Wildlife Photography across the Water: Nikon D7000 and the P mode

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Nikon D7000 and the P mode

The Nikon D7000 is a very good camera, Infact for the money i think its excellent, I use it more than my D3s which says a lot but it does have a couple of shortfalls, It has a small buffer-not a problem most of the time but when things do get fast an furious it can be somewhat limiting, The other problem is the mode dial, its far too easy to knock it into another mode by accident especially when you carry the camera over you shoulder or you grab the camera and tripod and quickly move with it pinned against your hip, I had this happen to me in California when i was down on a beach shooting whimbrel and sanderling, I was going through my images the other day when i looked at the exif on a few and noticed that i had shot with the 600+1.4x combo but the aperture was at F5.6, This struck me as strange as with an extender i never shoot wide open, Looking closer i see that i was in programme mode, I do not actually remember resetting the camera to manual but i must have done, The exposures were ok but some where a little darker than the next, not a lot luckily but not the consistent exposures that you get when in manual, Its important to shoot in manual mode when on a beach near the sea as when you have the sea as a background the rolling waves will give different exposures in all other modes than manual, If the sea has any kind of waves, the background will be white one second and blue the next and this will affect exposures unless you have them locked i.e in manual, Anyway i was lucky and i got away with it, I think by looking at the images i was only in P for a few minutes, Thinking back its probably 15 years or more since i last used the P mode, I do know some pro's that will quickly pop their cameras in P when taking a shot at night with flash-weddings etc, The benefit with P over the fully Auto mode is that you can adjust the exposure by compensating and change the aperture, I would advise you to use Manual or if the sun is in and out use AV/ aperture priority and take control of your camera for a more consistent exposure

A couple of P mode images

Dave

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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.