Originally posted by tomshen
1. I am relatively too close to my subjects so DOF is very small;
You should be alright, the rig you're shooting with gives you an effective DOF of a 400mm lens (35mm terms) at f5.6. That's ample DOF to work with, and I don't know of anyone who works with a wider DOF than that.
Make sure you don't fall into the AF trap. Always shoot wildlife with manual focus, and make sure you visually focus on the eye. Placing the AF sensor on the belly of an animal at the centre of the frame and hoping DOF carries to the head doesn't cut it. I was shooting a small bird out my window this afternoon at about 10 yards out, with a longer lens and a wider aperture than you were using, with the DOF at about an inch. About 90% of the shots were perfectly useable. I was focusing manually.
2. Smaller birds are much more agile than other larger animals. Actually motion blur was also one of the reasons. Maybe I should push ISO to 400 or higher sometimes;
In the interim time, yes, going to 400 is a very good idea, even higher. I'm assuming the D60 can be set in 1/3 ISO stops, well use that and maximise your shutter speed/ISO tradeoff at any given point in time. ISO 400 from what I've seen is a very useable proposition with the D60.
Ideally you'll have nice fast glass. Which is why people have been able to shoot wildlife since time immemorial with ISO 100 and ISO 50 stock, possibly in certain lower light conditions than those you are facing.
Anyway the DC is a good tool to learn: read the EXIF, view pix, think and return to practise again. Some day, I will show u all my good ones
Yup, good luck in your quest. When I first started out I too used to think recording shooting information (pen and paper in those days, and I'm not even that old!) would be a brilliant learning tool. I think with the benefit of hindsight and experience I now don't think this to be the case; in my opinion, just looking at your pictures and
learning to identify where you went wrong will send you on that learning journey faster. As in, instead of slavishly looking at your shutter speed from your EXIF info, consulting a book and realising your shutter speed was too slow/fast, to be able to look straight to your resultant shot, identify the key elements of a shot that has been taken with a too slow/fast shutter speed, identifying that on the fly, and learning from there. But you're on the right road, shoot more and you'll get there.
Good shooting!