24 images, pretty much everything I've seen this year, all posted before, but now all in one slideshow....

Few teasers.







And the slideshow.... <click here>

[K McCall]

Beautiful work and a commendable collection!

[normhead]

Thanks, it's funny, before I got started was thinking, that I didn't get anything this year.... some of these images, I didn't even post first time through. A little separation changes your perspective.

[Rupert]

Tell Otis, I'm moved beyond words...

Conceited little rodent.....I told him what you replied and he said...."Of course he was moved, it's rare I give out my most coveted award for anything but naked girls!"

Regards!

[Des]

You aroused my curiosity so I counted.
14 DA*60-250, with or without the TC
7 with the A-400 with or without the TC
2 with the 18-135
1 with the 70-210
1 with the FA 50
1 with the Tamron 90

There's a lesson in that for wildlife shooters. You don't always need 500mm+. Know your wildlife, get closer, and you can often use 300mm or less and sometimes even <100.

A couple of my favourite bird shots were taken with the FA77 or the DFA100 without too much cropping.

[debakarma]

Congratulations - you got the Otis seal of approval. Awesome shots.

[normhead]

Congratulations - you got the Otis seal of approval. Awesome shots.

Well thank you...

[Scorpio71GR]

Fantastic shots Norm, all them are amazing.

[biz-engineer]

Hey! normhead came with his Pentax, let's pose for him :-)
Nice shots with the snow.

[normhead]

Hey! normhead came with his Pentax, let's pose for him :-)
Nice shots with the snow.

Ya, I wish....
I really think you get more interesting subject isolation shooting in snow than with narrow DoF. Tis get your isolation, and it looks more real.

[normhead]

There's a lesson in that for wildlife shooters. You don't always need 500mm+. Know your wildlife, get closer, and you can often use 300mm or less and sometimes even <100.

A couple of my favourite bird shots were taken with the FA77 or the DFA100 without too much cropping.

But it sure it sure is nice to have that long lens when the animals are skittish.

These little birds would not let me get close to them. I eventually perched up on a little rock shelf near the bush with the berries, for a couple of hours and eventually one came an I got a few images. But the A-400 with the 1.4 and sitting very very still was required.These were bird not accustomed to seeing humans, or much of anything alive in a location where Tess and I are the only ones that visit.



This one taken with the DA* 60-250 and 1.4.

I'm pretty close....

This one taken with the 70-210 at 95mm.


Taking your images at a place where the wildlife is habituated to humans is the critical thing. And not spending too much times trying to be the ultimate bushman. The average hunter in hunter gathering societies may only make a kill every 20 days. If you have that kind of time to devote to getting to know animals and tracking etc. and are prepared for that kind of risk/reward, fine. If not, park where everyone else parks, and if you don't know the routine watch, and if you get a chance ask.

This last one (above) is probably as close as it gets for a wildlife shot, but that guy will land on my hand for a piece of cheese. He's about 12 feet from me and the shutter speed is 1/3200s.