Another nutcase

[TimothyPeacock]

One from the park a couple of weekends ago.

EXIF: F/2.8 1/400sec ISO200

Your comments can only make me improve, thanks for looking!

Tim

 

[Scuba]

cute picture. I think if he were facing the other way and the light was hitting his face it would be better. I know that really isn't in your control though. The background is a little distracting too but again not much you could do about that.

What lens are you using?

 

[TimothyPeacock]

cute picture. I think if he were facing the other way and the light was hitting his face it would be better. I know that really isn't in your control though. The background is a little distracting too but again not much you could do about that.

What lens are you using?

50mm 1.8

I was pretty close to it, so didn't want to move for a better shot and risk scaring him off. Just the shutter going made him jump a bit!

 

[GeorgieGirl]

I remember when I was a younger person that my father told me if I took one more pciture of a duck in water he would stop developing my film rolls....I get that now. Even with digital, certain critters are not/should not be part of the effort.

 

[TimothyPeacock]

I remember when I was a younger person that my father told me if I took one more pciture of a duck in water he would stop developing my film rolls....I get that now. Even with digital, certain critters are not/should not be part of the effort.

Is that suggesting we shouldn't take photos of squirrels? Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick? Haha

 

[Scuba]

I remember when I was a younger person that my father told me if I took one more pciture of a duck in water he would stop developing my film rolls....I get that now. Even with digital, certain critters are not/should not be part of the effort.

Confused by this. I think you implying that too many pictures of squirrels are taken. Really? One could say that about everything if they wanted to and if each picture wasn't different with each photographers interpretation I would agree, but they are different and that is what makes photography interesting.

 

[GeorgieGirl]

You asked for comments to improve and I gave them. This is a snapshot of a squirrel. How do you rate this against any other squirrel shot you have ever seen or taken before? Do you look at this and think Wow? If so, why? If not, why.

 

[CMfromIL]

@ GeorgieGirl,

Your comments are neither instructive, nor aimed at 'improving' the OP's technique or quality of photography. If you don't like nature shots, or those of squirrels in general...perhaps another area of the forum might better suit you.

While your sob story of your father admonishing you about duck pictures was heart wrenching and sad...not really relevant.

@Tim,

I like the picture. The squirrel has a funny shadow on it's face, but overall its a nice shot. I enjoyed looking at it.

 

[GeorgieGirl]

@ GeorgieGirl,

Your comments are neither instructive, nor aimed at 'improving' the OP's technique or quality of photography. If you don't like nature shots, or those of squirrels in general...perhaps another area of the forum might better suit you.

While your sob story of your father admonishing you about duck pictures was heart wrenching and sad...not really relevant.

@Tim,

I like the picture. The squirrel has a funny shadow on it's face, but overall its a nice shot. I enjoyed looking at it.

It doesn't take but a second to point and shoot a camera and take a shot of a squirrel.

With a 5d in hand and that approach .. If one wants to test drive a new camera and point and shoot at anything along the way and ask for advice on improving, I think starting with the subject matter is step one.

With digital there is more waste of time and effort because it's easy to snap a shot of anything and it costs nothing. It's a bad habit to get into.

 

[CMfromIL]

@GeorgieGirl,

The guy has 19 posts, indicating he's new to the forum. Way to roll out the red carpet with a wide smile and a pleasant commentary. Again, any practical advice for the new member...or more drive by commentary? If you don't like it move on.

 

[Overread]

GeorgieGirl --- sooo you're advice about how to take better photos of squirrels and wildlife is to -- not take photos of squirrels? That sounds a bit counter productive to me I mean I can't see how you can improve on taking such pics if you don't take them at all.

Your second post has merit and asks the right questions

How do you rate this against any other squirrel shot you have ever seen or taken before? Do you look at this and think Wow? If so, why? If not, why.

These are good questions and I'd encourage Timothy to do his best to answer them, but otherwise I fail to see the constructive input in telling someone not to shoot a certain subject type.

 

[GeorgieGirl]

GeorgieGirl --- sooo you're advice about how to take better photos of squirrels and wildlife is to -- not take photos of squirrels? That sounds a bit counter productive to me I mean I can't see how you can improve on taking such pics if you don't take them at all.

Your second post has merit and asks the right questions

These are good questions and I'd encourage Timothy to do his best to answer them, but otherwise I fail to see the constructive input in telling someone not to shoot a certain subject type.

Over.., anyone can take a photo of anything they want and the op has yet to react while everyone else seems to want to overreact. But there had been a deluge of squirrel photos lately so maybe I'm just not keeping up with the times.

And just for giggles, I survived my first two photo posts with some tough criticism of my efforts. Those efforts were far more sophisticated than this picture and nobody died from it.

I don't take duck photos anymore though. Kinda gave that up when I recognized there was absolutely no creativity in what I was doing as I was doing it. I admittedly did not see that on my own.

 

[TimothyPeacock]

GeorgieGirl --- sooo you're advice about how to take better photos of squirrels and wildlife is to -- not take photos of squirrels? That sounds a bit counter productive to me I mean I can't see how you can improve on taking such pics if you don't take them at all.

Your second post has merit and asks the right questions

These are good questions and I'd encourage Timothy to do his best to answer them, but otherwise I fail to see the constructive input in telling someone not to shoot a certain subject type.

Over.., anyone can take a photo of anything they want and the op has yet to react while everyone else seems to want to overreact. But there had been a deluge of squirrel photos lately so maybe I'm just not keeping up with the times.

And just for giggles, I survived my first two photo posts with some tough criticism of my efforts. Those efforts were far more sophisticated than this picture and nobody died from it.

I don't take duck photos anymore though. Kinda gave that up when I recognized there was absolutely no creativity in what I was doing as I was doing it. I admittedly did not see that on my own.

I don't look at it and say wow, that's partially why I post on this forum, to get feedback on how to improve.

I'm not particularly sure that the fact everyone is taking photographs of squirrels at the moment means that it's a bad thing. From my eye it's just like everyone taking photos of snow scenes at winter. However, that doesn't matter.

Taking photos of animals is something completely new to me, I'm much more comfortable with people. To me the photo doesn't particularly pop and shout look at me; this is partially the angle, the lighting isn't great (the shadow over his face as someone else mentioned), and the background is a bit distracting.

Are those all things that you would also say are 'bad' about the picture?

To improve it in my mind, I'd want to be closer to the floor so I'm at a 'squirrels eye view'. I'm not completely sure of the composition, it's difficult to play the rule of thirds with an animal with such a large tail, and I don't think I'm at the level to start 'breaking the rules' with this kind of photo.

There's my critique of the image; do you agree, are there any other things you can suggest that will help me improve?

Thanks,

Tim

 

[GeorgieGirl]

I think you have two key elements in your line of sight. The first is the level of your camera to the subject and the other is the background. These elements are similar in phographing people. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings so please accept my apologies if that is how it came across.

The only other thing that I see is the color, so I wonder if you post process at all, or did with this shot. My eye sees this as a tiny bit watered down in that department and could maybe be sharpened a speck.