ngorongoro crater
Jun. 3rd, 2022 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twoeleventhis why I carry around 17 million pounds of camera toys:
i'm really pleased with it; that took only four exposures in a single burst.
it also demonstrates why I was having such trouble getting animals solidly in focus: the depth of field is extremely shallow. while the gazelle's face is sharply focused, its near ear and most of its neck is blurry. that's despite the lens being stopped down to f/7.1, which is close to as good as it gets for the lens – f/8 to f/11, which are too slow for wildlife photography¹ – and don't add much in terms of depth of field. it's simply a limitation of a long lens and a small sensor.
and this is an answer to the common "kid at a zoo" complaint, "why aren't the animals doing anything??":
there's not much for them to do in a typical zoo, and in any case, few zoos have breeding programs for abundant animals, so visitors never get to see them growing up. these young bucks are just playing around; older male gazelles so closely matched would be trying much harder to mess each other up.
these are egyptian ducks; I like that the one in the back left is giving me the hairy eyeball.
a face only a mother could love:
this face is a bit easier to love, though the disruptive camoflauge is a bit hard on the eyes:
the second one has more in focus because of the shorter focal length, about 70% of the close-up.
a hippo out of water, an unusual thing:
i wonder what took a bite out of its shoulder.
these two show off the wonderful variety of living things in ngorongoro and serengeti. in this one, there's a pair of sacred ibises in the near distance in left center and some cape buffalo far to the right. way in the background are a few gazelles, and what look like wildebeesties, as well as more zebras.
also a truck full of h. saps kicking up a lot of dust in their native habitat. olduvai gorge is just a little to the west of the crater, but we didn't bother. we know the science, the museum isn't that great, and we didn't think to check if we knew people who knew people who could get us into the dig itself.
this one has a better view of the wildebeesties and the gazelles living among the zebras, along with some flamingos and other water birds in the river. and I like the way both of these have the crater wall in the background.
more, including a few birds that weren't quite in focus.
i'm really pleased with it; that took only four exposures in a single burst.
it also demonstrates why I was having such trouble getting animals solidly in focus: the depth of field is extremely shallow. while the gazelle's face is sharply focused, its near ear and most of its neck is blurry. that's despite the lens being stopped down to f/7.1, which is close to as good as it gets for the lens – f/8 to f/11, which are too slow for wildlife photography¹ – and don't add much in terms of depth of field. it's simply a limitation of a long lens and a small sensor.
and this is an answer to the common "kid at a zoo" complaint, "why aren't the animals doing anything??":
there's not much for them to do in a typical zoo, and in any case, few zoos have breeding programs for abundant animals, so visitors never get to see them growing up. these young bucks are just playing around; older male gazelles so closely matched would be trying much harder to mess each other up.
these are egyptian ducks; I like that the one in the back left is giving me the hairy eyeball.
a face only a mother could love:
this face is a bit easier to love, though the disruptive camoflauge is a bit hard on the eyes:
the second one has more in focus because of the shorter focal length, about 70% of the close-up.
a hippo out of water, an unusual thing:
i wonder what took a bite out of its shoulder.
these two show off the wonderful variety of living things in ngorongoro and serengeti. in this one, there's a pair of sacred ibises in the near distance in left center and some cape buffalo far to the right. way in the background are a few gazelles, and what look like wildebeesties, as well as more zebras.
also a truck full of h. saps kicking up a lot of dust in their native habitat. olduvai gorge is just a little to the west of the crater, but we didn't bother. we know the science, the museum isn't that great, and we didn't think to check if we knew people who knew people who could get us into the dig itself.
this one has a better view of the wildebeesties and the gazelles living among the zebras, along with some flamingos and other water birds in the river. and I like the way both of these have the crater wall in the background.
more, including a few birds that weren't quite in focus.
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Date: Jun. 12th, 2022 03:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 12th, 2022 04:27 pm (UTC)