Bobcat

[Marlo Casabar]

I was meeting another photographer buddy of mine. As we waited for the gates to open at the Village Creek Drying Beds, I see him get out of his car. He calls out "Bobcat and kittens!"

I walked over and was able to get this shot of the mama as she waited for her kittens. I didn't get a shot of the kittens.

Thanks for any and all comments!

Canon 7D Mk II 600mm f/4L IS II USM 1.4XIII
Handheld Manual
1/80 f/5.6 ISO 1250
Edited in DPP4 then in Photoshop CC

[keith mitchell]

I like the alert pose of this cat which looks good,not sure about the bg which looks a bit odd on my screen.

Keith.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Marlo, a nice encounter that's for sure and as Keith mentioned, an alert pose.

As presented there appears to be a lot of Contrast, with quite a bit of blue coming through. I would err on caution with regard to Contrast, but overall I feel 1/60 is not an ideal SS to deliver crisp, RAW images. I appreciate the 7D may not be great at high ISO, but if you get the exposure right and have a high ISO i.e. 3200 then any noise can easily be dealt with in PP.


not sure about the bg which looks a bit odd on my screen.

Good observation Keith, as there appears to be some manipulation near your watermark?

Running some NR on the BKG, reducing the Contrast/Blue in the overall image you begin to see the capture.

Hope this helps.

TFS
Steve

[Marlo Casabar]

Thanks for the comments, Keith.

The bobcat is standing to the left of a road that leads into the drying beds. Due to storms a couple of days ago, there is a lot of debris - both natural and un-natural in the background. I attempted to add a gaussian blur in PS CC in order to try and get rid of the clutter.

[Marlo Casabar]

Thanks for your comments Steve. I literally just started using PS CC two days ago. The manipulation was due to my attempting to remove some branches from that area of the photo. I'll look into your comments about NR and Contrast/Blue reduction.

Marlo

[Daniel Cadieux]

A nice profile of this beautiful cat. Steve's repost is an improvement. Remove stuff in post can be tricky to make it look seamless at first, but in time you will get the hang of it.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Marlo -- nice side on view and looks quite alert and intent . I also like what Steve has done in his RP , certainly a big improvement , do keep posting and TFS !

[Ryan von Linden]

I like the pose and you did a nice job on the cat considering the shutter speed. The background shows obvious cloning but as others have said that is something that takes practice. Play around with opacity, brush softness, cloning vs healing, and you will start to get the hang of it.