Animals in the pose.

                                      Capturing Animals ( Pets)

The Watching Eyes
Date : 19 June 2013
Time : 16h20
Location : Natashas (my) home
Camera Model : Nikon D3200
F-Stop : f/10
Shutter Speed : 1/100 sec
IOS : 400
Focal Length : 200mm
Metering Mode : Center Weighted Average
 No flash

Well where to begin, when I decided to show some of the photographs I have taken of animals (or more my pets), I didn't even think about the text to put with it. For weeks now i have been meaning to do this next post, but I must say finding a text to go with the Photographs is a lot harder then you may think. So here I go just writing what I am thinking, so lets see how this goes.

The first photograph of my cat, "The Watching Eyes" I believe to be my best Photograph of an animal I have taken working on Manual. 

The Wondering Eyes
Date : 12 May 2013
Time : 09h51
Location : Natasha's (my) home
Camera Model : Nikon D3200
f-stop :f/5.6
Shutter Speed : 1/60 sec
IOS : 100
Focal length : 55mm
Metering Mode :Pattern
No Flash

Of course as anyone who has tried to capture an animal would agree, they are pretty hard to photograph, unless you are working on quite a high shutter speed as to capture the image in time, before the animal decides, okay I am done bye. That's the big difference between shooting an animal and almost anything else (such as flowers, people, objects that don't move), an animal moves when it pleases and does what it pleases, and there is a huge communication barrier between human and animal. It hasn't happened yet that a human (without the influence of food) has asked an animal to please pose brilliantly and remain still, and the animal has actually done so. It is for this exact reason that I have respect and look up to wildlife photographers, such as Andy Rouse (http://www.andyrouse.co.uk/index.php?page_id=2), Morkel Erasmus and many more. 

The Suspicious Eyes 
Date : 19 June 2013
Time : 12h39
Location : Natasha (my) home
Camera Model : Nikon D3200
f-stop : f/9
Shutter Speed : 1/125 sec
ISO : 100
Focal length :135mm
Metering Mode : Center Weighted Average
No Flash 

Another reason why I find animal photography hard is you have to work with the light, and work with the way the animal is placed, finding the perfect image before the light (which is often natural, therefore the sun) changes, or the animals decides to pull a ugly face or look away from this perfect image you have just placed. As I am sure everyone has learnt (even those that take images off their phones) is that you can't take a photograph of an animal with a flash, their eyes just light up and go red. This could only work if you have a diffuser to place over the flash just to soften it, what I mean is if you want the photograph you need to take it, not fiddle trying to get this cover over the flash, and then come back up to take the photograph and the animal has moved or vanished (seems to be the one thing all animals are brilliant at).  

The Contemplating Eyes
Date : 7 may 2013
Time : 12h14
Location : Natasha (my) home
Camera Model : Nikon D3200
f-stop : f/10
Shutter speed : 1/160 sec
ISO : 100
Focal Length : 135mm
Metering Mode : Pattern
No flash

 Although in this post I have only seemed to point out the difficulties in capturing a animal, DO NOT take it in a negative way. It is an amazing learning experience in Photography and all that goes with it. It must be absolutely awesome to be able to take such exciting, story telling photographs of wildlife, wild animals in their natural environment. Amazing. My family and I just recently went to Mozambique (next blog post) and our next door neighbor was Roger Horrocks (http://www.rogerhorrocks.com/ , http://za.linkedin.com/in/rogerhorrocks), an underwater cameraman, he was kind enough to show us some of his underwater footage for a documentary on dolphins which he is doing for the BBC, it was absolutely beautiful, one of the most beautiful thing I have yet watched. This opened my eyes to wildlife photography a lot more, which I will definitely be trying more of. 

The Admiring Eyes 
Date :12 May 2013
Time :12h06
Location : Natasha (my) home
Camera Model : Nikon D3200
f-stop : f/10
Shutter Speed : 1/60 sec
ISO :100
Focal Length : 55mm
Metering Mode : Pattern
No flash

Please remember and take into account that this post is my thoughts and opinions, therefore I may find animal/wildlife photography a lot more difficult (especially as a beginner) than others, however I plan to learn more about it through my experimenting with photography.