Ideas, Thoughts, Feedback please

[Harryb]

Hi you'll,

Steve's post today on constructive criticism today got me thinking about things I would like to see here on the Nature and Wildlife Forum.

We post a lot of pics (that's the intent of course of this forum) but we don't talk all that much about how a shot was obtained. I'm considering creating a couple of "stickies" (posts that will stay on page 1) for the forum. Two ideas that come to mind are:

1. A "techniques" sticky where we can share what techniques we use to shoot our wildlife and nature shots. This could cover stuff like how we shoot flight shots, how we expose for different types of subjects, how and when do we use flash for different shots, how do we stalk our prey, etc.

2. An "equipment: sticky where we could talk about what tools we use in capturing our shoots. This could cover the use of primes vs. zooms, what lenses work well for you in your shots, what kind of tripod or tripod head is useful in getting what types of shots.

What do you all think?

[bfjr]

sure fire it up
You know I'll play :thumb

BTW where is Steve's post, and where ya been Steve ??

[ehughes]

Sounds like a pretty good idea Harry..


Ed

[ginger_55]

I agree with Harry,

ginger

[Ric Grupe]

....it would be redundant. Not that it would matter to me. Perhaps the best thing is to try it. Stickys can loose their glue! :D

[Trish323]

Sounds like a good plan!Trish

[davev]

I guess I think it would be better to give a little story about how the pic
was made with the pic, instead of in a sticky.

I've shot wildlife with my sigma 80-400, my canon 200 f2.8 with/without a TC,
my canon 28-135is, and with a tokina 400. And a lot of the times, you have to
change what you normally do because of weather, time of day, and so on.

So, I think a line or two with the pics can give you a better feel for the shots
that you're looking at, and not try to blanket all conditions into a sticky.

In closing, If a read only sticky was put there to ask folks to give a commentary
of what they did to get the photo, I'm all for it.

[Rohirrim]

I think its a good idea. Although I agree with Davev that it may be better to add that type of info to each individual post. But as they say you can't please all the people all the time :D

BTW where is Steve's post, and where ya been Steve ??
Heres the link to my post http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=19812.

Been too busy with work etc to spend much time with photography. I'm also heading out of town tomorrow and won't be back till Sunday so you all make sure you behave now!

[Andy]

harry it's about time you started to do some work 'round here....

[ginger_55]

I sure liked that info on the blind, that was a cool post and just the thing to put in for info, IMO.

ginger

[Harryb]

harry it's about time you started to do some work 'round here....WORK!!!!!! http://dgrin.com/images/smilies/yikes.gif http://dgrin.com/images/smilies/15524733-Ti.gif

[gluwater]

I think this would be a great idea. The best way to do it that I can think of is for people to put as much pertinent info as they can think of in their thread (ie. camera type, lens used, hand held/tri-pod/mono-pod/leaned against a tree, filters used, time of day and weather conditions, and anything else deemed useful, and of course Exif.) and then Harry could move those posts worthy into a read only sticky. It should definitely be read only or it will just get too clogged up.

[Thusie]

I think this would be a great idea. The best way to do it that I can think of is for people to put as much pertinent info as they can think of in their thread (ie. camera type, lens used, hand held/tri-pod/mono-pod/leaned against a tree, filters used, time of day and weather conditions, and anything else deemed useful, and of course Exif.) and then Harry could move those posts worthy into a read only sticky. It should definitely be read only or it will just get too clogged up.
Add a bit more to that (I like the above idea) such as questions folks ask with the answers that pertain directly to the shot. Not all of them but ones that add to what was done. Reason being I would think it could be easy for a more experienced shooter to leave, or not mention something , that is so normal for them, but might be a big tip for someone new.
Or would that make the whole process to complicated?

[Harryb]

Add a bit more to that (I like the above idea) such as questions folks ask with the answers that pertain directly to the shot. Not all of them but ones that add to what was done. Reason being I would think it could be easy for a more experienced shooter to leave, or not mention something , that is so normal for them, but might be a big tip for someone new.
Or would that make the whole process to complicated?
Nick and Thusie,

I like both your ideas. What I'm leaning towards is going over past posts and seeing which ones would be a good fit. A couple that pop into my head was my post about the effect of lighting on your shot and Windoze's thread about shooting at the zoo. If anyone has any other past posts that they think would be good they can PM me.

I should be able to copy and condense those threads and place them in the stickies. The threads in the stickies would be closed so that it would not get too cluttered. If anyone has questions on them they can PM me or start a new thread here.

I want to wait and see if there are any more good ideas out there before making a final decision. Thanks guys.

[jwear]

the idea is a good one but if we put pictures and conversation lets make it a one pic limit no group of shots and any one with ?? s can ask . or if you want to work Harry [and that is not my idea ]you can make links to pics and only have ?? and how we get what we get .but how many times can you say just got lucky and i go every day. ask Ben how you get an up close kite shot --you drive off road at 45 mph and scare jeff jump from your jeep and shoot while i park my truck and get shots from farther away stuff like that :D anything that will help getting better and more consistency in my shots I am all for :thumb

[luckydog]

I think the stickies are a good idea. The idea of a "ready reference" for tips on particular methods and "how to.." etc will be great :thumb :thumb :thumb

I know this doesn't apply to all the posts in the folder but...

What I enjoy most is the posts from people who add a short story about what they did in getting the shots and some info on what equip and settings they used because you can see the results of said effort in the same thread. Seeing the finished product always gets my attention :):

[gluwater]

the idea is a good one but if we put pictures and conversation lets make it a one pic limit no group of shots and any one with ?? s can ask . or if you want to work Harry [and that is not my idea ]you can make links to pics and only have ?? and how we get what we get .but how many times can you say just got lucky and i go every day. ask Ben how you get an up close kite shot --you drive off road at 45 mph and scare jeff jump from your jeep and shoot while i park my truck and get shots from farther away stuff like that :D anything that will help getting better and more consistency in my shots I am all for :thumb
I thought you just drive right up and park your car next to them and take the pics from the car?

Seriously, I remember a thread but couldn't find it where someone mentioned that if you pull over to the side of the road, in this case to take a picture of Mule Deer, that you should stay inside of your car because you seem less threatening. So they climbed half out their window and set teh tripod on the roof of the car and shot away. Is this the sort of thing you are looking for?

[Harryb]

the idea is a good one but if we put pictures and conversation lets make it a one pic limit no group of shots and any one with ?? s can ask . or if you want to work Harry [and that is not my idea ]you can make links to pics and only have ?? and how we get what we get .but how many times can you say just got lucky and i go every day. ask Ben how you get an up close kite shot --you drive off road at 45 mph and scare jeff jump from your jeep and shoot while i park my truck and get shots from farther away stuff like that :D anything that will help getting better and more consistency in my shots I am all for :thumb
Hey Jeff,

I think the one pic limit will be a good idea for any threads that end up in one of the stickies. No one will be obligated to give the entire saga of the shot on their posts. I sure won't but there will be times when you get a certain shot where a post explaining how you got the pic will be helpful to the rest of us.

[jwear]

I thought you just drive right up and park your car next to them and take the pics from the car?

Seriously, I remember a thread but couldn't find it where someone mentioned that if you pull over to the side of the road, in this case to take a picture of Mule Deer, that you should stay inside of your car because you seem less threatening. So they climbed half out their window and set teh tripod on the roof of the car and shot away. Is this the sort of thing you are looking for?Nick shooting from your car is the way to go and I do remember that post. That said shooting from the car is not always easy or practical .In the case of my avart shot that was shot from my truck the osprey perched on the no parking sign on PCH [pacific coast hwy] if i was to walk up he is gone so I sat counted the time it took cars to get to me from the light drove up counting in my head and shot as many as i could .that shot is a 300mm w tc1.4 at about 15 feet maybe 20 . he was looking the other way and turned his head and bent down and looked in at me .If i had Bens camera i would have had 200 shots :rofl here is more,Ben and I have found when they[birds of prey] are on the hunt and bif they will sometimes not mind you being there but as soon as they move off they will keep a distance .my kite shots are not as close as Bens and i worked hard to get the ones I did get .I would have had a close up like Ben but I thought the only reason to drive like that was a blonde in a bikini:wink it took me time to look up :D and shooting from the car in this case you would never have gotten a good shot or lets say not as good a shot .ok I used 2 periods in that ramble more than i have used in a year :1drink

[ginger_55]

Yes, I was going to say that I would like to know about the stalking techniques. People say I should use "stalking" techniques like they do. So I am ready to hear about these.

Drive by shooting sounds great to me. I have to say that I have never seen a raptor sitting in a tree, or on a pole while driving on a major thorough fare, or being the very observant passenger in a car while it was being driven on major/minor thoroughfare anywhere. I have seen them circling, but no posing birds.

ginger