Critique the Community Episode 30 - Wildlife Photography

We received images of dozens of animals in our latest episode of Critique the Community and here is our feedback. Let us know if you agree with the ratings for each image.
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[SiddharthPendharkar]

I shot the elephant image and while I appreciate the rating I have to say it would have been nice if you guys had invited an actual wildlife photographer to join the discussion. There are nuances to shooting wild animals that can only be understood if you have been in the field and tried to make images. Still, thanks for including my image and keep on doing these critiques! It's always interesting to hear the laypersons opinion on wildlife photography!

[RealmsOfThePossible]

Why do they rate the photos on how they think the image was taken without any proof rather than the actual end product like rating the squirrel photo on the idea the animal was trained to jump at the camera? What kind of nonsense is that?

[murraystaff]

This is painful to watch. The lions were clearly wild. Look at the scars, probably from similar territorial scraps. The Icelandic horse is a good picture... but it’s not wildlife.Of course you can get that close to a bison in the wild. Regarding the elephants, If you’ve never been to Africa you don’t realize that you often have to work hard for your sightings. You can’t compare it to a zoo. And you’d have preferred the image if the guy had “hiked” up to the elephants, not shot it from a car? Hiking up to wild elephants would probably be the last hike you do.

[maxq]

Hey guys- I took the clownfish/anemone photo- 100% agree that it could be sharper, but I can promise you it was taken underwater, on the Great Barrier Reef, at about 35 feet

*edit*- taken with a point-and-shoot canon with a small strobe

[jko]

I don't really understand why rarity of the animal has such weight on the quality of the image with these guys.

[jj]

Hey guys. My image was the second to last - the barred owl. It was a single image. Exif: Sony a7ii | 55mm Zeiss Prime | f2.2 | ISO 640 | 1/1250s and all natural lighting. It was shot in manual focus with a lot of patience and a little bit of luck. His face and side are lit by a setting sun's reflection off of the creek below as he flies underneath the canopy of a bald cypress tree in my backyard and towards another branch that is also positioned over the water. The tree that he launched from directly behind it is one of his favorite sunset fishing spots. Hope that offers some clarity! :)

[morbly]

It drives me crazy when photographers don't know what animal they're looking at: that was a Jumping spider and spiders aren't insects, it was a butterfly not a moth, that's a fly not a bee. It's understandable though....a robin!?!? lol!

[dhirajin]

Its all good... but I did not like when you tell "I have this in my backyard and anyone with zoom glass can take a picture like this". Com on... it more about being at the right time and at the right place and then composing the picture in matter of seconds to capture the moment. Wildlife photography is the most difficult one that's what I feel, so hats of to all the photographers.

[Higuma_JPN]

"It's rare, but it's common" - "Maybe the turtle coulda looked up" - kind of says it all doesn't it ?

[CazualTim]

Is every CtC episode like this? As a first watch... this is really discouraging, what with all the 'I know nothing about this situation, but I'm going to critique it based on my assumptions about the situation' balanced only by 'I have no idea how this was made technically, but I'm going to critique based on how I assume it was made.'

[VintageRacer]

I give this video one star because I HAD to skip most of it. It doesn’t matter how the photographer got the shot. The only thing that matters is the final result. You guys ‘assumed’ every picture was somehow a cheat. A – Bad assumption, B – What difference does it make? We’re photographers, let’s critique the picture. Me thinks you guys are just trying to impress us that you know every way to cheat. So?

[Slewis]

You two are really showing your ignorance when it comes to Wildlife photography

[shang-hsienyang]

My goodness, the photographer for the first shot doesn't need a tutorial, he should make a tutorial instead!

[tristenwoodward]

look i normally love the critiques you guys do but this time it was really in shambles to start with please if you are not experienced in wildlife photography bring someone in that is, because nearly half the points you were making were so invalid like to you apparently all the animals are captive while in reality those photographers will have waited days and weeks to get that photo with the right lighting the right scene and o forth

[matthewmarriott]

the squirrel shot is great. They move so fast the photograper really nailed the shot 4 Stars for me.

[cvalle]

A trained squirrel that lives on the wild... Someone call Ted Mosby

[ghosface]

Would you give a lower grade to a landscape picture taken by a person living there? Is pictures from Iceland less worth by guy that lives there? If that is not the case, why would it matter if that bird or animal or insect is common. You can take 1000 pictures of a bird just to get one great picture, like you can take 1000 picture of a mountain just to get one great one.

[RNilisse]

You guys don't really critique the images, you're critique the animals rarity.

[MrCaliboy]

You guys really need to do your research before you start making ignorant comments about someone's picture. Buffalo do walk next to roads and even directly on the road. Buffalo roam freely in Yellowstone and also in North Dakota. I was in touching distance of one when I was in both Yellowstone and North Dakota.

[troelshansen]

On the spider photo: You can immediately tell from the configuration of the eyes that this not a flippin' tarantula, but a jumping spider from the family Salticidae, and they are generally smaller than 25 mm in legspan.