One more from the session and an interaction shot for a change. I've got literally hundreds of images of static/feeding marmots over the last few years but very few behavioural shots, so it was nice to witness/capture this.
The second marmot emerged from the other side of the grassy knoll and shot across to the rocks to meet up.
Ah, Marmot love!!, I think the central composition works on this occasion, though I think the shot would work better if you were square on to the subjects, but that may not have been possible. How confiding are these Marmots Mike? are they easily approachable? good shot btw.
I realised as I came to work that I didn't convert the file from RGB to sRGB so I hope the colours aren't too far off.
Andy - how approachable - not very, certainly not hand feedable! This marmot group were at a relatively low level of about 1500 m and next to a busy mountain road. I spent 7 hours at the site in total of which the marmots were above ground for a total of about 1 hour. There was a lot of construction traffic using the road next to the little grassy area, every time a lorry or walker went past the marmots would dive back underground. I lost a good hour when a pair of walkers decided to picnic on the same ground by the stream - the trials and tribulations of a nature photographer!
By setting up a fair distance and keeping absolutely dead still I used the traffic interuptions to gradually move closer to the burrows and by keeping upwind of my target burrow my presence impact was reduced. As I indicated in the first post and I had no camo clothing or bag hides, it was simply a game of patience using the tripod and camera at a low height to break up my profile and staying totally immobile. It takes about 15 minutes of the "staring game" to get acceptance as a no threat new object.
Discussion
6 repliesOne more from the session and an interaction shot for a change. I've got literally hundreds of images of static/feeding marmots over the last few years but very few behavioural shots, so it was nice to witness/capture this.
The second marmot emerged from the other side of the grassy knoll and shot across to the rocks to meet up.
Cropped for presentation, same techs as before
Ah, Marmot love!!, I think the central composition works on this occasion, though I think the shot would work better if you were square on to the subjects, but that may not have been possible. How confiding are these Marmots Mike? are they easily approachable? good shot btw.
Andy...
Andy - how approachable - not very, certainly not hand feedable! This marmot group were at a relatively low level of about 1500 m and next to a busy mountain road. I spent 7 hours at the site in total of which the marmots were above ground for a total of about 1 hour. There was a lot of construction traffic using the road next to the little grassy area, every time a lorry or walker went past the marmots would dive back underground. I lost a good hour when a pair of walkers decided to picnic on the same ground by the stream - the trials and tribulations of a nature photographer!
By setting up a fair distance and keeping absolutely dead still I used the traffic interuptions to gradually move closer to the burrows and by keeping upwind of my target burrow my presence impact was reduced. As I indicated in the first post and I had no camo clothing or bag hides, it was simply a game of patience using the tripod and camera at a low height to break up my profile and staying totally immobile. It takes about 15 minutes of the "staring game" to get acceptance as a no threat new object.
Keith.