Mouse or Rat? (C)

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Everyone!

Not a Theme image I am afraid, still looking for one:)

For those of you who haven't seen my previous images of Lumi, she is a beautiful Caracal living on a Private Game Reserve nearby and this was captured during her rehabilitation some time ago. Added the (C) because at the time I took this she was being fed, albeit from time to time. Not my best image of her but I liked that tongue sticking out. These days Lumi catches her own food which consists of snakes, mice, birds, as well as young antelope. Yep, young antelope! She is an agile, unafraid, powerful, athletic Caracal, and super fit. She still allows me to touch and even hold her if she happens to be around when I visit, although a slight movement or sound can make her dash like an arrow out of my arms... I got a rather heavy kick in my chest the other day as she flew off to investigate something:)

I have hundreds of images of Lumi and I treasure them. Here I tried to stick as much as possible to the "real-life" colours, she is a "Red Cat" alright, but the fur is slightly orange... techs as follows:

Nikon D4
Nikon 300mm F2.8
ISO 1600
F9
1/1000s

Shot without support as I was busy following her in the bush...she had just discovered a something lurking in the tall grass, not sure it was a mouse or a rat but she was busy pondering whether to pounce or not:)

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela love your Lumi !!!
The tongue does it for me , even if HA and higher shooting angle is not that ideal .
Lovely colors and tone , you have extracted some nice fine detail from this capture , so well done on that .

TFS Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hallo Boetie:)

On my way to the feathers but could not resist checking what you had to say:)

Ideally I should have shared one of the previous images where Lumi looked towards me, but I have not processed those yet. The next frame had better DOF but the tongue almost back in, less impact.

Agree about the angle. Sorry, I had no choice... I was busy to go down on my knees and shot a few frames while the tongue was out, glad VR was on:)

No nitpicking from you tonight as such so I am off to bed in a good mood, LOL. Otherwise I would have to do an RP, ASAP!

Love to hear from you, thank you Andreas, lekker slaap my Boet:wave:

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, would agree with Andreas on his thoughts and given the additional feedback, I feel perhaps in going for a lower POV you could well have missed the tongue which would have been a real shame, so well done. Love the overall colour palette, framing and the PP. My only thought and I wish there was a way to see this, but because you were close and the detail is spot on, I would have liked more DoF so the left eye was also sharp, therefore maybe f/16 as you had the D4 and ISO on your side. This is certainly NOT a deal breaker, just a thought, as I am sure you will have other opportunities with Lumi this year and so you could test it out with the same kit, or maybe a new body???? :w3

Enjoy the feathers.

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you so much Steve,

I am fully aware of the shortcomings of this frame, nevertheless I wanted to share...This is well exposed and detail is there where it matters most I know, I think I also got the colours right this time around. But it's not perfect... I always go out there with thoughts of taking better images and paying more attention to techs and what the gear can do for me. Less excitement and less emotions, keeping things cool these days, more time spent watching the histogram and checking DOF and especially SS. But as you know, there are those moments when your subject turns its head to look the other way and it all changes, you press the shutter before you turn the dial, afraid not to miss out...

I am so in tune with some of my subjects (especially the feline kind) that I can easily anticipate movement...but what frustration when I fail to do so! I have nothing to say in my defence here... all I can say is, I have been running with Lumi that day and trying to keep up with her, from time to time she turned around and chased me instead, which Andre found very funny..Here she stopped in her tracks and I caught up with her, shot a burst as she settled for a moment, better frames with nice DOF but no tongue, will share some more soon...

Off to the feathers now, my eyes are closing, would like to do some more PP work but it's too late:tinysmile_shy_t: Thank you so much Andreas and Steve, good night to you both!

Steve, I do want that new body so badly:bg3:

[Glenn Conlan]

Well done, please keep them coming great subject

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - Love your images and stories about Lumi. Andreas and Steve have covered it well. Only thing I would add is that I would like just a sliver more room above. The tongue makes the image. Well done.

TFS,
Rachel

[keith mitchell]

Hi Gabriela, Tec bits well covered ,you have some super detail in the fur the eyes and that nice pink tongue ,like this so lets have some more.

Keith.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Gabriela -- absolutely stunning . i loved this one . The tongue sticking out makes this one for me . simply enjoyed viewing this . TFS !

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Gabriela,


such a nice animal, would love to capture some images of these as well. I have seen that you had f/9, would love to see more 'sharpness' going beyond the right ear. If this makes any sense! Love the colors and details, very nice done :bg3:

Have a great weekend

Ciao Anette

[Mark Needham]

I am very jealous - the caracal is the animal on the top of my "bucket list," having only seen one at about 2am at Urikaruus under the flood lit waterhole for about 10 seconds. Never seen one in good light and my fingers are getting sore from keeping them crossed waiting for the opportunity :t3 Love the tongue out here and eyes looking off into the distance. Colors and sharpness look good. Agree that a tad more DOF and more space along the top would have been good, but not deal-breakers for me. Nice job and great sighting!

[Marc Mol]

Really nice overall colour & detail on the lovely lumi here Gabriela showing all that an f/2.8 lens can deliver,

greater DOF would have been nice and I think you must have been quite close, but I gather you posted this one due to that amazing tongue lashing :t3

TFS

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Friends,

Rachel, you are right, I shall add a bit at the top. Was a bit lazy and thought I'd get away with it:w3

Will post some more, Keith, I promise. Should you wish to see Lumi in action, have a look at Story Sequences Forum:)

Anette!!! You are back! So glad. And thanks for looking and comments!

Thank you Mark and Hasseb, Keith and Glenn.

I wanted to do some PP work but had no Internet the whole evening, only now it is back and it is rather late. Will be back tomorrow or/ and Sunday.

Have a great week-end, everyone!

Warmest regards,

[Gabriela Plesea]

And thanks Marc, looks like I was busy typing away while your comment came through. Let me see what else I have on gorgeous Lumi, lots of folders to go through.

Have a super evening,

[D. Robert Franz]

This is a very nice portrait of this really great species. I've seen a few but never had a good photo opportunity with one. Well done Gabriela!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you so much Dale - they are awesome these cats, I hope you have the opportunity to spend some time with a few:)

Kind regards, have a super day!