Glint in the eye

[ks chas]

When I look at pro wildlife photos I see a glint in there eyes that I never seem to get. Is there a secret to this that I am missing?

[Phil Magistro]

That glint (or catch light) could be from a number of things.  It could be from a the sky, a flash, the sun, a reflector, even a white tree trunk (aspen or birch).  This glint in this elk's eye is from the sky.

[Iron/Mtn]

Phil neat shot, please  give more details ie location, distance,lens.  take care john.

[Phil Magistro]

John, I took that in the Rocky Mountain National Park last September. It was early morning.  I used a 70-200 VR lens and shot 1/20th at f5.6 off a tripod.  ISO was 400. My camera lets me get a 2x crop factor so the image is equivalent to a 400mm.  This is cropped slightly from the orignal.  The elk was about 35 or so yards away.  I watched him at daybreak as he was laying in a meadow.  He got up, attacked a pine tree, then wandered into the aspens where I shot this.  Try as I might I could not get a shot of him without the trees getting in the way.

These two photos are the same elk earlier in the morning from 80 yards or so.  They are both 1/15 sec and a little soft.

[Iron/Mtn]

Phil Good stuff, When you have the VR mounted on the tripod do you/did you need to turn it off for these shots? Have you ever had any luck with any of the 1X or 2X multiplyers out there? Would'nt you love to have one of the high end 600M/M out there  

[Phil Magistro]

If it's a static shot I shoot images with it on and off.  I haven't really noticed that much of a difference.  Some of the time I pan with the tripod so I leave it on.

I do have a 1.4 teleconverter and it works fine.

While I'd love to have a 500 or 600 lens there are two issues for me.  One is that they are f4 at best and that's slow for early morning or dark woods.  The other is that they are a bear to lug around.  Of course if I could afford one of those lenses I probably could afford a sherpa too.