ScottyMcKelvie

Pup Meerkat

Pup Meerkat staring directly on at the camera with the adult standing guard. Curious pup staring around by fascinated onlookers at Edinburgh Zoo....
Read more

Pup Meerkat staring directly on at the camera with the adult standing guard. Curious pup staring around by fascinated onlookers at Edinburgh Zoo.
Read less

Canon EOS 70D

settings

Aperture f/4 ISO 100 Shutter 1/1000 Focal Length 185/1

upload_date

Mar, 2016

Views

131

Likes

Awards

Hero Award

Member Selection Award

Top Choice

Outstanding Creativity

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 2

Top 30 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

I captured this photography at Edinburgh Zoo, with the Meerkats close by the adults were guarding over their young. This shot I was lucky enough to capture one of the adults standing guard as the pup looked over in my direction.

Time

This shot was captured back on the 4th of May 2015 at 11:56am I was fortunate enough to have the bright sunny weather which if you know what Scotland's weather can be like it was my luck that day. I remember getting out early to Edinburgh Zoo, the Meerkat enclosure close by to the entrance, there was a large crowd of people surrounding the Meerkat enclosure. The Meerkats must have been intrigued by their surroundings. I feel I captured the facial expression from the pup pretty well whilst its parent stares guarding.

Lighting

With the sharp contrasting light from a bright sunny day I found this the perfect opportunity with the light breaking down onto the rock face behind them casting shade with the sun glowing down, I also wanted to ensure I captured the detail of their fur without overexposing the image as well as capturing some of the detail from the shaded areas. The strong contrasting light certainly adds to good effect and gave the Meerkats a nice warm glow.

Equipment

This image was captured using my cropped sensor Canon 70D, I prefer using my cropped sensor for nature as you can get closer to the subject. The lens I used was my Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM lens. It's a fantastic lens. With the bright sunlight I never used a tripod, the shutter speed I used at 1000 to darken the exposure, also helped with freezing any movement. No flash was used in this circumstance, I was a fair distance from my subject and captured this at a focal length set to 185mm.

Inspiration

Having taken up studying photography as a student I decided to do my higher last year on the natural world of photography and was always fascinated in nature relating to the animals. From a little studying even from professionals I began to learn the meaning of photographing a subject rather than just shooting and hoping to show a subject I learned that it's about capturing a moment that tells a story and gets the viewer questioning what is happening in that particular moment. The Meerkats were pretty active when I appeared and found this perfect opportune moment to capture the pup's curiosity of its surroundings whilst standing next to its parent standing guard. This picture shows part of the parent and pup relationship.

Editing

Post processing using Adobe Photoshop CC is something I used quite often, although I love to ensure that my photograph's remain as natural as possible to when I captured them and using lighting from that moment. Some of the post process work I do I use Camera Raw to make certain adjustments. For this particular image I increased contrast and highlights to enhance the image, also increasing the clarity to enhance the darkest and lightest parts with slight increased vibrance. Often I add a slight increase in sharpening to slightly sharpen an image, for this I didn't require the higher ISO so managed to get a quality image without the noise.

In my camera bag

I tend to take with me various lenses, my Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM is one I always take with me especially for using capturing nature. I always take my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro IS USM lens as well incase I do shoot anything I might spot for extreme closeup shots. Some other lenses I love to use and take with me are both my Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM and my Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 L ii USM, both are fantastic lenses, especially the 85mm f/1.2 which has fantastic sharpness and wonderful in low light situations, handy when my 70-200mm can't cope with low light with an f/4.0 aperture. I also pack my newest lens which is a Sigma 150-600mm Sport lens which is excellent for shooting distant subjects to get closer to my subjects. Most importantly I also take my full frame Canon 5D Mark iii with me everywhere I go and usually have my 24-70mm f/2.8 L ii USM lens attached, a fantastic lens for shooting every day subjects. Tripod I take most often with me is a Velbon Sub-65 which is fantastic for using for macro and versatile, small and easy enough to carry around. Square filters and my two 600 EX-RT's I pack just incase.

Feedback

I think the best advice for capturing moments is to ensure you have good lighting, it helps if you have the sun and if you have a sunrise or sunset it can be the perfect opportune moment. I pack my 600 EX-RT's incase I do use flash for filling in light, depends especially on the distance from the subject. For nature it's good to use a camera with fast continuous shooting, the Canon 70D is fantastic for this and ideal for shooting birds. Something new I learned is shooting on AI-Servo mode this allows you to track your subject to capture in focus. Using a faster shutter speed is ideal for capturing nice sharp shots and to try and focus on the eyes. Another little hint I learned with experience is to use slightly more extended depth of field especially co capture more focus if there's a second subject, the example shown from this shot I captured where the parent is slightly more out of focus to its pup. The last piece of advice I could give is look for moments that you feel can tell a story and composition, it's good to shoot with your backdrop in mind as it can make your subjects stand out.

See more amazing photos, follow ScottyMcKelvie

ScottyMcKelvie

ScottyMcKelvie

Pup Meerkat

Pup Meerkat staring directly on at the camera with the adult standing guard. Curious pup staring around by fascinated onlookers at Edinburgh Zoo.... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow ScottyMcKelvie

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes. Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.

Pup Meerkat staring directly on at the camera with the adult standing guard. Curious pup staring around by fascinated onlookers at Edinburgh Zoo....
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.