# The Wildlife Photo MISSES Thread...



## matthewo (Dec 9, 2013)

I know we all have had them.  so I want to start this thread for anyone to post photos that are interesting, yet they just don't really make your keeper list, or at least your show off list due to quality, or ISO noise, or just huge crops, or any other reason.

so this thread is to post up what could have been.  say lighting was not good,  autofocus didn't work, camera was in the wrong settings, etc...

I know its not really the norm to post up photos that are not good, but if like me, I sometimes am just too far away or too slow of a shutter speed to capture what may have been a very interesting photo.



I will start it off with these:

this was my closest encounter with a barred owl,  it was in a swamp and I got to spend 10 or so minutes photographing it.  but the light was very bad, so these photos show a lot of noise, I did have a flash but you have to be very carful with those big eyes of owls and flashes, yet most encounters with barred owls happen in a dense swamp.  I did come away with a few ok photos, but I wished I had a couple clean shots with just the meal





a very heavy almost 100% crop of a head on osprey grabbing a fish from the water.


100% crop of a bunch of eagles in the distance.


green heron grabbing a fish out the water, to lighting was very harsh.


----------



## sm4him (Dec 9, 2013)

All but the tiniest percentage of mine would fit into this thread. :lmao:
I'll have to sort through my stash to find a few to post.


----------



## globeglimpser (Dec 9, 2013)

This thread will see a lot of me. For starters:


----------



## coastalconn (Dec 9, 2013)

Oh how fun, I could post tens of thousands of my shots here.  But 2 recent owl shots came to mind... Owls with branches or is it branches with owls


----------



## matthewo (Dec 9, 2013)

Yes, i thinks branches are sometimes my worst enemy


----------



## robbins.photo (Dec 9, 2013)

Of all my near misses, this one probably smarts the most:





Was shooting one when another came in for a landing, and missed.  Managed to get him in the frame, but the DOF wasn't set (I wasn't expecting a second bird to suddenly come into the frame) so the focus is off.  Grrr...  Lol


----------



## MSnowy (Dec 9, 2013)

Lately having to crop a lot and when they turn or look the other way.

View attachment 61859


----------



## sm4him (Dec 9, 2013)

Well, let's see: What type of problem shall I pick first? Too noisy? Out of focus? Subject cut off?
Oh, how about we just hit 'em all at once:


This was the sole sighting I got of an extremely rare bird for our area, a Scissor-tailed Kite. I was one of the lucky few who even got to SEE it, but dang, that thing was flying WAY up high. Really had to do a mega-cropping job:


This one reminds me of a line from The Grinch: "Oh the NOISE, NOISE, NOISE, NOISE!!" :lmao:


----------



## DarkShadow (Dec 9, 2013)

How many thousands I deleted and how many I should delete but this is one of my worst framing composition. Cut off wings, tail and feet.



10298892084_0367b784ee_o by DarkShadow191145, on Flickr


----------



## JustJazzie (Dec 9, 2013)

Am I allowed to count my dog as wild life?? She is wild, and alive.  I Adore this shot of her, but she jumped out of my focus plane right as I shot!


----------



## coastalconn (Dec 9, 2013)

sm4him said:


> This was the sole sighting I got of an extremely rare bird for our area, a Scissor-tailed Kite. I was one of the lucky few who even got to SEE it, but dang, that thing was flying WAY up high. Really had to do a mega-cropping job:
> View attachment 61862


I see your Kite and raise you a Mississippi Kite.  Also a very rare bird here and a downright horrible shot...



Bird for ID? by krisinct, on Flickr


----------



## kundalini (Dec 9, 2013)

Just a day at the zoo.  I swear the animals had plotted a conspiracy to turn their backside to me all day long.


----------



## matthewo (Dec 9, 2013)

Lol on the bum shots


----------



## cmhbob (Dec 11, 2013)

MSnowy said:


> Lately having to crop a lot and when they turn or look the other way.
> 
> View attachment 61855


I really like this one, though. It's an unusual angle - head-on is rare. The crop is good too, I think.


----------



## coastalconn (Dec 11, 2013)

As this owl turned this morning all I could think of was this thread.  I thought I was still on spot metering, but I somehow had switched to matrix or center...  Inspired by Kundalini   Also a good example of banding being underexposed by 3 stops..  hmm might have to throw it in that thread too...


----------



## sm4him (Dec 12, 2013)

Here's one I re-discovered while going through some older photos this morning in (vain) search for the one someone wanted a print of:
This one is from this past February. I'd been taking pictures of a sparrow when a cardinal landed nearby. I went to take a picture of the cardinal, and the sparrow evidently did not like having the limelight taken from it&#8230;so it photobombed my cardinal shot.


----------



## matthewo (Dec 12, 2013)

3 can play this game... haha



interesting placement of watermark/logo


----------



## sm4him (Dec 12, 2013)

Oh, WELL&#8230;if we're calling the poop shots "misses," I can play that, too! I would have called this one more of a "nailed it!" shot, though. :lmao:




June1_3023editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

On a side note: At the time, I didn't realize what I'd captured. When I saw this shot, it brought a whole new level to my fear of having a bird poop on my head while it was flying overhead. :lmao:


----------



## JacaRanda (Dec 12, 2013)

You all are killing me.  I can't wait to get home to join in this party.  This could really help me sort through and delete the really almost crappy ones I am too lazy to deal with.


----------



## matthewo (Dec 12, 2013)

nice, yeah maybe I should change this to anything goes?

but really that was kind of my thought for the thread, to post interesting photos but just not really your favorites that you would normally post. ones that might be funny etc.

regardless, Its funny you say that, I not once have I been pooped on yet (knock on wood). and I have been in a few situations looking up on birds were it probably should have happened



sm4him said:


> Oh, WELL&#8230;if we're calling the poop shots "misses," I can play that, too! I would have called this one more of a "nailed it!" shot, though. :lmao:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## matthewo (Dec 12, 2013)

I will add this one from today:

was chasing this krestal around, and this was just too far away and terribly backlit,  this was all I could do to bring out shadows, its looks pretty bad.  I would really like to get some good photos of a wild krestal,  I know were to find this one most of the time, but its just always blue sky background as he is high and on a power line most of the time.


----------



## baturn (Dec 12, 2013)

We had been shooting three cheetahs just going about their business for about 15 minutes when this one strolled over right beside the car and showed what he thought of tourists by, well, doing his business.


----------



## JacaRanda (Dec 12, 2013)

I had no idea this Osprey was going to invade the Pelican's territory.  Darn, I almost got lucky.  I would have even spent the time to clone out the tag on the Pelican.





Osprey vs American White Pelican-1.jpg by JacaRandaPhotography, on Flickr

A couple from the Mrs.



Laguna Niguel Regional Park-154-2.jpg by JacaRandaPhotography, on Flickr




Laguna Niguel Regional Park-153-1.jpg by JacaRandaPhotography, on Flickr


----------



## Braineack (Dec 13, 2013)

CameraNIKON D3100Focal Length300mmExposure1/200F Numberf/5.6ISO3200


Beyond the clipped ears I think it turned out awful and I was a really disappointed with it.  It was fairly low-light (shade), and the 55-300 was having trouble focusing. The high iso and relatively low shutter ruined the IQ.  There's no crop on that pic I got pretty close.  I was hoping for a really awesome detailed face shot, but got left with something that looks like I could take with my cell phone.





Curious Flamingo by The Braineack, on Flickr

I always liked this shot, the flamingo was very curious, but I hate I clipped the beak.


----------



## DragonHeart (Dec 13, 2013)

My first encounter with a Key Deer in No Name Key, Florida.  Never got it to turn around.


----------



## SashaT (Dec 14, 2013)

The first few are fails of trying to show off how friendly my pet goose is.








I fish a lot and sometimes those damn things just wont hold still, other times you get a shot and think WTF.


----------



## Aloicious (Dec 14, 2013)

sm4him said:


> Here's one I re-discovered while going through some older photos this morning in (vain) search for the one someone wanted a print of:
> This one is from this past February. I'd been taking pictures of a sparrow when a cardinal landed nearby. I went to take a picture of the cardinal, and the sparrow evidently did not like having the limelight taken from it&#8230;so it photobombed my cardinal shot.
> 
> View attachment 62034



hah, that's great. here's a photo bomb image of mine:


----------



## Newtricks (Dec 14, 2013)

Out of focus, motion blur, poor editing...


----------



## coastalconn (Dec 15, 2013)

I got photobombed today, figured I would keep this fun thread alive...



Sparrow and fill flash - Photobombed! by krisinct, on Flickr


----------

