Mt Paul Sheep Pics

[dana]

Went to the Loops today and got myself a new digital camera and figured I'd break it in on some Mt. Paul sheep.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/LoopsSheep019a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/LoopsSheep017a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/LoopsSheep003a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/LoopsSheep007a.jpg

[Caveman]

Nice looking shots Steve, What did you get.

[dana]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/LoopsSheep004a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/LoopsSheep010a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/LoopsSheep021a.jpg

[dana]

SnFnL,
I picked up the Olympus SP-550UZ with the 18X digital zoom.

[Caveman]

Are the picture taken with just the optical zoom or did you venture into the digital? They always seem to get grainy with the digital zoom. These are nice and crisp. Shame there weren't any big boys hanging out.

[Derek_Erickson]

Nice pictures seen them sheep lots!

[steveo32]

Steve, you have any pics of that match set you found last week. And that other one you picked up a while ago. Seeing as you have a new camare i wanna see tonnes of pics lol


steve

[dana]

SnFnL,
I meant to say 18X Optical zoom, not digital zoom. You are right about the digital zooms and graininess. I was thinking about getting a SLR instead of a point and shoot, but the telephoto lenses are more money than the cameras. When I read the reviews on this camera I thought maybe I would suit me better for wildlife photography without going to the pro cameras.

[dana]

Steveo,
The pics of the sheds are coming. Hold on to your horses. ;)

[srupp]

nice photos Dana...

Steven

[Alpine85]

Nice looking pictures Steve. I have been eyeing that camera up after I seen the post on MM about it. I was shocked to see the 18x optical, thats a awsome looking unit.

[Will]

Nice Quality shots...should prove to be a decent Cam 8)

[TravisC]

Nice pics so whats the price tag on that model of camara and how close were you and at what zoom did you get to? i am looking for a camara to take good quality pics such as you got here.

[Birddog]

Oh those kinda sheep pics. I was gettin worried, I thought we might see pics of Dana wearing gum boots, and velcro gloves. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Cheers Birddog

[dana]

Travis,
Far as I understand this camera was just released to the market last month with a starting price of $500 US. I picked it up at London Drugs for $599 Can. Other than turning it on, these sheep were the first thing I saw worthy of taking pics of. I'm sure I could have taken much better photos if I actually knew the camera some. Still need to play with it and get to know it. The majority of the pics the sheep were between 50-60 metres away. I believe I never did have it at max zoom.

Alpine,
That thread on MM was what turned me onto this camera too. I was thinking of getting the Olympus Evolt E-500 SLR as it is more designed for real photography rather than point and shoot, but after looking through the standard lenses that came with it, I knew I'd be longing for a good telephoto for wildlife and that would add on another $1000 to the camera. Was glad to see the SP550 there and when I saw that zoom in action, I was sold.

[horshur]

Hey--can I borrow it????

[MattB]

Nice pics Steve. Im looking forward to the shed pics your gonna be taking with it.
Hey Andy, maybe you should let him borrow your tent, then he could lend you the camera LOL.

[Will]

Hey--can I borrow it???? POSTS 1
There goes the Neighborhood...........:lol:
Welcome:)

[steveo32]

Haha i bet next shed season steve will be looking for another new camara:lol: I think they need to come out with something that is bomb proof and dana proof

steve

[horshur]

Nice pics Steve. Im looking forward to the shed pics your gonna be taking with it.
Hey Andy, maybe you should let him borrow your tent, then he could lend you the camera LOL.

Least he wouldn't have to worry bout me burnin it.LOL

[dana]

Hey now, I take care of my stuff.:lol: I got a full 2 1/2 years out of my digital video camera before it just died.:rolleyes: Hopefully it is just a glitch and can be repaired easily, but the fact I can't get any sign of life has me thinkin I will be SOL.

[MattB]

How long did you have that other video camera for? Something else that made me laugh was when i put the .270 away after the season. I took a look down the barrel as i could see dirt at the muzzle, turns out it was jammed full of dirt LOL. That hill must have been a bit slippery coming down eh?

[steveo32]

Haha steve if it lasted you 2 years then it is bomb proof for everyone else on this site, remember our alpine adventure and i found your spotter lens cover you lost like 4 years before:D I know how you are steve ;)

steve

[dana]

Matt,
I had it in the Elberlistock scabard the whole time. Don't know what you are talking about. ;)

[David Heitsman]

Dana,
I just bought that Olympus for my wife three days ago and she has just left to England for a field trip with son's high school so I haven't had a chance to see how well it works. I am hoping to get to take it with me this fall to get some wild life picks as my Pentax WR has a 3 X optical and is really good only fro my "grip-n-grin" shots. I keep taking pics with it and tell people that the little spec in the picture is a grizzly or whatever.

Does the stabilizer really work at 18 zoom? I know I can barely keep a set of binos steady at 10 power freeehand so am not sure about the 18.

Are you enjoying it so far?

[dana]

David,
I am enjoying it. I can't wait to use it in the highcountry this summer. Here are some shed pics from this week with it. Definately way better clarity than my ol video camera pics.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/Mar13037a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/Mar13035a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/Mar13038a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/Mar13039a.jpg

[Will]

Nice.....:o

[boxhitch]

Dana - I hate to be a pest, but what about a pic with and without the zoom to max, please. That is a strong opty zoom, would like to know if it is reasonable to use, freehand. TIA

[Jetboat]

Definately way better clarity than my ol video camera pics
Much clearer for sure. I wish I had time to figure out my Canon. It has more features than I'll ever use.

[JohnS]

Nice pic's ......

[srupp]

very clear demonstration of a great camera Thanks Dana

Steven

[hunter1947]

I have never was interested in a sheep hunt in my younger days ,but believe you me i could of had some real big full curls in my younger days ,i use to see a half dozen stone sheep and thin-horn sheep in different places up near red fern lake area on the hill side when i hunted moose at the 178 Alaska highway marker ,we use to head in west 60 miles from the 178 marker on the Alaska highway that's where i seen them. That was when i was in my early teens. hunter 1947.

[dana]

Boxhitch,
I'll try to get some pics in the near future to show ya the zoom at work. The rainy/overcast weather this weekend wasn't ideal for picture taking.

[boxhitch]

Thanks. That unit may be on my 'need' list before this fall.

[ianwuzhere]

Nice pix!!
Where is Paul mnt located??

Here are some similar style pix ive taken with my digit cam recently. Went for a hike and found quite a few sheep. Most were rubbing theirselves on trees and bushes to scratch themselves from all the ticks. Found a chunk of hair beside one bush that had a tick in it, but the pic was blurry and soon the batteries died. Grrr hike all that way with no extra batteries....
http://s143.photobucket.com/albums/r141/ianwuzherephotos/


Cheers!
~ianwuzhere~

[Caveman]

Nice pix!!
Where is Paul mnt located??


Right in the middle of down town Kamloops, It over looks the yellowhead hwy next to Sun Rivers golf course

[Tinney]

OK dana hopefully you can stand some critique.

I would play around with your settings to figure out what went wrong there because every spot of white on the sheep is blown out.
The pics are very sharp, and look overexposed. What zoom were you at when taking these? I can tell they were taken off a tripod, no noticeable camera shake.
The contrast is very strong.
This is a great camera with lots of potential, but try to figure out why your shots are blown out......

[Fisher-Dude]

Ian, those are some nice pics. Was the Spotted Towhee near the sheep? They are really neat birds, and you don't get to see them too often.

[dana]

Tinney,
No problem on the critique. As soon as I got the camera out of the store I zoomed over to Mt. Paul to try it out. Barely even knew how to turn it on. Was fumbling my way through as I was snapping pics. Was basically an excersise in seeing how far the zoom could work. The white being blown out in the pics is more a result of doing the editing on the computer. When I used the photo enhance function in ACDsee, the colour really was drawn out but the white on the sheep was really washed out. Also the day was not ideal conditions for stelar pics. Lighting was very poor. Outdoor photography has more to do with lighting than anything else. If you don't have the conditions for great photos, then no matter what you do with settings and speeds and such, you still will end up with mediocre pics such as these ones.
BTW no tripod was used. The pics were strictly handheld and in a pretty harsh cross wind to boot, which at times almost blew me over. Obviously the stablization control works well on the camera. :)

[Tinney]

If those were freehand then yeah, it's got one heck of a good image stabilizer! If you played with them, that probably explains the blown out look to them. You gotta play the atmosphere.....even marginal equipment can turn out some amazing shots....I like the clarity...and your composition on a couple is nice...the one lying down off to the left is good....Olympus is making some nice cameras now...almost comparable to the Canons.

[Tinney]

Oh ya...I was gonna post this for inspiration :lol:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/PGKris/Random-Wind1Edit.jpg

[BIGHUNTERFISH]

Another ram.
http://www.lan-lord.net/upload/pics/20070320171741IMG_0087.JPG

[WoodOx]

See - i have a question for you sheep guys - Ive been told and have read several articles outlinging judging sheep - but they often say that depending upon the genetic code of that particular ram, his horns grow one of three ways. Often Rockies and Calis will NEVER read full curl, but broom off and just be SUPER massive 4/5ths curl kinda thing.


1) How old is that ram in BIGHUNTFISH's pic

2) Why, considering their tendencies to broom - are some rockies and cali areas "Full curl or better" when they shouldbe Mature ram?

Thanks!

[BIGHUNTERFISH]

Heres another view.
http://www.lan-lord.net/upload/pics/20070320174502IMG_0088.JPG

[dana]

Tinney,
Nice pic, next time you might want to use your quadants a little more and not have the horizon in the center with the sun just off of dead center. ;)

[Kirby]

as dana said, placing a horizon in the middle of the shot isn't typically ideal. It splits the picture. Having said that rules are made to be broken.

and because I'm bored he is a picture
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d72/Cr_mclean/DSC_0100.jpg

Kirby

[bighornbob]

Aguacher

The sheep is at least 9 1/2 from what I can tell and more likely a few years older. I dont see any growth rings for a lot of part of the horn so I guessed where they should be.

You are correct that Cali's are more prone to broom then other sheep, Rockies dont broom as bad but they do reach full curl quite often.

They make the rules for full curls to allow some mature sheep to still breed. In the kootneys, it is for full curl for Rockies. They make it like this knowing full well that some sheep may never get to be full curl, this way an old ram can can on his genetics. The full curl status also lets us hunt every year, if it was for "mature rams", the whole area would be put on LEH as too many rams would be killed.

It is rare for a Cali to get to full curl (have seen two mind you). They will be full curl around 6 years of age then they will broom off and maybe get to furl curl again at 10+ years. This lets the mature rams do the breeding. In most of these full curl areas they give out LEH's for 3/4 curls so you can still hunt for those monster 3/4 curls as in the picture above. It also lets guys get out there and hunt the regular season looking for full curls although it is rare guys still, shoot them every year. the harvest of full curl calis is so small it does not affect the population much.


So as you can the rules let some mature rams to reach maturity and breed, lets some to be killed and still allows hunters to keep hunting. The problem now is guys are shooting sheep based on age or length, finding out they judged incorrectly, then they try passing the ram off as being killed in another area (i.e. shooting a full curl in Region 3-17 where it has to be a mature full curl, finding out the ram is short then they try telling the CO they killed it in 3-32 where it will meet that definition of legal.)

Check out the article on the wild sheep society website that the CO in Clinto wrote.

Hope this anwsers some of the questions.

BHB

[WoodOx]

Totally answers the question thanks. As a matter of fact, I thought Rockies broomed as often as Calis, so in essence, the fact that many rockies do reach full curl, while some do not, answers the question as to huntability & conservation.

Thanks BHB

[boxhitch]

They make the rules for full curls to allow some mature sheep to still breed. In the kootneys, it is for full curl for Rockies. They make it like this knowing full well that some sheep may never get to be full curl, this way an old ram can can on his genetics. The full curl status also lets us hunt every year, if it was for "mature rams", the whole area would be put on LEH as too many rams would be killed.

BHB
I think maybe you have things messed up a bit, BHB.
The def for mature is a horn that reaches over the bridge of the nose, The full curl is a shorter horn, reaching a line drawn between the nostril and the horn base.
There are a whole lot less mature rams than there are full curl.

[bighornbob]

Boxhitch

I should have made myself more clear. When I referred to "mature sheep" it was in regard to a sheep being 8 years of age and not above the bridge of the nose like at Spences.

So if in the koots they let you kill a full curl or a "mature ram> 8 years of age" to many rams would be killed and the area would go to LEH..

I guess I should have clarified that better with Spences being Mature (8 years or above the bridge of the nose)

BHB