Woot! I am finally replacing my tired D300

[Bonhomme Richard]

Tomorrow I should get the D810..I am excited.
Here is one of a series I took of a Bobcat about a month ago.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Cool.

Is this cat in the wild? Wild cats are so shy, at least the lynxes we have up here are.

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. Yes. This was in the wild.

The real trick was getting in a position he wouldn't see me and i could photograph him going about his business. In this shot he isn't biting the deer per say. He is trying to get a grip on it so he could drag it up into the woods. He couldn't budge it. The next day I came back and he had covered the remains with grass.

[alfredo]

3. You're going to love it. NadinBrzezinski has one now for use at her newspaper.

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. I think so.

I do a ton of wildlife photography, every day, morning and evening, and I get so frustrated when I have to shoot at a slow shutter speed because of the ISO limitations of the D300. Especially with birds in flight.
I am not keen on the huge file size but I couldn't wait any longer for a D300 replacement. Who knows...maybe I'll get into landscapes. LOL, they sell better than wildlife photos.
Another big upside to me is that the D810 is very quiet. Wildlife hear my d300 a 100 yards or more away.
Can't wait.
Also I can't say it enough..it is you all here that helped get me going with the camera and it looks like I am on the verge of actually breaking through into the market.
Thanks for your encouragement.

[alfredo]

5. I am envious of the patience displayed by wildlife

Photographers.

The community here has helped me become a better photographer. It is much friendlier and helpful than the other photo forums I inhabit.

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. I get the impression the are two types of Wilflife Photographers

The are the walk around see what I can find and get a great photo if I can. Nothing wrong with that but I find that you limit yourself to basically portraits (we all need those in the portfolio) and that lucky action shot. The portraits are...you see them and they see you, they stare for a moment, you get the shots you want and off they go. If you get lucky they will be so focused on something (eating or getting ready to eat) that they don't see you. Then you get the candid shot.
I am after the shots of the wildlife doing what they do when they think they are alone. That means...my three rule:
Get there before they do
See them before they see me
Don't move ( you can get away with noise and smell ( they may look but after a while they will relax and go about their business) but if they see you move you are done. They are gone.
So sometimes I will sit for 3 or 4 hours just waiting. Some might call it patience or maybe I just like doing nothing and vegging...LOL
It's been said that fishing was the art of doing nothing. I think wildlife photography takes that to a whole new level.

[alfredo]

7. One time I set up a blind, put my camera on a tripod, attached

a remote and waited. I got some good feeder shots, but not great.

I remember Mad magazine did a bit on a wildlife photographer. It showed him waiting for years for the special shot. When he finally did get the shot, his film had expired.

[Bonhomme Richard]

8. LOL, that's close to the truth.

I hand hold the camera 90% of the time and that is with the tamron 150-600mm lens. My subjects are way to fluid to use a tripod. When I can I set up in a spot where I have a tree limb or trunk to help steady the camera. One day I wanted a shot of this osprey as it dove into the eater to get a fish. She sat on that limb for a long time with me holding 8lbs of camera waiting. Thank God for the tree trunk to take some of the weight. I did get the shots at the end of the day.

[alfredo]

9. Once fatigue sets in, there's no way you can steady your shot. Age and injury forbids the

use of a large zoom. Now the only wild life is the annual Pride festival, and the Thriller parade. And the beautiful creatures ask for me to take their photos. That is not something a Ruby Crowned Kinglet would ever do.

People are the wildlife I like to photograph.