Brown hare (Lepus europaeus)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Well here's another, this one is perhaps a little sharper, I feel you may be holding your arms up in despair - what is he playing at!! Well I am playing at trying to get a sharp image at a low shutter speed. I feel I have camera movement under control but do I have subject movement under control - for 1/40 sec possibly? I know I could have taken the image at a much faster shutter speed but it is much more difficult to get a decent image at a lower shutter speed and this is why I do it. I think this is acceptable, but I suspect you may not? Any how feel free to offer your comments I make this presentation to try to inject some dialogue, I sometimes feel playing it safe can be a little routine.

OM Systems : OM-1
Focal length in 35 mm film : 1202.0mm (300mm f4 & MC 20)
Exposure mode : Manual exposure
ISO:800
Exposure compensation : +0.3 EV
Shutter : 1/40 sec
Aperture : F8

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Jon, Nice you got close to the hare and good sharpness for the slow SS. Were you using a tripod? The habitat is nice and the hare giving you a subtle glance is cool.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Jon,

I personally see nothing wrong with playing around... would probably do it too and experiment more if I had the time. Would do Macro as well . Unfortunately I am at work for at least ten hours a day and add another hour or so of travelling - so when I encounter wildlife my first thought when I touch that shutter is " this better be sharp "

One of my concerns regarding your subject is - hares tend to twitch their nose! They can sit absolutely still but the little nose is still moving...So not sure I would attempt an image at this low shutter speed. BTW looked at both your hare images in PSCC and as you said, they are acceptable. In fact they look way better in PSCC.

So to me it's all about how precious the sighting / subject is and whether I can risk playing around with SS. If I find lion cubs I will not take a chance, if it's a lioness lying down I might experiment a little

Warmest regards,

[Jonathan Ashton]

Sanjeev no tripod, I rarely use one since I went over to Olympus. Gabriela, I think we are singing from the same hymn sheet. I do have another similar image I think with a faster SS. To be honest when I put the MC20 i.e. 2xTc on the results can be spot on or just a little off, usually with the f2.8 zoom they are very good indeed. If I had take the hare with the MC14 I am sure they would have been sharper. Can't wait till I get my new lens all this swapping and changing Tc will be a thing of the past.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Changing lenses and TC not fun at all, always worried that some dust particles might get in and then I have to send the gear back to Nikon for cleaning. Looking forward to some new images from you with the new lens, hope it arrives soon!

[Andreas Liedmann]

hi jon ... oh well you are in exploring mood , always fun if there is the time and the subjects .
honestly I think , if I would try to find out my and gears limits in terms of handhold able shutter speed , I would rather use a toy like a stuffed animal ... to find out about these things . but hey we are all different .....
regardless of the presented result ... this will not produce a pin sharp image , as the slightest movement of subject or photographer will eliminate the fine details and you know that . so what is it good for , when it is not possible to produce the sharpest possible output file ?? unless you it use for creative purposes like capturing dynamic motion with a slow shutter !! just my take .
from time to time I check in macro forum .... from the content pov you have photographed some really nice stuff , but sadly none of them are pin sharp nor do they have the right dof . when looking at your used techs I am not wondering why these images are suffering on the named things .... sorry to say that Jon , but I just want to be honest . if I was you I would work on that , to get better results .... unless you are satisfied with the outcome . then I have said nothing

regarding this file , to me it is not sharper than the previous posting . and it is not only the nose that Gabriela is taking about that might move and result in motion blur , I think the whole head is les sharper than the body .

anyhow have fun with everything you do in the photography , the most important part I think . and give a **** about my maybe too critical thoughts

tfs Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jon, nice you got close, but I just can't see why you want to shoot at a low SS, but your call.

The image looks a bit thin in tone and the eye isn't critically sharp and looks/appears washed out, but the fur appears better, but Mirrorless can't front/rear focus so not sure what is going on. The BKG looks fuzzy and at ISO 800 the image should be a clean as a whistle. The subject is angled away so 'if' there was an opportunity to move slightly more to your left LOL to reduce the angle this would have helped. The straw stem needs to go.

TFS
Steve