A Vixen in Sunlight

[Bill Jobes]

Seen late on a May afternoon, is a red fox vixen after just emerging from a mucky tidal marsh with an avian prey for her kit.

Having just dropped off the bird, she pauses to reflect on whether to turn on me. (Which, she did, but all ended well.)

I happen to like the way the sun caught the front of her body, just out of the shadows of an overhanging tree.

Nikon D3, Nikon 200-400 @ 400mm, 1/1000, F/7.1, -0.3 EV, ISO 1250.

C & C always encouraged and are deeply appreciated.

[Andrew Merwin]

Bill, I like the detail in the fur & how the light spot lights her face. It seems a bit tight to me, but maybe you're cropping out distracting elements in the image? She is a very pretty vixen. TFS.

[Stan Cunningham]

Nice shot Bill and I like the story that goes with it. If I put on my critical hat I would say that toning down the brightness of light on the face just a little might help. But it does tell the viewer the time of day by the obvious slant of light.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Bill, nice alert pose and I love the richness of colour, especially the eye. Not sure if shooting a little wider ie f/5.6 would have helped the BKG and diffused it a bit more? Might tone down or clone the two brighter stems in the BKG just for a more even feel. Would drop both Cyan & Blue from the whites, looks cleaner IMMHO, love the muddy paws :bg3: Just a thought, but have you tried flipping it L to R?

Like to have seen this posted at the larger size 1200px wide to appreciate it more.

TFS
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice pose, light and vibrance here Bill. Good advice given already. Do you have more space around her? Specifically in front of her?

[Bill Jobes]

Thanks for all the very constructive observations and comments.

Here is a larger repost with distracting bright reeds cloned at LR, blues and cyans removed from whites, and brightness on face toned down. I kept the crop, as the original intent was to feature the vixen, not so much her surroundings.

If anyone's interested, go to the album in my BPN Profile, and you'll see a tight shot of her a few seconds after I took this one. She was coming at me, and I was walking backwards, at a pretty good clip ! And I thought I was a respectful distance from her kit.

She obviously disagreed, but held back once she was convinced that I respected her boundary.

[Bill Jobes]

Hi Morkel,

We were writing at the same time. I concede there could be more room in front ... thanks very much for the suggestion.

[Loi Nguyen]

Very nice fox in good light. I see why Steve suggested opening up the lens more. the not quite blur, but smooth BG is a bit distracting. Her fur looked wet and I wonder if a little bit less sharpening would help the image. Loi

[Bill Jobes]

Thanks for the compliment and the suggestions, Loi.

Her fur not only looked wet, it was indeed wet. And that's mucky goo on her legs from the bottom of the tidal swamp she had just visited.

The BG doesn't bother me, but thanks for the suggestion on the F/stop. Problem with wide open, as you know, is that you run the risk of having more of the principal subject out of focus.

I had been photographing shore birds, hand-held, when she emerged from the grasses. It was a totally unexpected and uncontrolled event from the time she appeared, to the end of the encounter when she stopped pursuing me.

Knowing my gear was set right for the conditions -- I was using Aperture Priority at F/7.1 -- I concentrated totally on capturing what was unfolding before me.

To review, that was a fox appearing on the scene with a bird in her mouth, giving the prey to her kit, noting my presence, and pausing (in the subject photo) before deciding to approach me and convince me to leave the area.

In three minutes and 13 seconds, I took 74 non-burst photos. My priority was to capture sharp, properly exposed images of the fox.

One can always opt to selectively blur the BG in post, if that's the desired result. And oftentimes I do just that.

I offer this rather lengthy explainer to fully disclose the conditions, and the events surrounding the image.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Bill - I'm a little late to this one but the light hitting the eyes is great. Whites look better in rp. I agree about a bit more room in front but in these types of surprise situations it's so think of everything in the field :S3:. I would lessen the sharpening on the fg grasses by the legs.

TFS,
Rachel

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Bill,

good advice given already above. Due you mentioned you have a bit more room in the front, I would add it. Up to you. I do not bother at all with the BG.
Great image of this fox.

have a great day

Ciao
Anette