More New Zealand wild life

[firsty]

as a follow up to this post http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?t=22025 of my shot from NZ that managed to get the picture of the week (thanks for that I'm stoked)

as an explanation, the original photo was taken at Staglands wild life park north of Wellington.
In one of the enclosures (a large one high on the side of a hill) was the one stag and about 15 hinds and fawns that I followed around for about 20 minutes as I tried to get the stag on it's own while he was standing on the leading edge of the meadow with the trees and valley in the distant background to make him stand out and I was also trying for a shot without sky as it was overcast with light rain at the time. It was hard work herding deer while on foot from about 50m away while taking photos with a manual focus prime lens, plus all the other deer were sticking close by and kept getting in the shots

this was the type of shot I was after but without the blown flat sky and from a higher vantage point

d200 Nikon 135mm 2.8 Ais @ ISO 200 f8 1/640

the original shot in the other thread is a crop from a photo with about 6 deer in it that just jumped out of the camera's LCD when I was chimping the shots over lunch

here are a few more shots from the park


d200 Nikon 135mm 2.8 Ais @ ISO 200 f2.88 1/1000

man these are hard to get focus on even with an auto focus lens

d200 Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 @ ISO 200 f3.2 1/160 (I couldn't back up far enough with the 135mm)

this was taken on the coast south of Wellington, also with the trusty 135mm manual focus lens (the more I use this lens the more I like it)

d200 nikon 135mm 2.8 Ais @ ISO 400 f8 1/500

thanks again for the photo of the week

[MattyO]

Excellent photo's mate! Its pictures like those, that make me want to spend money that i don't have on expensive len's that i don't really need.

Thanks

Well done on POTW as well. It was well deserved

[Oscar]

Excellent work Keith. You sure have got that 135mm Manual focus singing for you. Shame the detail on the peacock is not quite as sharp though.
Well done!! Cheers, Mick

[Killakoala]

The deer shot is excellent. I love the 'over-the-shoulder' look he is giving you. A classic model pose.

[meicw]

All very good shots. I love the expression on the stag's face. Its as though he is saying "why are you following me?"
And that last shot reminds me of someone, but I can't think who at the moment.

Regards
meicw

[ozczecho]

Excellent pics, must have been a great trip....the photos even in dull wether look great. Love the deer ones..

[sheepie]

Staglands! Are they still open? Brings back a few childhood memories that place

Not the usual spot for tourists to visit - nice pics though, looks like you enjoyed it

[firsty]

Staglands! Are they still open? Brings back a few childhood memories that place

Not the usual spot for tourists to visit - nice pics though, looks like you enjoyed it

I'm not really a tourist as I'm a Wellingtonian and have been to staglands before but my kids are Australian and as we were staying at the beach 20km away it was a easy place to visit so I thought I would show them some of the places I went to as a kid.