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dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46310
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 25 12:35 pm Post subject:

UK wildlife were all exotics in the last 12000 yrs or so

other factors(they are called humans) are much more challenging to the resident spp than new comers

the raccoon snap is ace, they have bad habits but they do it with style

yesterday we had a murmuration of several thousand starlings, it has been a few years since we saw more than a few or a lost looking loner

ps decent cameras do help with the image quality, it still needs a snapper to take good uns

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16078

Posted: Sat Feb 08, 25 9:48 am Post subject:

If you mean they recolonised after the last ice age; yes, that is true. Those that did naturally are regarded as native though. Others have been naturalised for so long they are regarded as semi-native, and it could be argued that man is mainly responsible for most of the exotics. Some don't cause any trouble, like the yucca someone planted in our wood, which succumbed to the cold some winters ago, but thing like rhodi, and some of your nasty spiders really can be a menace.

Agree about the pictures. I have seen any number of awful pictures brought out to admire, but the odd one is really good. One thing with the old film cameras with only 8 or 12 frames to a film was that it made you think about composition very carefully and taught you to see one. Downside was that they weren't really very good for the quick picture as it happened, like the raccoon.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46310
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Feb 08, 25 12:50 pm Post subject:

old film camera, umm contax, leica, roliflex ,hasselblad or practika?

i had a german ww2 era 120 top viewer of undiscernable make, ace camera, compared to £5k of canon R and lenses etc it was different but had a few advantages

making the R work in a very cold or hot place might be challenging,
9 frames a second is a non starter with the 120, etc

i had a practika for 50 snaps, a pinhole in a biscuit tin is a better tool

my cheapo phone(£60) has a camera system that is adequate for show and tell instant snaps or what is that snaps that need doing now with reasonable lighting and speed expectations
not the tool for a "arty" or "technical" hi res snap

re arty, plastic ,10 snap, keyring camera, different practika snap

combine that thing with super primitive image software and a rubbish printer it is possible to make pretty pictures on decent paper

ps pretty will have no resemblance to the details when the button was pressed

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2585
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Sat Feb 08, 25 4:45 pm Post subject:

My father had a Sept camera, boxy looking thing that could take both full frame, half frame, and (brief) motion pictures on 35 mm film.

https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Debrie_Sept

and

https://www.johnwade.org/debrie-sept

When he died I inherited the camera. Never used it. Passed it on to my son. I think his wife had it mounted in a shadow box along with a picture of the Eiffel tower my father had taken, and a similar image son had taken (with digital camera, maybe phone) when they visited Paris.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2585
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Sat Feb 08, 25 4:53 pm Post subject:

And while my Nikon 35mm film camera was in some ways a friendlier camera, here's an image from yesterday afternoon taken with my Canon. Digital is very good for tweaking images at home with programs that allow one to crop, adjust brightness, etc. This image below was not manipulated very much at all.

These six deer were between the house and the street. Along with three more for a total of nine.

I had a college course on photography. Develop and print black and white 35mm. I have also developed 35mm color slide film. Which is much more persnickety about temperature / timing than b&w.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16078

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 25 9:36 am Post subject:

I learnt to process monochrome when I was a child. My father used to take over the kitchen and process his pictures there. Our son did a photography course at school, and I remembered enough to be able to help him with the processing, and my father showed him a few extra bits. Now of course with good digital photography it is a lot easier, and son produces some really good pictures. The main thing is to get the framing more or less right and have an eye for what is a good picture. With wildlife photography there is a lot more to it, but my favourite subjects are flowers, which have the decency to stay still unless the wind is blowing.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46310
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 25 12:34 pm Post subject:

wildlife is a different set of parameters depending on the subject, most are quite different to "normal" snapping parameters

the lens needs a big hole to harvest plenty of light

macro, general 35 to 105 and long lenses have different uses

lock off micro adjustment and video head tripod and freehold handle etc for a long lens are among the useful kit

remote wire button or better a wireless button

if you have a decent camera adding decent lenses etc helps a lot with getting a decent picture whatever the subject and conditions

patience, reaction snapping and cheating by "steering" the subject where you need it all have a role
sometimes all at once

a slightly odd observation, many snappers seem to work on the hide from the critter principle, quite often i have found not hiding and being obvious better(otters, birds mice etc)
sneaking and hiding is disturbing to humans and beasts, they will know you are there
settling in full sight, making yourself comfortable, cooking breakfast on a small fire and giving them a cheery greeting indicates a lack of malice towards them even with a pair of mutts and a less than sneaky human companion:wink:

humans are much easier to sneak than most beasts

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16078

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 25 8:46 am Post subject:
I am sure you are right Dpack. I don't have much experience of photographing animals. I certainly know that staying still, or moving slowly in plain sight disturbs them minimally. It is sudden movement that upsets them. We have had wood mice wander round our feet and husband almost had a pair of hares run into him when their mind was on other things.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46310
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 25 11:15 am Post subject:

blend in but do your stuff , you are just another critter doing critter stuff
try to sneak them makes them nervous

it gets better once you start to cooperate, dik is a good tutor

good sneaking can work for up close, but is best done with long lens, remote or detect "button" and no smelly(or otherwise detectable)human nearby

this applies to "hunting" in the same ways as it does to taking a snap

re "unplanned" the best camera is the one available in the required time frame, a cheap modern phone gets a better image in the conditions than top mid range hobby cameras from 20 yrs ago

there is crossover between this and ttdntas

if you must take snaps from indoors via a closed window, take a mo to get the poi on the subject rather than the glass(or the muck on the glass , window frame , curtain etc)
i know that seems obvious, it isn't to point and press cameras

ps clean the windows(and use optically better panes as replacements if needed) helps

antique glass is well wonky, no amount of focus through or post snap tweaking can eliminate it
from here the top pane (original 1897) makes the phone wires look like a worrying ECG, the lower sash pane that i put in using modern glass makes the wires look like drafted lines on a schematic

double glaze panels are difficult, 90 degrees on is the best bet, angled gets messy

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