Photographers In The Playground

[JettWilderbeast]

I think its about high time we had a thread for Photography in this here playground! A place to come together and show off pictures and styles and what not whilst moaning about Nikon (Or Canon or other makes if you like and use:smallconfused: Nikon)

I myself primarily call myself a Wildlife photographer, I've been practicing for around 2 and a half years now (Almost every day, it's an obsession!) and I'm starting to really appreciate it for the lifestyle it encroaches, every early dawn start for that one moment....
I've been incredibly lucky over the last two days actually I got the chance to go to a conference in London called Wildphotos, an excellent chance to meet top wildlife photographers including; Jim Brandenburg, Jordi Chias, Chris Packham, Jose Ruiz to name but a few... I feel mean only mentioning those few becuase all the others were amazing too, a truly inspuring couple of days, I always wanted to reach the top and now I feel like I want it even more!

I don't mean to hijack the thread with wildlife photography I'm just getting the ball rolling! Feel free to talk about your own inspirations and styles!

Here is some of my work please feel free to comment and post your own!


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2200/2322229660_3841db8110_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2095/2321417705_459f9915e2_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2132/2199658844_5ec594434b_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2201/2199653780_6bcd911fcb_b.jpg

[Ishmael]

Hey,

Wildlife photography is pretty cool, but I currently lack the patience required for it. I prefer landscape/adventure photography.

I currently shoot with a Fujifilm s1000fd, which is an ultra-zoom point and shoot. It's a good camera, with a 12x zoom (but no IS!). I've been thinking of upgrading to one of the new Canon rebels, but they're a little beyond my price range...

[Don Julio Anejo]

There was a thread a while back... I posted a dozen or so pictures in there, too lazy to do so again, especially since there isn't much new stuff because I haven't had a chance to touch my camera in 4-5 months.

I mostly shoot street, portraits and parties/nightclubs (not counting random fooling around with friends) and I did it for comission last year instead of a dayjob while in university.

I use Canon 20D + Rebel XT (and I'm drooling over a Nikon D3 right now) with 50/1.4, Tamron 28-75/2.8, Sigma 10-20 and two flashes - 430EX and 580EX.

I'll post a link to the previous thread if I can find it...

[Penguinsushi]

Nice pics, Jett. :smallsmile: I like to shoot wildlife as well, but I'm somewhat limited until I can get a nice telephoto lens for my 40D (which i *love*). Looking at the 100-400 L series IS, which is about $1300. Still saving for that, along with quite a few other pieces of gear...

~PS

[Don Julio Anejo]

Unless you need a zoom lens, I would recommend the 300mm f/4L IS. It's a lot cheaper ($900ish on B&H last time I checked), has MUCH better quality/sharpess/bokeh, is faster and the only downside is that it's a prime. With a 1.4x teleconverter it also becomes a 420mm lens that's just as fast as the 100-400 on the long end, while still being sharper.

The only downside is that you don't get the short end of it.

[JettWilderbeast]

Yeh, it's a bit of a strange one, zoom lenses have the all rounder factor but fixed length lenses give sharper images.
I'm on a student budget so I've got a Canon 90-300mm f4-5.6, it wasn't actually mega money at all but I would swear on it as a good lens!
Another thing you could do of course is you a wide angle lens for wildlife photography, many of the best do it, in fact one of the winners of this years wildlife photographer of the year is Stefano Unterthiner and he used a wide angle lens for that shot!
I'm hoping to get my hands on a Macro lens at some point though...

Oh and penguinsushi, thanks :smallbiggrin:

[Penguinsushi]

@ Don -

Yeah, i'd believe the prime would have some sharpness on the zoom, but canon's L zooms tend to perform well - at least when compared to sub-pro primes. I know there's a school of thought that would say being dependent upon zoom lenses makes one a little lazy/sloppy, but I think not having the versatility would cause me to miss shots i might have otherwise caught. The other thing is, I'm (at best) a hobbiest photographer, and i'd like the keep the number of lenses i want/need/carry to a minimum. Going with a good zoom lets me cover a larger area than a great prime would.

Basically, you're right but i'll probably go with the zoom anyway. :smallsmile:

@ Jett -

Yeah, i've actually been shooting a lot of wider shots with my walk-around lately. I have a the Sigma 10-20 on my wishlist as well. In fact, i think Don pointed me to that one in the previous thread. As for wide-angle as it relates to wildlife photography: *great* when you're actually in the field, *HOWEVER* - when you're shooting small animals in your local area parks, etc, there are frequently unwanted background elements that are going to really distract in a wide shot. There are some great places around in the way of purely natural settings, but I don't seem to make it out there much, unfortunately.

~PS