Bull Island Seals Dublin Photo shoot

Bull Island is located just south of Howth, around a 10 min drive from Howth harbor. It is a nature reserve, so make sure to follow the rules listed there. In order to find the seals you need to park on the northern part of the Island (Second bridge if you are coming from Dublin)

Park your car in the sand parking lot, and get ready for a 20-30 min walk. Here is a quick map on where you will find the seals my location is marked with the purple marker.

For Olympus RAW file usage with GPS I recently discovered GeoSetter, great tool that can work with the .ORF files, write the .xmp card or directly into the file to accommodate GPS data. Highly recommended.

Funny enough this map shows the exact GPS location where I was located, but bear in mind that the tide changes, so that area could be covered with water any other day, but I have been there 3 times and the seals are always located on the northernmost corner of the island, but not all the time laying on the sand, which was the shot I was looking for. After a couple of tries, here is what I managed to get prior to this day..just a few head shots.

I believe that in order to get shots from the seals outside of the water there must be a reasonable amount of sun and a low tide, this last time I went was around 9AM, so I dont think the hour in the day matters that much.

My Gear:

Olympus E3

Olympus E30

Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8

Zuiko Teleconverter 2X EC-20

Hoya Polarizer Filters

Lowepro FastPack 250

Wind resistant pants and jacket

Wellies

After a good 30 minute walk,  and depending on the tide you will find the seals at the northeast corner, approach very slowly and be very careful of the sand. I misjudged some weed and sand banks and went right in all the way to my knees covered with weed,sand and I am sure smell liked shit.  Once you are 50-75 meters away from the seals lay down on the sand, take your gear out and start approaching them by dragging yourself trough the sand, if the seals see something taller or something similar to a human shape they will dive right into the water.

Take a few shots and get closer, make the seals comfortable, and then get closer again, if some of them get scared and dive into the water stop immediately, stay still for a few minutes and move again. I saw a group of 15-20 seals but as I got closer and the tide rose few and few seals remained.

Use your bag as a bean bag and start shooting, I used Shutter and Aperture Priority Mode, low ISO (100) and a polarizer filter. I tried some shots with the tele-converter but I thought I was sacrificing too much sharpness, so decided to get closer and also crop some of the images to close-in the seals.

Being gray seals, the metering system will struggle with the light measuring of both the harsh light reflecting on the sea and the dark features on the seals faces, so compensated with EV+1 to bring some details on the face, or try and fix on post processing.

Puppies are very curious so they are the ones that will be the most active and will get closer to you, but be careful in never getting between the puppy and the mom, as they will feel threatened. Also as some seals go in the water be aware always of where they are, they can come out behind you and you dont want to be too close, a seal bite can be very nasty and have lots of bacteria in their mouths that can cause a big infection.

I lost a very good shot of a fight between 2 adult seals. If you see a seal approaching another one, and their heads are close to each other,  one of them will open its mouth that’s the beggining, put your camera on burst mode and do some manual focusing as you will see a fight that will only last for a few seconds.

Always be mindful of the tide, if you think that the waves are getting closer and closer you are right. Usually the seals are on a spot higher than the tide, that means that if you are not careful you will end up on a little sand island surrounded by water that is rising, believe me I was stuck once and had to walk with water up to my knees hauling my gear, hence the wellies. Once you get home, clean your equipment right away, there will be sand between the extension part of your lenses and all around the buttons, even though the E-3 is weather sealed, clean this with an air brush as you dont want corrosion. For your bag, wait for the sand to dry and then shake all the sand off, there will be a lot of sand accumulated on the back area of the backpack that you wont see but once it dries it will come off rather easily. If you want to see the whole set of pictures visit my site at flickr here..

del.icio.us Tags: seals,Dublin,photo,photography,Bull Island,Nature,Olympus,E-30,E-3. sea lions,wildlife,Howth,Ireland

Photoshoot near Quirianopolis, Goias, Brasil

I managed to take a week off while in Sao Paulo to go visit the Fazenda Engenho São Francisco near Quirianopolis. Here are my tips and mistakes made while shooting pictures in a farm.

Here is the equipment taken

• Olympus E3
• Olympus E30
• Olympus Flash FL-50R (Very useful while inside a Barn)
• Sigma 30mm 1.4
• Zuiko 8mm 3.5 (great for cow and calf close-ups)
• Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8
• Zuiko Teleconverter 2X EC-20
• Zuiko 11-22mm 2.8
• ND Filters
• Small Table top tripod
• Hoya Polarizer Filters

Here was my journey:

	Ireland to Brasil
	then to Goiania and Quirinopolis in Goias State
	Fazenda Engenho São Francisco  (click on the link and zoom in you can actually see the cattle)

BTW for Olympus RAW file usage with GPS I recently discovered GeoSetter, great tool that can work with the .ORF files, write the .xmp card or directly into the file to accommodate GPS data. Highly recommended.

 

Most Important tip…

Always talk to the person that runs the place day in and day out. They will give you good tips around the behavior of some of animals, which ones are approachable, and which ones to be careful (I managed to piss off a cow with her calf and it wasn't pretty)

Learn beforehand what kind of animals will you get to see (in my case was mostly cattle but managed a nice surprise to see exotic animals.

For cattle, learn what type of cattle it is you will be seeing, behavior will change depending on the breed and how is managed by the ranch.

If you want cattle to get close to you, as I wanted a very low close-up shot of some grown cows or bulls you need to get into the containment area, get down or sit down on the floor and wait. Cattle can be very curious and only takes one to come closer, for the other ones to follow. Be very careful once they are close, sudden moves can make them jump (very high) and you don't want to get stomped or worse your equipment be crushed

Clothes: depending on where you are going, will vary your clothing, but regardless of weather bring very old dirty jeans. If you can manage some cheap boots do as well, as you have to be ready to step, kneel and sit on cow dong, piss and milk and dirt. Same goes for your camera bag, be ready for it to get dirty and gnawed by curious calves

Bring your equipment for landscape photography, either on hills or flat land ranches tend to be in open spaces and you can capture great sunsets, sunrises and cloud formations.

Get up early, not only because of the great light during that time, farm work starts at 5am the animals are quite awake and is the time before a lot of the cattle is being driven to eat at the grass lands. Also in the case of Brasil is when you can manage best to carry all your equipment with the sun.

If you get to ride a horse: Taking pictures on top of a horse is not so hard if you: a) Have IS on your lense or the camera 2) Shoot either using manual or at least shutter priority mode. The faster the horse, the faster the shutter speed if you want sharp images.

Find out what other ranches around the area you are visiting. We managed to visit a neighboring ranch that sells and raises exotic animals and manage to get great shots. They were very nice and let us walk inside the containment area and take our time on getting to know the animals and wait for the best shots.(So here is a free commercial  :) )

Also depending on where you are you might manage to view animals not very common to your area, I was very intrigued by Pipoca a cateto pork which tend to be very mean, except him.

Missed opportunities:

Some of the shots or things missed:

Not all the cattle behaves the same, while buying and marking some recently purchased cattle, a bull wouldn't come into the containment area, 4 workers chase after him but he managed to jump a fence of at least 1.5 meters, it would have been a great shot.

I should have brought my Manfrotto tripod I missed some good sunset and late opportunities because of not bring it. I have the 190X which is not too heavy but maybe I should invest on a gorillapod or at the very least a smaller tripod I can travel easier

I was so concentrated on the cattle, that I missed some good opportunities for portraits with the workers at the ranches. Brasilians tend to be very open on getting their picture taken and the clothes they wear are very distinct and interesting and could make great portrait subjects.

Same as above, make sure to take pictures for remembering the trip, take pictures with family and friends, not everything is about getting the best shot.

See the rest of the shots here

Tips on...<Underwater Shoots>

Develop basic diving skills

The most important thing is buoyancy control,the ability to hold yourself steady on a floating position

Shoot upward

Photographing from below a subject makes it look large and real,shooting down makes it look smaller, and it can get lost on the background

Shoot close

Twenty four inches is an outside working distance. Water can suck up lighting, flash falloff is much greater underwater

Shoot for small reflection in the eyes

Catchlights are important for any wildlife photography but underwater are more important for dimensionality

Choose a place and subject and work it al ot

It can take many attempts to get a single good shot

Respect your subjects

Tips on..<Animals in Action>

Have patience

Eye contact

• Good eye contact helps the viewer to make a connection with the subject, adding impact
• Whenever possible try to get at same eye level of your subject
• Make slow deliverate movements to ensure you are not perceived as a threat and wait until you see catchlights in the eyes

Panning

• Convey the feeling of speed as your subject runs or flies by your sreen
• It will take practive, start by a shutter speed of 1/30, 1/125 seconds)
• Prefocus on the sport where the creature will pass in front of you and fire the shutter.
• Your settings will need tweaking according to the lighting conditions speed of the animal.

Relieve stress

• Make sure you give the animal time to relax, such as dogs. In case of dogs, let them be dogs before you start shooting them, play around with them
• Once you begin if it begins yawning lor laying down he is showing signs pf stress and just needs to be a dog again.

The right lens

• Go for the fastest lense you can aford
• Image Stabilization either on lense or camera can make a big difference
• In some situations a monopod can help achieve sharp shoots
• If you can justify the cost, a prime lense offers unrivalledmimage quality and sharpness

Be invisible

• For cerain species that are hard to capture, weate quite clothes in natural subdued colors, steer clear of perfurmed soaps and lay off afteshave the day of the shot
• Use bushes and trees for cover or invest in scrim netting to drape over you and your camera, disguising your outline

Add water

• Any body of water can make great aditions to your photographers acting as a foreground interest or prodiving a reflective surface to add another dimension to your subject
• Calm water often works best for reflections of wildlife.

Aperture

• A fast aperture may be necessary in dim conditions in order to maintain image sharpness, but shooting with your lense wide open generates a shallow DOF, recommended is at an f/8 to allow plenty of light to nter the lense as well as to create enough separation Boost your ISO slightly so u can still shoot with a fast shutter speed.

The right light

• The midday sun flattens fitures and reduces contrast so is better to stay until the sun hangs lower.
• If you position yourself correctly, you should find that this creates dramatic, high contrast lighting, with deep shadows cast across the landscape.
• Capture your subject in full sun against a shadowy background and you have a recipe for a moody spectacular show

Freeze the Action

• Some actions can look great when frozen completely but be aware that this mean you lose some of the drama. This is a good approach when trying to capture a decisive moment. Such as the apex of a horse jump, a cat jumpng filling the frame, try 1/1000 sec shutter speed

Flash

• Sometimes a burst of fill-flash can make a real difference to your shot, lifting your subject out of the shadows or simply adding a glint to their eyes.
• You are not using the flash to illuminate your subject entirely, merely to fill in some of the harsher shadows and inject some life into your photo, so dont over do it. Always be aware of your subjects disposition; if they are nervous its not worth the risk of causing them stress - find another subject.

Filters

• A soft focus filter can work really well for some subjects, particularly when ytou want to add a warm glow or soft nostalgic feel to the image. This filter doesnt cut the amount of light entering the lens, so you can use it without affecting your exposure settings. It also works really well with light subjhectsm bathed in sunlight.
• An ND grad is essential for balancing compositions with dark subjects agaunst bright backgrounds and a ND filter helps to cut the amount of light entering your lens allowing you to extend your exposure time without overexposing the image

Blur the action

• Sometiomes a more abstract approach to photographing your moving subject can yield a very pleasing shot. Mount your camera up on a tripod set the shutter speed of 1/8, 1/2 secs, predocus on a point that your subject will pass and fire the sutter just as they sweep past your lense withou trying to track them, the result should be a colorful blur of movement across the frame, capturing the speed and drama of the animals movement. You can vary this technique by panning the camera slightly to achieve an overall blurred effect, but still retain some of the subject's distinguishin feature.

Autofocusing

• For some subjects select a single central focusing point, but this doesnt always work. The solution is to select several focus points around the center so even if part of a wing crosses that rectangle of points the AF mechanism can lock onto it. This can be a very useful way to accurately tracking the fast moving birds by using continuos auto focus.

Birds in flight

• Its best to set to either Aperture, or Shutter Speed, set your ISO according to the light conditions.
• Use a shutter of around 1/500 seconds to freeze the action but a little bit slower would show a very interesting movement in the exposure
• Ensure you are using burst mode on your camera

Tips on...<Birds>

Practice your stand

• Legs parallel to shoulders
• Elbows tucked on the side
• Rotate Upper Body
• Use sequence shooting
• Predictive autofocus
• Study the behavior of the bird if possible
• Give it space to fly into the frame
• Select one AF Dot change it depending on where to frame subject
• Afternoon shots are better
• If against a bright sky increase the exposure level
• Dont be afraid to increasr the ISO
• Dont forget to rotate the polarizer filter to see perspective

Become and observer then a photographer

• Get field guide for your area, learn about bird migrations and season in your area
• Learn their behavior, birds are creatures of habit, you will be able to anticipate their moves after a while

Start with larger, slower moving birds

• Start with sea gulls and herons, master this and then you will capture smaller faster birds

Use the right gear

• Start witth a small lense 400mm 5.6, Get a fast focusing SLR and as you get more into it, spend the money on better lenses
• Dont use a tripod, or get a tripod with a special head specifically design for bird photography (runs around $400.00)
• Shoulder stock can help steady the camera
• Image Stabilization either on camera or lense will go a long way

Get in position

• Spread your feet at least at sholder width to give freedom of movement to follow trough the viewfinder
• Hold the camera firm but relaxed grip
• While panning avoid sudden, erratic movement. Keep it smooth and dont stop even when the shutter releases

Follow the birds flight patter with your eye not the viewfinder.

• Oftem aim slightly ahead of the subject, depending on speed
• Always have the camera turned on and in position, a fly-by can happen any time

Set your exposure

• FOr birds in motion the best is manual expisure
• Meter for the subject and it will be exposed properly. For begginers start with Program mode and bracket until you get the hang of it
• In Manual mode use partial or evaluative metering to get a light reading from the subject.
• Shutter speed is vital, go for 1/1250 or faster with ISO of 320 or 400

Use autofocus wisely

• Most high-end DSLR have a continuos autofocus. With this function you press the shutter half way and the camera continually calculates where the sub ject wull be adjusting the focus as long as the subject sytays in the autofocus area of the viewfinder. This is by far the best way to focus when you are shooting birds in flight
• Use the center AF only this is the fastest and best way to obtain focus on the bird's eye, specially for larger birds. For smaller, faster mioving bird you can use multiple focus pointsm this will allow the camera to choose an AF point from an array covering a wide area of the frame. Multipoint focus works well on solid backgrounds such as blue skies but doesnt work effectively on varied backgrounds like grasses and trees

Consider the sun and wind

• Sunlight is crucial. Later afternoon an early morning are good times to shoot.
• Have the sun behind you at all times with the subject in front of you.

del.icio.us Tags: birds,wildlife,photography

Tips On..<Animals at Zoo>

• Bring a long telephoto lense, and a tripod. If you have Stabilization on the camera or lense could let u get away from the tripod
• Remember that if you bring a tripod turn off Stabilization
• There are 3 types of shots
  • Wide angle shots that show the animal with the environment
  • An animal portrait that fills the frame with the animal's head
  • And a single animal aspect, like a paw
• Try to get animals showing movement, are more interesting than the animal doing nothing
• Also, try and find a position where it doesnt give away that you are on a zoo, such as fences, people, posts, etc
• Getting ready of cage wires
  • Select Aperture priority in combination with a wide aperture
  • Move as close to the fence as u can
  • If any parts of the wire show up in a way of "fogging" increase the contrast in post production and this should fix the problem
• Shooting trough glass
  • Eliminate reflection if you are using flash angle tis at 45 degrees to minimize the amount of light that will bounce back at you
  • Take the lens hood off if u are not using flash and shoot with the front of the lense pressed against the glass, reflections should disappear, make sure to have your UV filter on to protect the lense
• Focus on the eyes of the animal, if the animal is interested on something and following with its eyes you can get a great show of its eyes when is targeting something
• Talk to zookepers, they will give you great information o when an animal is most likely to be moving or in action.
• Understand animal behavior it will give you a heads start on movements that the animal will make. (i.e walking around a cage, drinking water, etc)

Get close to the animals.. even the scary ones:

Try to make your shot as close to wildlife as possible, avoiding posts, fences, and wire

Tips on...<Butterflies>

Choose the right time of day

• Trying to shoot buttterflies on a warm sunny day when they are the mist active will be a difficult and frustrating task. Its much easier to shoot them in cooler conditions early or late in the day

Pick the right weather

• The most important is the wind, or rather lack of it. Even if the butterfly manages to stay still the grass will cause it to move so much thay it will be impossible to get a sharp picture. Look for still, calm conditions

Advance Slow and Steady

• Once you have found your subject dont get close too quickly, butterflies can detect changes in air pressure and take flight.
• Always approach it slowly and avoid sudden moves. Leave your bag on the ground nearby.
• Dont move the surrounding vegetation too violently.

Watch your shadow

• Before you approach the butterfly try and predict where your shadow will be. If the sun is behind you and the shadow falls over the butterfly, most likely it will take flight. In cold conditions you ccan still get away with it because they will be tired.

Wear natural colors

• Best to wear dark, natural colored clothing if you want to get as close as possible. Avoid bright colors such as red as they can pick more movement that way if you are wearing them.

Do photograph butterflies in flight

Airborne they convey all the magnificient form and color byt also the graceful yet improbablr means of flight

Dont shoot in the shade

Direct sunlight allows the fast shutter speeds and small apertures you need to freeze motion and render color

DO use a fast focusing high magnification lens.

Dont use a close focusing lens.

Butterflies spook if you get too close, so you need glass that provides highest magnification at distance no closer than 3 feet. If your lens forces you to get 3 inches away to fill the frame, move to beetles

Do use a wide area autofocus brackets, or a similar full area autoselect AF mode so your unpredictable subject stays in focus. With flying creatures our "keeper" rate diminishes when we use single point AF

Dont chase butterflies,

let them come to youm sit calmy and watch a swath of flowers that has recently attracted butterflies, they will return eventually. Move slowly and you can shoot you your heart's content

Shoot in the morning. Usually butterflies spend their first hour actively nectaring to get energy for the day. These first hours which can be mid to late morning as they need sunshine sun and warmth to become active are the best time to capture them

del.icio.us Tags: butterflies,ideas,insects,outdoor,shooting ideas,stance,wildlife,yard