Urban squirrel gets a nut.

roscowgo

I've not been liking the choices my camera makes with this tamron lens, so I've been learning my way around manual mode. Still have trouble stopping motion without under exposing in anything but bright bright light. To be expected though, this is a slow zoom. of course when I'm in bright light my highlights shoot off the scale way too fast.

Wasn't expecting to get this first shot. Was set to focus once mode, and the critters around here usually stroll instead of streak.

First shot was pure luck, wasn't set up for motion at all. Just trying to compensate for handheld, high zoom, and no image stabilization. Still though, blurry squirrel.


2,3,4 I seem to have a lot more detail in the tree than the squirrel. I'm not sure what I've done wrong. I was set to center spot focus and had it locked onto his eye as much as I could. Thoughts?


They're also a little grainy, from fairly high iso and tight crops.

So please, beat me, tell me what I've done wrong, what would make it a little better, what can I try next time I'm out. Thanks.




Away!


Ah yes, 3 feet from where I was. This is safe.


Happy squirrel


Om nom nom

SciurusNiger

First things first; he is a she. And a mother, to boot.

I find using Aperature priority helpful when shooting active little critters (or birds). Spend some time getting comfortable with full manual, though; you want to learn the "sweet spot" for your particular lens/camera combo and can then make the necessary adjustments (EV) when you want to use AP.

If you think your lens is slow on its zooming, then make sure you force a refocus before shooting (like when the squirrel is sitting still). For example, if my goal was that squirrel, I'd focus on the tree, then refocus on the squirrel's eye, and then take the picture.

PJ.

roscowgo

SciurusNiger wrote: »

First things first; he is a she. And a mother, to boot.

I find using Aperature priority helpful when shooting active little critters (or birds). Spend some time getting comfortable with full manual, though; you want to learn the "sweet spot" for your particular lens/camera combo and can then make the necessary adjustments (EV) when you want to use AP.

If you think your lens is slow on its zooming, then make sure you force a refocus before shooting (like when the squirrel is sitting still). For example, if my goal was that squirrel, I'd focus on the tree, then refocus on the squirrel's eye, and then take the picture.

PJ.

In really bright light my new lens seems to do ok, but the least bit dim and the iso jumps from 1-200 to 3200. Any more than that and i am firmly in newspaper quality.

Thanks for the tips!