COJuniper Loc: Central Oregon

The wonder of nature

Chipmunk and Dove

KathyinNH Loc: Kingston, NH

Nice shot of Friends. I think the biggest mistake newbies make is not getting in close enough. Either use the zoom on your camera or move in much closer. Decide what is the main thing you want in your photo and then move in as close as possible to what you want to shoot. This way you will be elimination all the distractions around your main subject, taking your eyes directly to your subject. Hope this is helpful. Good luck and keep shooting, shooting, and more shooting.

Rich Loc: Titusville, Fl

Well said KathyinNH.

COJuniper Loc: Central Oregon

KathyinNH / Rich - thank you for you comments on getting closer to main subject... this was a no time to mess with the zoom shot - this is a game bird and they don't sit very long, especially with trucks around - there is a lot more to this picture....so outside of the zoom in closer would cropping help it any?

Perry Loc: Washington Michigan

Hi CoJuniper, cropping is a very common way to bring focus to your main subject, but there is also another technic called Depth of Field where you slightly blur the background if you want to keep it to show size perspective, or if you are like me, you like panoramics or lots of detail, but you don't want your pic to be "too busy" either.

This can be done with a photo editing program like Paint Shop Pro, or Photo Shop. You can learn to feather the effect where it will look like you did it with the lense of your camera, or very subtle where it mimics your natural vision. You can even trace around an object that you really want to stand out in the picture as well.

I like your friends, and I know that both the dove and the chipmonk are very skittish subjects who aren't very photogenic... lol

COJuniper Loc: Central Oregon

Perry - thank you for the input. Right now the only photo editing program I have is what came with my SX10i.s. the Canon Zoombrowser. Can the depth of field be done with the camer settings? Still trying to learn what does what? And what would have made this pic less busy? You are right, detail is something I like. Is it possible to have good detail and not have a busy picture? The chipmunk was a total surprise when I down loaded the pic, the dove flew a split second after I pushed the button, dirt road with ruts and big rocks, and only the 72nd picture on the camera....lucky shot.

Perry Loc: Washington Michigan

Gee you got me on that one. You might want to read your camera manual. Is it a point and shoot camera? In other words, the lense is NOT detatchable? There my be an effect like that, but I never heard of it. Usually that type of stuff is done through editing software. If you have a DSLR, with a detatchable lense, you can adjust the focus to be sharper on your main subjects. If you can't afford editing software, I've been told Gimp is a good program, and that it's free. I am a big paintshop fan, and I have PSPPS X2, 3, and the prerelease of X4

The draw back on manually focusing in on live subjects especially 2 notoriously skittish critters like yours, you don't have time to set up the perfect shot unless you were able to ahead of time. In my own opinion, you have a PERFECT virticle panorama. I think you should leave it as is, and get it framed for your living room wall or den. It would be a wonderful conversation piece.

Perry Loc: Washington Michigan

If I took that shot, it would be on a canvass on my wall. it's very beautiful as is. Sometimes the "subject" is the entire scene.

Sugarpenny Loc: Mid Michigan

This is a nice photo but what my eye is drawn to is the gnarly tree stump...The squirrel and the bird are so close in color to the stump I probably wouldn't have see it if you wouldn't have pointed it out.. Still a nice picture.