Your best animal shots!

[tnargs]

After spending quite a bit of time standing on a rock in the middle of a swamp I was happy to have been able to capture these shots of Dragonflys.

I got many shots of them resting on bits of grass, but what I was really after was shots of them in flight.

I was using my 7D with an old ef-s 55-250mm lens.

Mate, I'm impressed. What is your technique for getting one in flight?

 

[strikerwy]

A variety of crop bodies all connected to Sigma 300-800 5.6.

 

[Idiot4Hire]

After spending quite a bit of time standing on a rock in the middle of a swamp I was happy to have been able to capture these shots of Dragonflys.

I got many shots of them resting on bits of grass, but what I was really after was shots of them in flight.

I was using my 7D with an old ef-s 55-250mm lens.

Mate, I'm impressed. What is your technique for getting one in flight?

Thanks tnargs!
My technique was pretty simple. I stood very still in the swamp for a while and just watched the dragonflys. After a while I could see particular ones were always flying along the same path, as though they were patrolling their territory. After that it was a matter of setting the focal distance that worked for me, putting the 7D into high speed burst mode and then tracking the dragonfly through the viewfinder and taking bursts of shots when they fly into the correct zone. For every decent shot I had another 10 or so crap shots (I am so glad that I don't shoot on film).

There are probably better methods than this, but it worked for me.


And while I am posting in this thread I may as well add another couple of my animal shots


Male Eastern Water Dragon by Idiot4Hire, on Flickr


Water Dragons Eye by Idiot4Hire, on Flickr

Both of these were shot with my old 1100D with the ef-s 55-250mm lens. I took the first shot and he seemed to calm and placid so I decided to see how close I could get to him. As you can see, I got quite close!

 

[strikerwy]

A few more with crop body and 300-800 lens.

 

[scottkinfw]

Serengeti Wildebeest

 

[scottkinfw]

Kingfisher with grasshopper

 

[scottkinfw]

Lion Cubs

 

[scottkinfw]

Hornbill

 

[scottkinfw]

Hornbill with snack

 

[tofik]

C30D, EF 70-200, ISO 3200, Warsaw Zoo

C7D, Bydgoszcz Zoo

C30D, Nemo - Oceanographic Museum of Monaco

 

[Zouf]

hazard cat met in pain...miaou!
C5D2 24-105 @ 105 f/4 1/125 iso500

 

[Quacked]

Not the greatest image in the world, but takes me back to a great holiday every time I look at it.

Taken in Vanuatu 2010.

 

[Darlip]

Big cat, by Swedish standards at least


Swedish Lynx by Darlip, on Flickr

 

[Click]

Big cat, by Swedish standards at least

Very nice shot Darlip.

 

[Darlip]

Very nice shot Darlip.

Cheers, love the 70-300

 

[Northstar]

Kingfisher with grasshopper

Great shot!

 

[IslanderMV]

Harbor seals - Martha's Vineyard
60D and 100-400mm
Handheld while standing in surf, image stabilization rocks !

 

[lion rock]

One from Hokkaido. Driving along a highway and here came two deer. Stopped the car in the middle of the road (thankfully no traffic around), and these two deer just came trotting toward us. They went to the side of the road to avoid coming too close to us but slowed down by the piled up snow bank and I took this (along a series of frames of them approaching). They were less than eight feet from us.

 

[bjd]

Damp dark day here today, the Squirrel was in focus till he jumped. AF just didn't follow him though.
Still thought I'd post it anyway. I hope it isn't my best animal shot!
Cheers Brian

 

[serendipidy]

Damp dark day here today, the Squirrel was in focus till he jumped. AF just didn't follow him though.
Still thought I'd post it anyway. I hope it isn't my best animal shot!
Cheers Brian

Historic shot! You have posted the second photo (the first one was taken by fohtohz) which illustrates the Nobel prize worthy theory of localized gravity malfunction recently put forth by rpt (in the "show your bird portraits" post thread). ;D