Baby Marmots- not just another marmot on a rock

JCJC Registered Users Posts: 768 Major grins
edited August 3, 2012 in Wildlife
Wildlife in the high Sierra from a recent trip, mostly above the tree line.

Marmots were the most common animal we saw, no bears this trip, no mountain lions, just a couple of deer, but a ton of marmots everywhere. The trip was looking to be full of just another bunch of common marmots:

1) Checking us out for potential food
i-mDB2zJf-M.jpg
2) Mocking me as I struggle over Army Pass at about 11,900 feet (36.496107°, -118.236984°)
i-zmDVd9m-L.jpg

but then I got lucky:
Baby marmots behind our tent group at Trail Camp below the Whitney ridge at about 12,000 feet.
3) all marmots, all the time
i-SQp4gqq-L.jpg

I don't have anything for scale, but I'd say that they were still, without their tails, about fist sized?

4) Baby marmot tries to eat a feldspar phenocryst (a big piece of feldspar crystal)
i-BBnTNzq-L.jpg

Baby marmots faceoff and mock fighting -I should have upped the shutter speed, my default with this lens is 1/200, and i never thought that marmots would need shutter speeds closer to BIFs (I always read BIFs as banded iron formations, which is odd, because they definitely don't move that fast).

5)
i-gs3qQxp-L.jpg
6)
i-vZwgQbQ-L.jpg
7) 'ruined' by motion blur, but i love it
i-Fs8vdGP-X2.jpg
8)
i-tPzmMSF-L.jpg
9)
i-5MVnFpn-L.jpg
10) Wait, stop, we have an audience.
i-8KrhkSp-L.jpg
11) Eating a seed, I think, we kept a clean camp
i-sNtdZwT-L.jpg

12) More camera awareness
i-PMj8jxC-L.jpg

13)PSA- this is where your trash ends up!
i-g6QPsqv-L.jpg

14) Mom, watching me mildly concerned.
i-Fb82Rk6-L.jpg
(this one is cropped to keep a neighbors bright blue wag bag out of the shot.

C&C is welcome, I think the biggest place I could have improved was just recognizing I needed a faster shutter speed. I thought I wanted more depth of field to get more of them in focus, but I think most of the softness in these is from motion. Used more sharpening in post than I usually do to make up for it.
Yeah, if you recognize the avatar, new user name.

Comments

  • Dick on ArubaDick on Aruba Registered Users Posts: 3,484 Major grins
    edited August 3, 2012
    You can say "In the abundance of water the fool is thirsty", but that was certainly not the case with you. Although 13 marmots in a dozen where you was, you still find it interesting enough to shoot this documentary....I'm glad you did.

    Nice work thumb.gif
    "Nothing sharpens sight like envy."
    Thomas Fuller.

    SmugMug account.
    Website.
Sign In or Register to comment.