Beaver Capture in Dark

[Marina Scarr]

Here's another capture of the Beaver photographed in darkness in Estes Park, CO. On this one you can see it's face but it lacks the comical quality.

As explained in previous post, this was photographed at about 8 pm. Camera wouldn't AF in dark. You literally could not even tell this was an animal in the dark. Had to use someone else's flash illuminating the beaver to obtain manual focus. Does anyone know of a way I may have obtained AF using a flash other than with full automatic?

Canon 1D3, Canon 100-400 @ 340mm
F5.6, 1/100sec, ISO 1250, manual mode
Canon 580EX II Flash, handheld while kneeling

Any help and comments/critiques would be greatly appreciated.

Marina

[Rachel Hollander]

Marina - I can't answer your question but like the pose and you got nice detail in the fur.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

A cute guy Marina, good POV (low) although I do feel perhaps a little big in the frame, is this FF? The flash has certainly brought out the detail in the fur.

TFS
Steve

[Ken Watkins]

I cannot answer your question either, I rarely if ever use flash.

This is technically much better than your first image if not as comical.

[Hilary Hann]

I think you've done pretty well all things considered and the image is quite attractive.

As your initial query regarding focus in the dark will get lost in this thread, it might be an idea to post a separate question in the general forum area.

[Geoff Warnock]

Hi Marina, 2 things that spring to mind for you focussing:

1) does your flash (on camera) not provide some infra-red focus assist? I know that my Nikon SB-600 does, but maybe the range/contrast was not ideal in your case? This AF assist was very useful for me recently shooting a heron in near total darkness with only flash

2) I've heard much about people using flash lights to focus in these situations, but then having to expose carefully for once the light is removed

[Robert Amoruso]

Marina,

Geoff brought up the two suggestions I was going to mention. At Gatorland, I did some after dusk photography using full Program mode and let the flash figure it out and it did pretty well.

All in all, I think this image looks pretty good. Interesting pose and good detail.

[denise ippolito]

Marina, You did a great job focusing manually in the dark here. The details and pose look nice.

[DanWalters]

Great detail and I like the little bit of the white in the eye. Nice low angle as well.

[Harshad Barve]

Cuteness alert all over
TFS