Road Trip to Oudtshoorn - Part one

This past weekend we went up to Oudtshoorn for my lady to participate in the Cango Caves marathon. I decided to try and use my camera on manual only for the weekend as I have been really battling to take good photographs.

I would really appreciate feedback and constructive criticism as I know these are not great

These are some of the animals we saw during our drive from just outside the Cango Caves where we were staying into Oudtshoorn where we were going to dinner (yes a ‘Dining Out’ post to follow)
They were mostly taken after sunset except for the first photo’s of the Springbok which were taken in the morning.

Springbok which was grazing across the stream

1/400 sec. f/5.6 158.817mm – ISO 100

1/400 sec. f/5.6 158.817mm – ISO 100

Ostriches taken from about 200m’s away in the early dusk

1/160 sec. f/6.5 247mm – ISO 400

I can see they are lacking ‘quality’ but am at a loss to know how to improve the ‘crispness’ !

These ostriches when they saw me decided to come and investigate, was very comical as it appeared like weaving, bobbing snakes on legs

1/200 sec. f/5.6 136.413mm – ISO800

Merino Sheep

1/250 sec. f/5.6 75.815mm – ISO400

Angora Goat

1/100 sec. f/7.1 211.606mm – ISO400

Herd of Angora goats heading back to their sheds

1/60 sec. f/5 13.909mm – ISO200

The following photo was taken on the same road, but earlier in the day at around 14h00

Two Camels resting in the mid-day sun

1/1000 sec. f/5.6 21.554mm – ISO100

I found using manual settings challenging but I learnt more about my camera (Canon PowerShot SX60 HS) over the weekend than I have in the past year.
Thanks for reading!