I regularly lurk here, rarely comment & almost never post images, but here goes after a trip to Katmai & inspired by Carol Darby’s post a couple of months ago from Lake Clark.
We are just back after a trip from the UK in three parts –an overland trip in the interior to Fairbanks, Denali & Seward, a visit to my nephew (who lives in Anchorage & had been attacked by a bear while camping last Summer!), & a visit to Katmai to see the brown bears. We had a couple of days at Brooks Camp & 4 days on a boat in the “fjords” of Katmai’s East coast. Of the 14 who started in our group, 6 had to drop-out before Brooks & quarantine for a positive covid LFT part-way through & the two previous boat trips to the fjords had been cancelled for the same reason.
I’ve used Oly for 46 years, but for “serious” wildlife trips have been unfaithful to them for most of the last 10 with a Canon 1Dx2 & 200-400, but am now begging forgiveness with the OM1 & 150-400 which IMHO is actually better in most ways, not just weight.
I used the 150-400 f/4.5 & 40-150 f/2.8 (sometimes 12-100 f/4) on two bodies almost always wide open. I have a monopod in a fishing belt just to keep the big rig up near my eye without tiring.
Settings, mostly full manual exposure (because of variable amounts of white / black water in the frame) for the Brooks Falls shots. I set 1/500-1/1000s, but programmed the AEL button to switch to a custom setting of procap SH2 50fps with 25 pre-release frames at 1/2,500, so I could flick back & forth to the bears fishing for the flying salmon on the lip of the falls. I also enjoyed the Live ND, for the “milky waterfall” shots at 1/15th. I confess to chimping & major culling of the procap in-camera. Did you know that you can easily “select” dozens of the empty procap frames with the “record” button by scrolling quickly with a wheel & then delete the whole lot before & after the moment? I still came back with over 10,000 frames to go through.
AF almost all cat/dog AI & I varied the number of points – often just “all” of them & it worked brilliantly.
If Covid didn't cause enough travel delay & hassle.....
They got published in most of the UK National quality press last weekend, but also in the Sun which was my favourite caption as a lifelong Manchester City fan. For those non-footballers, David De Gea is the Manchester United Goalkeeper who has had a difficult start to the season.
We are just back after a trip from the UK in three parts –an overland trip in the interior to Fairbanks, Denali & Seward, a visit to my nephew (who lives in Anchorage & had been attacked by a bear while camping last Summer!), & a visit to Katmai to see the brown bears. We had a couple of days at Brooks Camp & 4 days on a boat in the “fjords” of Katmai’s East coast. Of the 14 who started in our group, 6 had to drop-out before Brooks & quarantine for a positive covid LFT part-way through & the two previous boat trips to the fjords had been cancelled for the same reason.
I’ve used Oly for 46 years, but for “serious” wildlife trips have been unfaithful to them for most of the last 10 with a Canon 1Dx2 & 200-400, but am now begging forgiveness with the OM1 & 150-400 which IMHO is actually better in most ways, not just weight.
I used the 150-400 f/4.5 & 40-150 f/2.8 (sometimes 12-100 f/4) on two bodies almost always wide open. I have a monopod in a fishing belt just to keep the big rig up near my eye without tiring.
Settings, mostly full manual exposure (because of variable amounts of white / black water in the frame) for the Brooks Falls shots. I set 1/500-1/1000s, but programmed the AEL button to switch to a custom setting of procap SH2 50fps with 25 pre-release frames at 1/2,500, so I could flick back & forth to the bears fishing for the flying salmon on the lip of the falls. I also enjoyed the Live ND, for the “milky waterfall” shots at 1/15th. I confess to chimping & major culling of the procap in-camera. Did you know that you can easily “select” dozens of the empty procap frames with the “record” button by scrolling quickly with a wheel & then delete the whole lot before & after the moment? I still came back with over 10,000 frames to go through.
AF almost all cat/dog AI & I varied the number of points – often just “all” of them & it worked brilliantly.
If Covid didn't cause enough travel delay & hassle.....
They got published in most of the UK National quality press last weekend, but also in the Sun which was my favourite caption as a lifelong Manchester City fan. For those non-footballers, David De Gea is the Manchester United Goalkeeper who has had a difficult start to the season.
