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hey all,

I really want to start shooting some other things then Aircraft. With the weather being really good around here, I want to do some wildlife photography.

I am planning to shoot some Scottish Highlanders, they are released in our local forrest. (it is a very small recreational forrest with a small corner of it destined for "real" nature)

I've been watching "Wildlife Photographer" on Animal Planet, and the photos i see there are great in color. I know they are shot on Velvia.

But I like to get the animals standing in some groundmist during early sunrise.
Will Velvia be too slow for this? (4-5,6 lens) If so, what should I use, Provia?

1 More question, I want to make the groundfog really show up with a golden sunrise tint to it. Should I shoot backlit, or should I always get the animal to be properly lit?

I hope I made myself understandable. (English isn't my mother language)

Thanks in Advance,

Wietse de Graaf,
Netherlands

You can get Provia at ISO 100 and at ISO 400. That will give you more flexibility for low-light situations. Carry those and Velvia with you and choose which to use based on a meter reading you take at the time.

To get a golden tint fog, you need a golden tint sunrise. That may take patience. Watch the weather patterns for
several weeks and notice what type of sunset and sunrise they produce. Often color is affected by humidity, dust, recent storms. Also realize that not every sunrise has to be golden to look good. Pink and purple make some fascinating pictures as well.

Also remember that contrast has a lot of impact on low-light situations. Check the difference between the highlights and shadows before you snap a picture, and keep track of what kind of contrast each type of film can deal with. If you intend to have prints from slides made, realize that either the highlights will lose detail or the shadows will drop to solid black, even when your original slide looks great. Paper can't deal with the huge contrast slides have.

Experiment and try things out. Wildlife and sunrise/sunset settings are in large part luck -- you deal with what nature gives you. Some days it'll be bland, and you'll just have to keep coming back. This is why it's useful to learn the patterns of the seasons and weather, so you can sort of predict when a good sunrise will be.

Final tip: Make absolutely sure you have a tripod for this. Taking pictures of animals usually means using a long zoom lens (maybe aircraft did too?) and those are difficult to hand-hold in dim light.

Thanks, perhaps experimenting is the best thing to do. Aircraft also require long lenses, but the constant moving object and constantly changing composition makes it damn near impossible to shoot with tripod, just not enough control over you movements. Additional to that, I only shoot in perfect light, Aviation Photography kinda requires that. With good light, my 75-300 has shutter speeds of 500-750/s with Provia 100F. That is pretty handholdable.

With the weather deterring here, I'll try this some time later.

Wietse de Graaf

If you get sick of using long lenses / read here cant afford em /

Why not bait an area several times in a week.
especially if its local.
Go there several times at the same time of day ..say sunrise
continuosly and put a little(dont let it be so much that the Animal is dependent on it) of its food out.
and leave one piece of gear with it and build up toward leaving a camera on a tripod prefocused on the food.
use a remote and you'll get a picture in no time.
or within a week anyway;)
like the old saying goes patience has its own rewards.

Or, if you wait until September, Velvia 100 is supposed to be coming out.

Good to see you get back into real photography Wietse, and hanging that D60 to dry :)

If you want to get close to wildlife, the Oostvaardersplassen is home to a herd of wild horses that often get close to the roads.
There's also a group of geese and ducks nesting close to a hide where you can shoot them easily.

If you want I can drive you around there some day, contact me to make an appointment (I know you have no car and biking all the way would be too far for you I guess).

Marcos R F.	Uwe B.	Sylvia H.	Jan S.	Czeslav G.	dimitar b.	Maria H.	Ann .

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