Just back from 2 weeks in Sri Lanka which included a few days visiting Yala National Park. Since I knew we would have a good chance of getting to see some interesting animals up close in their natural environment I decided to hire a lens that might give me a chance of getting some decent shots. So I hired the EF100-400mm f4-5.6L IS USM (I think this is called the trombone action lens as it is the push-pull focus version). I'd never used this before and on reflection should have hired it for a weekend before we travelled so I could get to grips with it.
I took a load of images - most of them just out of focus or the animals were just too far away. It was particularly difficult because we were in the back of open 4WDs driven by aspiring Word Rally drivers - who were desperate to please (tip pending). Often I would be about to press the shutter when we would be jolted forward so as to get a few feet closer.
Anyway to cut to the chase on our last day of 3 and with light fading and the park closing time fast approaching we (and the contents of the M25) came across this guy. He was initially in a tree but my shots of that are tiny and mostly just OOF or too soft. Not long after we arrived a family of wild boar passed under the tree and this was enough to prompt him to stretch and sniff the air and think about an early dinner. Lucky for us he climbed down and eventually appeared out of the bush and I managed to get this.
I know it's not as sharp as it could be so I would appreciate all advice from the wild life gurus here on how I could have done better. Is it just a case of not fast enough shutter speed for that length of lens ?
EXIF is :
5DMK II
ISO 400
f/5.6
1/125 sec
Apart from anything else it was a privilege to see such an animal in it's natural (apart from us spectators) environment.
Thanks for looking
Scott
Yala Leopard by anderson.council, on Flickr
I took a load of images - most of them just out of focus or the animals were just too far away. It was particularly difficult because we were in the back of open 4WDs driven by aspiring Word Rally drivers - who were desperate to please (tip pending). Often I would be about to press the shutter when we would be jolted forward so as to get a few feet closer.
Anyway to cut to the chase on our last day of 3 and with light fading and the park closing time fast approaching we (and the contents of the M25) came across this guy. He was initially in a tree but my shots of that are tiny and mostly just OOF or too soft. Not long after we arrived a family of wild boar passed under the tree and this was enough to prompt him to stretch and sniff the air and think about an early dinner. Lucky for us he climbed down and eventually appeared out of the bush and I managed to get this.
I know it's not as sharp as it could be so I would appreciate all advice from the wild life gurus here on how I could have done better. Is it just a case of not fast enough shutter speed for that length of lens ?
EXIF is :
5DMK II
ISO 400
f/5.6
1/125 sec
Apart from anything else it was a privilege to see such an animal in it's natural (apart from us spectators) environment.
Thanks for looking
Scott
Yala Leopard by anderson.council, on Flickr
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