photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 108: Low and Wide : Hosted by Vikas Malhotra >> Eligible : LOW AND WIDE > Koi D.A.W.G.S.
previous | next
09-DEC-2007 AussieDawg

Koi D.A.W.G.S.

Down And Wide Grayed-out Shot

Canon EOS 40D ,Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
1/250s f/5.6 at 24.0mm iso3200 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
share
Canon DSLR Challenge12-Dec-2007 00:08
That's the best fish story I've heard in a long time AussieDawg! - Nice shot too :) - Kelly
ctfchallenge11-Dec-2007 23:42
I've got koi, too....lots of them. So, I'm particularly prejudiced towards this shot. I love it! dtallakson
Canon DSLR Challenge11-Dec-2007 01:18
Neat image, beautiful fish and fun title. --mlynn
ctfchallenge10-Dec-2007 17:43
Oh yeah.. .the acronym... How about... Darn Aggravating Water Garden Syndrome ? I have it, too. *wink* ~Lydia
ctfchallenge10-Dec-2007 17:42
LOL @ all of that... well... really laughing WITH you instead of AT you... I can just picture me doing all of that in my mind. *sigh* I even have the pond, the 300D and the 40D. I'd like to see all of your pond sometime, AussieD. I'm so ignorant about the weather... can you pond all year long? ~Lydia
Canon DSLR Challenge10-Dec-2007 14:26
I'm open for any other ideas for the DAWGS acronym.

Getting to this image was quite a saga. As soon as I saw the topic, I wanted to attempt to get a low and wide shot of my koi. As far as wide goes, my original Digital Rebel came with the 18-55 lens and since I didn't really want to mess with my 40D around the water, it seemed like the best solution was to go with the good ol' 300D. The very first issue was where is the quick control wheel? How do I set the aperture in manual mode without a wheel? It’s interesting how dependent I've become on that wheel. Once I got my bearings on the 300D, I realized just how small the display was, but hey, I don't really need the display to take the pictures. So off to the pond, take a couple dozen shots and upon review, realize that it can't be done between the hours of 7 am and 3 PM while the sun is shining on the pond. Now this restricts my opportunities. Then I try a late afternoon session. At this point, the koi were still too full from all the food I had fed them in the morning to get them to come up to me. One day lost.

The third attempt found me laying on the wet ground from the rain the night before. The koi were cooperating, the light was pretty good, then, suddenly, I felt this burning jolt run through my body. Did I mention that I have a 5000 volt electric fence around the pond to ward off predators? It works really well against photographers also. At least I didn’t zap the 300D. It’s a good thing it is made with a plastic exterior. After recovering from the shock, I proceeded to take a few good possibilities. When I went to review them, there was no CF card in the camera. I forgot the 300D doesn't have the failsafe mode to prevent taking pictures with no card. That was a big Duh-Oh!

The fourth attempt was to be mid afternoon, but I got tied up and didn’t get out till later with very little light. The 300D was pathetically slow with multiple shots and focus speed wasn't very fast so I reluctantly switched to the 40D with 24-105. By now it was even darker and the koi weren’t interested in any more food. The bottom line is this is the best I ended up with having to shoot at ISO 3200 in low light. I appreciate the 40D now more than ever. --AussieDawg