Wednesday, October 7, 2009

When I Fail


I don't know how much you can see it in the picture at this size, but this picture of the black squirrel is very blurry. I don't really like showing you pictures that come out like this, but I wanted to tell you a little story about this.

I was standing on the walkway to the fishing platform at Carpenter Lake when this little black squirrel came wandering over. This was my greatest opportunity ever to get a good picture of a black squirrel for you. This little guy was almost completely unconcerned with my presence, and that is totally unusual for one of his kind.

I was using my new zoom lense, and I hoped it would help me get some very good closeups of him. The only thin I forgot was the bad lighting in this area. The light is in between light and dark right here, and it confuses my camera very badly. The zoom didn't help at all either because the camera sees light differently with it on.

So finally after about two dozen photos of this black squirrel, it finally decided it wanted to go somewhere else. I figured after that many shots of the squirrel that at least a few of them would be okay. Nope! Not one bit. This one shot is my lone picture that wouldn't make you go blind just looking at it. This kind of thing happens to me sometimes. This is what happens when I fail.


Now here is the very next squirrel I saw that day. It was very near where I saw the first one. I also took about two dozen pictures of this one. Some of them would have been absolutely spectacular if they would have turned out okay.

I even had one where the squirrel stood straight up and stared at me. It's standing up so straight, it looks like the squirrel is hovering off the ground. After it looked at me like that, the squirrel ran around giving me several different presentably nice poses. This is the only one that came out okay. Sometimes there are days full of these when the camera just doesn't seem to work right fore me. This is what happens when I fial. Oops, I meant fail.

14 comments:

  1. Aww, even if it's a little blurry, the little black squirrel is cute and at least he isn't trying to attack you. Or was that someone else who had the angry squirrel.

    Enjoy the new lens. I'm sure once you are used to it you'll get great photos.

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  2. Ratty, they are pretty good especially if you click for the larger size. I love the black squirrel, he is a cutie :) I have a squirrel special for you on my page :D

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  3. i can relate, it's frustrating when you see your photos blurred when it ought to be a good shot. those are good enough though and just remember -- Success is born from failure. ;)

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  4. It's still a good photo of that black squirrel Ratty, even if it's a little blurry. Have you ever tried using the flash in dark areas like that?? Or are they too far away??

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  5. The black squirrel has taught a lesson. Alright, it is just a simple lesson which cost nothing but a little bit of frustration.

    This happened to me too.

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  6. i had no problem seeing the black squirrel right away. i have never seen a black squirrel in real life and am very happy with these photos! have a wonderful day my friend...hugz!

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  7. It's a little blurry, but you can still see the squirrel very well. You're just in a learning process, and your future photos will be fantastic..

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  8. The first thing I want to say here is that I am still planning on answering the comments from the last few days. I'm behind, so I'll get to them as soon as I possibly can.
    -

    @DK Miller
    That was me with the angry squirrel. I encounter them constantly. These blurry photos are a part of photography. I'm fine with them.
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    @Poetic Shutterbug
    It's just that I was hoping for better with these. Sometimes this happens. It's okay. Your picture of the squirrel is great! And thanks for mentioning me on your blog. It brightened my day. :)
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    @Cher
    That's right! I have many more failures with my camera than I ever show, but when the shot comes out good I feel even better about it after the failures.
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    @Ginnymo
    I've tried using the flash a few times, but all I end up with is a black picture. Plus the flash greatly slows down my camera. That's its one big flaw.
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    @Rainfield
    I think it happens to us all. I was mostly trying to demonstrate that. Sometimes there are good days and sometimes there are bad days.
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    @PJ
    I'm sure I'll be able to show you some excellent black squirrel photos very soon. Blurry photos are only a momentary setback.
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    @Icy BC
    I'll still get blurry photos sometimes, but I take enough that I'll get my good ones too. I just thought it would be fun to show some of the failures.

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  9. I feel your pain! But then again, if all of them came out perfect, we wouldn't treasure the ones that do,now would we?
    I got frustrated today because I FINALLY saw a Canadian Jay bird and everytime I got my camera focused on him, he would fly away to another spot. I finally got him, though when he was pulling out a worm! I will be posting him in the future.

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  10. Do you have the lens hood on tele lens Ratty? You can put it on if you have one, it blocks the stray lights that came into the lens. If not, you can just try to cover the side of the lens (the position of hands when you want to shout) Hopefully this helps.

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  11. Ratty, I agree with the others on the black squirrel. A touch blurry but still a great photo for those of us who don't have black squirrel in our areas.
    We all have good days and bad days with photos.

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  12. aww don't feel bad we all have those days. Sometimes you got it sometimes you don't :)

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  13. I have the same problem Ratty. I normally take about 10 photos to get a decent shot, but sometimes they're all blurry. :-(

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  14. Well, I will feel sorry for your picture failures if you will feel sorry for mine! Let me tell you about the three times I could have had a picture of a great blue heron just taking wing if I could have gotten the lens cap off just a little sooner...

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