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Some old stuff. Apologies if you've seen these before, I can't remember if I've previously posted any of these in the Dorkroom. Peary caribou 2 by Execudork, on Flickr  Musk ox 07 by Execudork, on Flickr  Musk ox 03 by Execudork, on Flickr  SD 049 Porcupine by Execudork, on Flickr  Squirrel 1 by Execudork, on Flickr Thanks for making this thread, Dread Head, I can never keep up with Critterquest.
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Jan 23, 2012 03:19
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There are at least 6 different versions of that lens, ranging in quality from excellent down to "meh". Chances are you're using one of the mid-range ones, which are generally pretty good (it's really only the most recent lens, constant f/4.5 aperture, that kind of sucks). They are prone to chromatic aberation, as you've noticed, but are generally pretty sharp. Some don't need special maneuvering to go into Macro mode, you just focus all the way nearest when at 70mm. I'm impressed you got that close to those critters - even on a crop, 210mm isn't a huge amount of reach. Nicely done!
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Feb 26, 2012 02:40
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Finally had a chance to play with my new-to-me supertele, and chanced across the perfect (in my opinion) big-lens-test-subject: a porcupine in a tree. They're slow, they can't fly or jump away, they're very nearsighted and dopey enough to not worry too much about most potential threats anyway. Too bad the tree branches tend to get in the way, but the bright side of that is a chance to see the depth of field at different apertures. Takumar 500mm f/4.5. Uncropped.  SD 091 Porcupine 1 by Execudork, on Flickr  SD 091 Porcupine 2 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Feb 27, 2012 04:53
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Ghost Cactus posted:These are very cool. Hopefully next weekend's explorations will yield some more wildlife. I saw some deer in a field just around sunset, but there was no safe place to park the car and get set up on them. Plus, deer are boring and ridiculously common around here, there will be other opportunities. I also stopped for a break at a Ducks Unlimited-sponsored wetland area, definately going back there in springtime.
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Feb 28, 2012 02:34
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CeeJee posted:Pinnipeds ahoy ! Someday....
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Mar 30, 2012 04:21
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/\/\/\ Pronghorns are great. I've got some not-as-good shots from about a month ago I need to dig up, edit, and upload. Nicely done. Just got back from a long trip, which included a couple of stops a couple of days ago in Manitoba. Squirrels are still popular around here, right?  Gopher 5 by Execudork, on Flickr  Narcisse Snakes 2 by Execudork, on Flickr  Narcisse Snake-loving Chipmunk 1 by Execudork, on Flickr
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May 6, 2012 22:01
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xzzy posted:Though on a serious note, leaving the camera behind probably saved the photographer's life. It's really hard to survive a bear encounter once they decide to approach you. Running only makes them more interested in chasing.. and it's a race they'll win. Plus, if you don't encounter a bear, you have somebody to lug around a big ol' tripod for you.
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May 23, 2012 05:42
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Definately a polychaete. How big was it? Where was it? The name "nereis" is floating around in my head, as a genus (?) of relatively large and free-living (as opposed to parasitic or sessile, like tube worms), predatory polychaetes commonly encountered on beaches and rocky intertidal zones of the west coast of North America, that look like that.
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Jun 25, 2012 04:21
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Pronghorns SD 101 40 by Execudork, on Flickr  SD 101 42 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Jul 8, 2012 05:50
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Bah! Eutherian mammals? Bah I say! SD 110 Tasmanian Highlands 37 by Execudork, on Flickr  SD 110 Tasmanian Highlands 54 by Execudork, on Flickr  SD 110 Tasmanian Highlands 80 by Execudork, on Flickr  SD 110 Tasmanian Highlands 108 by Execudork, on Flickr Seriously, though, some pretty frickin' great shots in this thread.
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Dec 19, 2012 02:53
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Yup, short-nose echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus. I'm here for another 2 months, and next week I'm off for a 5-day tour of Tassie, hitting as many National Parks and wilderness areas as I can. I'm hoping to keep up the parade of weirdo Aussie critters as long as I can. Fantastic shot of that weasel, by the way. I've never seen one in its winter whites.
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Dec 22, 2012 09:00
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Common Dolphins Tuesday Sleepy Bay 3 by Execudork, on Flickr  Tuesday Sleepy Bay 4 by Execudork, on Flickr  Tuesday Sleepy Bay 7 by Execudork, on Flickr Have you ever opened a picture on you computer and then shouted with joy because you just fuckin' nailed a shot you were really hoping came out? It's a great feeling. The dolphins were getting very excited, very close to the rocks, and I just tried to keep focus. I am very happy with how this one came out.  Tuesday Sleepy Bay 8 by Execudork, on Flickr A Brushtail Possum paid me a visit at bedtime. Manual focus lenses at night are a matter of guesswork.  Tuesday Evening at Freycinet 8 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Dec 31, 2012 13:03
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Every time I see macropods I can't not say "BOING BOING BOING" Thursday Morning in Mt William 3 by Execudork, on Flickr  Thursday Morning in Mt William 6 by Execudork, on Flickr  Thursday Strolling in Narawntapu 12 by Execudork, on Flickr  Thursday Strolling in Narawntapu 13 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Jan 2, 2013 08:29
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Speaking (very loosely) about digging, I see echidnas almost every time I go out; they are powerful diggers and are remarkably un-aware of their surroundings. I can get literally right on top of them. SD 114 Bruny Part 6 Labillardiere Peninsula 56 by Execudork, on Flickr  SD 114 Bruny Part 6 Labillardiere Peninsula 55 by Execudork, on Flickr Despite the resemblance to North American porcupines, echidnas are not built to climb trees. Finding this one looking confused and lost on a log was pretty funny to watch. Those big claws stick out sideways, which is good for pushing soil, not so good for gripping wood.  SD 114 Bruny Part 6 Labillardiere Peninsula 84 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Feb 2, 2013 04:34
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 SD 116 Caves and Walls Pt 3 Sunday Evening 6 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Feb 9, 2013 11:13
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Maria Island, off the east coast of Tasmania, is full of Bennett's Wallabies. Hiking to Frenchs Farm 22 by Execudork, on Flickr  Hiking to Frenchs Farm 28 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Mar 19, 2013 23:34
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QPZIL posted:This guy's name is Booger. His hobby is hanging out under my fiancee's car.
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Jun 7, 2013 21:03
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Crosspost from Critterquest. Bughunt in Saskatoon 11 by Execudork, on Flickr  Bughunt in Saskatoon 12 by Execudork, on Flickr Muskrat  Bughunt in Saskatoon 13 by Execudork, on Flickr Beaver  Bughunt in Saskatoon 17 by Execudork, on Flickr Garter snake
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Jun 15, 2013 23:27
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Have a lazy, lazy seal Evening at Alexandra 4 by Execudork, on Flickr and an inquisitive hare  Working on Dome 86 by Execudork, on Flickr Both taken with my ancient Takumar 500mm f/4.5; the hare hand-held. I got some reactions when I dove into my tent and came out 10 seconds later waving that thing around - the hare went right through our campsite.
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Aug 29, 2013 20:35
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Casu Marzu posted:Owns. Is that one of those gigantic, bash someone's head in and keep shooting lenses? xzzy posted:Oh oops, I totally ignored the post and went straight to the flickr exif. On Pentax DSLRs, when you mount a manual-focus lens then turn the camera on with the shake reduction active, it asks you what focal length it should use for shake reduction. It's a little side-scrolling menu you go through; when I took those shots I just slapped the monster onto the camera (really, more like slapped the camera onto the monster - it weighs about 8 pounds), jumped out of my tent, and started frantically focusing and shooting. I don't even know what aperture it was at - the lens is old enough it doesn't have an automatic aperture, you can watch the depth of field increase as you twist the big ring.  500mm f-4.5 (2 of 2) by Execudork, on Flickr Later, I was carrying that lens/camera in one hand and a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun (Remington 870) in the other - and the camera felt like the better tool for intimidating polar bears. That day, I fired both in the general direction of a bear - but only the gun was loaded!  (forgot I'd taken out the memory card to move photos onto my computer when the bear showed up and everybody hit the panic button)
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Sep 5, 2013 06:04
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xzzy posted:What the heck do you have going on that wild bears willingly approach? William T. Hornaday posted:Polar bears generally give no fucks. Near Churchill, Manitoba, the self-described (probably accurately) "Polar Bear Capital of the World" there have been enough of various types of encounters between humans and polar bears that some number-crunching yields good data. I was told about 3% of bear-human encounters in that area are predatory - the bear is actively hunting a human. I've talked to a few people who have had such encounters (the story rapidly gets to "and then we got back in the truck and drove away"), they say the experience is deeply spooky. Not actively terrifying - I've never met anyone who has said they've been charged or mauled by a bear - but rather worrying. The bears we encountered - "Marvin the Morning Mischief Maker", "Buster the (Accused) Boot Stealer", and perhaps one more (they lack really obvious distinguishing marks, except size - Buster was bigger than Marvin) - seemed mostly curious. Curiosity for a polar bear mostly means "I wonder what that tastes like", so it's best to treat any bear with extreme caution / lots of loud noises. I punctuate my sentences with 12-ga slugs fired into the air instead of exclamation marks when talking to bears, so far that's worked well - more potential photos of bear asses than bear faces. I fear meeting a bear that's grown used to shotgun blasts (!!!) because there are only two options if you can't convince a bear to walk away - all of the government advice says "aim for centre of mass".  Casu Marzu posted:Holy balls that's a lens. I want one now.
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Sep 6, 2013 01:44
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Minimum focus is listed as 10m (30 feet), not that many animals are willing to be that near to somebody swinging one around. It's just barely hand-holdable, on a bright, sunny day. I picked up a gimbal head for cheap from Dealextreme, I was honestly a little surprised it works as well as it does with my monster lens considering it came from some upstart Chinese company (I suspect there are dozens of startup companies in China trying to break into various niche applications, such as tripods & heads) and cost $100. I'd like to play with a teleconverter, Pentax made one with the K-mount version of my lens in mind back in the day. Actually there are two (1.4x and 2x), both with a glass element that extends quite far into the body of the lens, meaning only a few really long telephotos are compatible. The rear element on my lens is about 4 inches from the camera body so there's plenty of room! I often see newer 1.4x, 1.7x, and 2x TCs on eBay for cheap, but they look pretty trashy. I don't have any pictures of non-bird, non-insect wildlife edited at the moment, and looking forward through my pile of Arctic pictures I don't think I'll be putting up my other hare, fox, bear, and muskox pictures for quite a while. I'm going to Montana for a week on Saturday, with a bit of time set aside, so hopefully I can get some more Great Plains critters in the meantime. I'll stop clogging up this thread with no-picture / wall-of-text posts. EDIT: Goddamit, 800peepee51doodoo, you're just flattening this thread and the bird thread these days. Awesome pictures!
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Sep 6, 2013 05:03
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Fuzzy Bunny Butt Bunnies 2 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Oct 4, 2013 00:37
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Arctic fox in summer colours Visits from a fox 5 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Oct 11, 2013 00:42
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That looks extremely cool. I bought a Zigview earlier this year and so far I haven't done much with it. The motion sensor is the main reason I bought it, hoping to set up my camera outside my tent and snap a polar bear or arctic fox should one come wandering by. My camera's battery died after only a few hours, though, and nothing showed up. It worked OK taking self-portraits as I drove past, with a bit more practice I should get the hang of that.
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Oct 18, 2013 05:06
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Those jungle shots are goddam fantastic and you should stop with the apologies already. Amazing. But... one or two of the gorilla shots look a little purple. Maybe it's my monitor, maybe it's your white balance.
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Oct 21, 2013 03:11
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Evidence that the thread title is probably accurate: We had a few bear encounters during this summer's Arctic fieldwork. On August 15, I was woken up by my alarm as usual, but propelled out of bed by one of my coworker's yelling "Bear!". A small-ish Polar Bear had investigated her tent, demolishing the vestibule with a single swipe of a forepaw. Fortunately, her cries of surprise at that point startled the bear and he (we don't know the sex of this individual, but for some unknown reason we all just agreed to refer to it as male) moved away. Then another of my coworkers emerged from her tent with her shotgun, and a couple of blasts into the air of 12-gauge slugs convinced the bear to move faster. Sarah's tent, after the bear (named "Marvin") had gone away.  A Rude Awakening 1 by Execudork, on Flickr  A Rude Awakening 2 by Execudork, on Flickr Bear tracks in the fresh snow, with parts of my body for scale. Heavily overcast skies make for low contrast and few shadows, but hopefully the size of his feet are apparent.  A Rude Awakening 4 by Execudork, on Flickr  A Rude Awakening 5 by Execudork, on Flickr (size 12 men's boot, for reference) I went for a bit of a walk, looking for Marvin. We tried to find him again after breakfast, because he'd moved up towards the head of the fjord, suggesting he'd probably come back past us - there's not much at the head of the fjord, it's more-or-less a blind alley. Some of my companions were able to spot him swimming in the fjord.  Searching for Marvin 6 by Execudork, on Flickr I wasn't able to see Marvin in the water - just a bear's head above the water, moving between gentle swells, with plenty of ice floating in the water as well. However, on the advice of those who had spotted him, I took a few pictures in the direction they were pointing, and happily I discovered I actually got a photo of him!  Searching for Marvin 7 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Dec 13, 2013 00:56
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We'd been up on top of The Dome, a nearby mountain (about 540m above sea level, visible in many of my landscape shots from the area) for a month, with our tents very close together in a row. That layout was suggested for bear safety, but had severe privacy drawbacks. One evening I was in my tent reviewing photos on my phone - the Arctic Hare pictures I posted a while ago - and I *very quietly* said "Nice!" to myself when I found a bunny shot that was in focus. A voice came from the next tent over: "What's nice?". I couldn't even mutter to the voices in my head without being overheard. Fortunately, my companions described my snoring as "comforting" because their inherent Bearanoia was calmed if they knew I was relaxed enough to sleep. Never mind the exhausting effects of fieldwork! So, when we moved down to the lowland - where there are many more bears - we perhaps over-reacted to the side of privacy and spaced our tents much further apart. We were still (roughly) in a line, because the idea there was that this arrangement means a bear is never likely to be surrounded should one come bumbling through. Always give the big scary animals a clear route of retreat. We were also located above the runway (actually just a strip of sand) relative to the shoreline, and with the buildings of basecame between us and the shore, under the thinking that any bear entering the area would probably encounter the buildings, with their enticing food smells, before it got near us.  Fly to Alexandra Fjord 32 by Execudork, on Flickr Here's a shot from when we arrived at Alexandra Fjord in early July, looking east towards the head of the fjord. The buildings are visible as the cluster of white boxes with blue roofs, and some tents (orange) have been set up near them, between the runway and the buildings. The runway is the lighter-coloured splotch above that. In August we put our tents on the wide patch of the runway on its left. The Dome is the mountain ridge in the background on the left. Clearly, we were incorrect in these assumptions. As far as we can tell, Marvin entered the fjord from the direction of its mouth, to the east, and then either moved inland up the valley (south) or passed near the buildings but did not spend much time there. He grabbed the bag of cans at the east end of the runway, dragged or carried them past our tents on the inland side (south and then west) before circling back to Sarah's tent, the furthest-west of our ragged line. When scared away, he retreated north and west, directly towards the shoreline, before bending to the west and up the fjord. Later he returned to the east, but by water, swimming east-by-north-east to Sphinx Island. I have photos of him walking around on Sphinx, which I'll post when I get to that point in my haphazard edit-and-upload workflow. HookShot posted:Wow! That sounds intense! It really shows the size of polar bears, the bear tracks I saw near my place were from I believe an adult female (I've seen her three times) and they're still probably only around 2/3 the size of Marvin's tracks. Marvin was actually on the small side as far as polar bears go. We had a couple of later encounters with "Buster" - no tent-invasions this time - and he was probably 20% bigger than Marvin. Having said that, it's really, really hard to judge size in the Arctic, because there are almost no indications of size or distance - how big is the average boulder or ice chunk, how far away is that shoreline or island?
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Dec 13, 2013 17:39
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Marvin's encounter with us, Part the Second. Marvin the Morning Mischief Maker eventually emerged onto Sphinx Island, about 2 km from us in the middle of the fjord.  Marvin on Sphinx Island 1 by Execudork, on Flickr  Marvin on Sphinx Island 3 by Execudork, on Flickr  Marvin on Sphinx Island 8 by Execudork, on Flickr We lost sight of him for good when he went around to the far side of the island. Then I discovered he'd come through the complex of buildings, ruining the table I'd set up as a heat-water-for-showers facility.  Signs of Marvin's Curiousity 1 by Execudork, on Flickr Wildlife-related aside: we learned (the hard way) that Arctic Foxes are fond of leaving presents and reminders of their territorial claims (or perhaps simply their bad attitudes). Also, they have excellent aim at their back ends.  Fox snark by Execudork, on Flickr I might be an idiot; actually, I probably am. Everybody else who had been sleeping in tents that morning decided to move into the buildings to sleep. Using the (probably dubius) logic of "my tent has a back door, the buildings do not, and we already know there are at least some bears willing to enter buildings" (there's a nose-print on the inside of one of the kitchen windows from a bear that raided the place in April) I slept in my tent for the next two nights. I was aware that I might be making a serious mistake, so I took a photo of "before" in the event of an "after". Note the absence of bear.  A Before Fortunately Without an After by Execudork, on Flickr
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Dec 17, 2013 04:32
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HookShot posted:The only way this could possibly be more dorkroom-y is if you'd set up a tripod on a time lapse so that someone could make a triptych of the before, during and after in the event of your horrific mauling death. The battery in the camera died after only about 2 hours, without taking any pictures.
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Dec 17, 2013 04:57
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For a change of pace, here's another oversize, white, and sneaky Arctic mammal that got between my companions and I. Walk up the Dome and Work 22 by Execudork, on Flickr  Walk up the Dome and Work 23 by Execudork, on Flickr  Walk up the Dome and Work 24 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Dec 19, 2013 03:54
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A few days after Marvin, Buster showed up. He was considerably larger than Marvin, which is one reason why I think Marvin was not fully grown. Buster 3 by Execudork, on Flickr I was out just taking a few photos in the interesting light (low, multilayer overcast sky, light snow on ground, bright light) before lunch. During lunch, one of my companions spotted Buster near the runway. Less than 10 minutes previously (according to the EXIF data) I had taken this picture:  Wandering Around Basecamp 8 by Execudork, on Flickr If Buster had been about 9 minutes quicker, he would have been just on the right edge of the frame, between me and those barrels. A few shotgun blasts into the air, plus plenty of loud swearing* and Buster moved off in more-or-less the same direction Marvin had previously. Buster seemed less worried about us than Marvin had been (possibly a consequence of size & age) and when he got down near the shore he hung around for a bit, sniffing and generally loafing about.  Buster 4 by Execudork, on Flickr * This episode taught me a new verbal punctuation - shotgun blasts are like exclamation marks, but more so. And I wish I'd recorded what Mitsuaki had been yelling in Japanese. We were discussing things afterwards, and he wanted to know the meaning of some things I'd said, such as "motherfucker" and "cocksucker". When I asked him what he'd said, his response was "Kind of... in between, maybe both of those things?" Swearing at wildlife is fun.
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Jan 9, 2014 03:58
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The day after Buster, a pod of narwhals moved up and down the fjord. They're almost impossible to photograph from shore. Narwhals 2 by Execudork, on Flickr  Narwhals 3 by Execudork, on Flickr  Narwhals 5 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Jan 10, 2014 02:27
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 Muskoxen of Eureka 6 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Jan 30, 2014 01:59
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 Not my dog, not a dog I'd met before, unpredictable behaviour (to me). Therefore wildlife.
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Mar 31, 2014 03:11
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Zoo photos from me, too. Large Mammal House 2 by Execudork, on Flickr Large Mammal House 6 by Execudork, on FlickrMoments after I took this photo, the hippo turned around and liberally sprayed the area where the keeper had been standing with copious semi-liquid poo poo, efficiently spread by the rapidly flicking tail. Hippos are hilariously disguisting.  Large Mammal House 7 by Execudork, on Flickr Large Mammal House 21 by Execudork, on Flickr Large Mammal House 23 by Execudork, on Flickr Large Mammal House 15 by Execudork, on Flickr Large Mammal House 11 by Execudork, on Flickr Large Mammal House 25 by Execudork, on FlickrBALLS  Large Mammal House 27 by Execudork, on Flickr Gorilla Hand 1 by Execudork, on Flickr Little Crocodillians 1 by Execudork, on FlickrA christmas tree for dessert  Bactrian Camel 3 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Jun 11, 2014 02:32
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I know you gave us a write-up a while ago about your techniques, both shooting and editing, but I was wondering specifically if you had any advice regarding shooting through glass. Also, are all those fantastic poses the result of luck and patience, or do you do anything to get the animal's attention? From the text under your avatar I'm expecting the answer is NOT "tap on the glass". Unless the otters are underfed, I suppose. Also also, make a drat book already. drat the lawyers, full speed ahead! I'd buy the poo poo out of William T. Hornaday's Big Book of Animals. EDIT: I really wanted to ask about the headphones. Does that work? I find when I'm wearing headphones people just come up and talk at me regardless.
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Jul 24, 2014 16:39
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Thanks for all the advice, William T. Hornaday. A few more from my visit to the Calgary zoo at christmas:  Asian Elephant 1 by Execudork, on Flickr Snow Leopard 2 by Execudork, on Flickr Snow Leopard 4 by Execudork, on Flickr Snow Leopard 5 by Execudork, on Flickr Fallow Deer by Execudork, on Flickr Markhor 3 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Jul 31, 2014 00:38
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Does dead-in-mysterious-circumstances wildlife count for this thread? This porcupine apparently died in this tree.  SD 136 Dead Porcupine 1 by Execudork, on FlickrPorcupines climb trees as part of their normal behaviour - they eat bark and other tree parts, and they will climb a tree to escape a perceived threat. This one had been dead here for I think a couple of days. It's right next to a country highway that sees some, but not much, traffic. People will shoot anything, and I didn't thoroughly investigate. My thoughts: 1) Disease 2) Shot by small-calibre bullet (e.g. .22), bullet entry wound in a position not clearly visible from the road 3) hit by car, climbed tree, died of injuries. What kills porcupines?
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Jul 31, 2014 16:40
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Picnic Princess posted:Calgary Zoo, you say? I'm there often. Awesome. Those tigers were some of my favourites.  Tigers in the Snow 2 by Execudork, on Flickr Tigers in the Snow 8 by Execudork, on Flickr Tigers in the Snow 9 by Execudork, on Flickr Tigers in the Snow 15 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Aug 1, 2014 20:11
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