thanks, did you use wide area for the otters in the water?
I actually did this recently! I had different requirements though. I just wanted a low angle with no distractions in the BG, and the otter doing something, not just gazing at me. I am still trying for a shot of one with a pup though, yours is amazing! Also, mine are not full body shots, although I got some bull body shots recently but haven't edited them yet.I don't have/work on what I'd describe as "projects" but my definition may be different due to my career. Rather I'd describe what I do as pursuing "perfect" images for various species in my mind's eye. Or re-creating past images that were near perfect content but had technical issues or some minor issue. But I don't pursue those things to the exclusion of other subjects.
One example for me is my annual pursuit of a perfect sea otter image. Every summer we make half a dozen week long boating trips on Prince William Sound. One of those weeks each year is a (more or less)dedicated photo tour. We always visit a bay that has historically had a high population of sea otters and particularly moms w/pups. Last week we made that trip. This year it wasn't very productive due to a combination of unusually low number of animals and poor shooting conditions. But we persevere...
The perfect (northern)sea otter image in my mind's eye:
1) Is actually an image of perfectly smooth/colorful water with an otter passing through it.
2) If it's a mom with pup on here belly they must both be making eye contact(both eyes) with the camera
3) If an individual animal must have good eye contact and one rear foot/flipper should be above the surface with water dripping off
4) Must have a great display of whiskers and perfectly sharp.
5) A great reflection is a bonus but at minimum needs to be a single reflection(i.e. not multiple across the tops of waves/ripples)
6) Needs to be at a low POV but not so low that it brings the horizon into the image.
7) Must have enough pixels on target to allow printing (near)life size(i.e. about four foot horizontal dimension)
Here is a near perfect shot but was shot years ago and has a few technical issues. Looks great in this format but isn't high rez enough for my print criteria. If I could to re-create this one with current day equipment/skills I'd be content(yeah right...).
And here is the best I managed this past week. Great eye contact, good whiskers, got the flipper out of the water. But the water is too rippled in FG, wake is too prominent, not enough bow wave, etc, etc.
View attachment 63348
Yes, wide S with subject detection on. There's water and then there's water. Smooth water like in these images doesn't bother the AF at all. However in my experience shooting BIF over water I've had less issues with the Z9 than I did with group AF area on DSLR.
I've got photos of them doing about everything that they do. IMO they're never quite as interesting as it was watching them at the time. I think video is necessary to really show some of their behaviors. That's why I settled on a well done image of an otter just being an otter as the ultimate still photo. Although capturing images of them out of the water can be pretty interesting.
Amazing shots of the wood ducks! I would love that as a project but not enough of them around here to make it work!
Elena, I enjoyed your photos of the Bee eaters! I would say you are real close to getting the photo you want. I find that when I come back from a great opportunity I find that often I am initially disappointed with my results but don’t start hitting the delete button too hard until the next day when sometimes I then think that some of these images are pretty good. I do like this thread as I also like the idea of making a project out of a particular bird. (Maybe Snail Kites, Crested Caracaras, Black skimmers, or Oystercatchers) but again the access is not easy and I am still working too much.I posted a few pictures of European Bee-eaters in a Presentation Forum here:
I shoot about 4000 images to get one
And still didn't get it ;-) Need to repeat my shooting again and again. Here are some of the images but I am still not happy with the result. Here the distance to the wall and the lighting are ok and but I don't like the pose. Here I like the pose but the background is too close and too...bcgforums.com
and found out that @StefanSC is trying to get the same shot (or almost the same) So, we both have a similar personal project.
A personal Project for me means that I have a vision, a picture in my mind and trying to get that picture. It is my goal.
The criteria like the following: the right interesting pose (it must tell a story), good and not very harsh light, background far away from the subject and preferably dark, the picture must be sharp and 3000px in a long side.
Thanks to Stefan, he gave me a few ideas about bee-eaters behaviour.
@raptor photo has a personal project of getting a raptor pursuing a songbird or duck.
And @12markus12 has apersonal project to photograph a budger but he mentioned he hasn't found one yet but had an encounter with a fox.
Well, in Africa it will be probably an easier task becasue honey badgers are used to steal some food from self-drivers ;-) But to see one budger in Europe (so, European one, not Honey ;-) is not easy! I also didn't see one.
But I also saw a nice female fox while photographing bee-eaters in 2018!
What are your personal photographic project at the moment?
Budgers, Bee-eaters, Raptors? Which species are you looking for? And what are you working on? Tell us about your progress and difficulties.
