Giraffe

[Bibos]

Hello everyone,
i've been to the Zoo in munich and tried to get some nice photos - BUT - i forgot my tripod and havent been able to get any photos that pass my own critique
Note: never forget your tripod when taking shots with a tele zoom

this giraffe is probably the best shot I was able to get, I dislike several things about this photo, especially the distracting background, but my lens only goes up to f/5.6 at this focal length - anyway, it's still one of the better photots from that day

What do you think?

 

[LaFoto]

To my mind, the background is much less distracting than the visible camera shake, but all in all this is a good photo which "wins" by the giraffe's facial expression. DOF and light are all ok.
(If I were to go to the zoo with the camera on a tripod, my family would go all crazy about me - they hate my stopping and photographing everywhere, anyway and NEVER wait for me, least of all my husband who will just walk on and leave me behind, risking to lose me ... but working WITH A TRIPOD? Oh dear... no way. Not WITH them).

 

[Raymond J Barlow]

I know how you feel, as I love nature/animal photography, and am constantly dealing with camera shake as I don't own a tripod..

I think your shot is cool, and made me smile as these amazing animals are always fun to see!

I use a d70, with the 70-300.. and do my best to control my shakey hands. The only advice i can give you is to crank up the iso if you can, and try to keep your sutter speed above 250.. and your aperature above f8.. If you saw my last thread at Manila zoo, I was lucky to catch 2 tigers out and about for a stretch.. I took about 50 shots, and ended up with one that barely made it to TPF standards.. and it really is a rather poor shot.

i will be shopping for something soon!

 

[Bibos]

Thanks Raymond, yea I just saw your thread before and I really like the sharpness in the right tigers face

I really thought about a lot of stuff when shooting at the zoo, about when to use my 50mm 1.8 because of the wide aperture and when to use the circ polarizer for the blue skies and to keep the reflections of the windows away.

But the one thing I NEVER thought about was my ISO SETTING *grrrr* But after you said it - that would have been the way to stop my camera shake at 200mm... hmm stupid me