Nevada's Wild Mustangs

[zulu42]

I should photograph these guys more often. They're comfortable around humans. 15 minutes outside of town and it looks like I'm in the middle of nowhere!

Using my 70-300mm lens, I took a lot of shots at 150mm up to 300mm, and still had camera shake problems on a tripod at 1/800 shutter speed. Guess I should have used a remote shutter release. I got more keepers using the 50mm prime.

C&C most welcome. I'm not happy with my image quality. I miss focus a lot, and when I nail the focus, the images still don't have the clear sharp quality I crave. Need more practice.

Thanks for looking!

1

2

3

4

5

 

[baturn]

Very nice! I particularly like the last one.

 

[zulu42]

Thank you kindly

 

[JustJazzie]

Wow! What an amazing thing to see. These are lovely.

I'm curious about your camera shake issues, I thought the rule was to use a SS 1/your lens length to avoid shake? I don't shoot long terribly often, maybe I remember the rule wrong? You mentioned using a tripod- you didn't accidentally have image stabilization on, did you? I will be shooting my boys first wrestling tournament this weekend using my 70-300, so I'd love a good refresher on this rule!

PS. # 3 is my favorite!

 

[zulu42]

Thanks very much! Visitors are always amazed to see the wild horses here. We get so used to seeing them, it's easy to forget how neat it is to have them around.

Thanks for mentioning image stabilization! In fact, I had the VR on the entire time. I had forgotten it is a no-no on a tripod!

 

[JustJazzie]

Thanks very much! Visitors are always amazed to see the wild horses here. We get so used to seeing them, it's easy to forget how neat it is to have them around.

Thanks for mentioning image stabilization! In fact, I had the VR on the entire time. I had forgotten it is a no-no on a tripod!

Thats how we feel about deer and bears here! Its not unusual for a herd of 10-15 deer to bed down in the yard, or even on the driveway, and the neighborhood bears are just an average sight around here. I used to take pictures of the deer, but I rarely do anymore. The bears always come out at night and I am not brave enough to startle them with speed lights.

We laughed a little when we went to yellowstone this summer and saw massive groups of people (30-50, I am sure!) with cameras standing together, with a park ranger holding down the line....went to see what all the commotion was about, and sure enough- "just" a bear. :giggle:

Glad to hear your focusing issue was solved!

 

[Braineack]

looks like atmospheric conditions were at play here too.

 

[zulu42]

Thanks for looking, Braineack While I'd like to share the blame with atmospheric conditions for the focus and IQ, really, it was clear. Any problems are operator error.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

I like 3 & 4 best. Very nice set. Must have been wondrous to have seen these.

 

[zulu42]

Thank you kind sir

 

[WesternGuy]

Nice set of images. I am surprised you can get so close to them We have them here in the foothills of the Alberta Rockies where they are referred to as feral horses. They are a lot harder to photograph as they are very leery of people. They generate an ongoing political battle between those that want to preserve them and a government that wants to keep them under control through an annual harvest.

Right now, there is a group of biologists trying to do some DNA analysis on them to determine their origin, if that is possible, and determine just "how feral they are". I am not sure what they are ultimately going to do with the results of their investigation.

WesternGuy

 

[zulu42]

Thank you, WesternGuy. The horses here are, similarly, a constant source of debate and activism. In some respects they are a nuisance, yet they are majestic.

As you can see, after they determined I was not a threat, I was able to get quite close.

One more from the set

 

[benhasajeep]

Don't want them too used to humans! Nice set.

 

[zulu42]

Thank you benhasajeep!


zachadajeep*

*2005 TJ 2.5" lift on 33s