Cayman in the shade

[Doug Brown]

Here's a photo from my most recent photo tour to Costa Rica. It's a cayman relaxing in the shade of the jungle canopy with some sunlight illuminating the eye. The reflections in the water were amazing! I had to get really low in the boat to capture this image, but was very pleased with the result. This image made it to the semifinals of the 2008 Shell competition.

http://birdwhisperer.smugmug.com/photos/267362547_oBXFY-L.jpg

Canon 1D Mark III, 500mm, f/5.6, 1/160, ISO 800, fill flash, -1 1/3 EC, resting on the floor of a boat

[Johannes Glännman]

Very nice and congratulations..

I really like the reflections in the FG and of the eye.. But it is a small bit of shame that the nose is not in focus to..

Cheers // Johannes

[Doug Brown]

Agreed, but I was shooting off of a rocking boat and I don't think I could have gotten enough shutter speed with a smaller aperture. That's what keeps us coming back for more!

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Lovely image. I like the angle. The eyes are very nice. Lot of details. Nose portion doesn't. Love the light and shade here. The reflections are very nice. If I were God, then I would have moved the right bottom portion to the left and vice versa. It would have given much more balance. I like this image.

Which category in Shell? For the last three years, I have not been able to break the Semifinal jinx. I will post my semi-final ones later. Thanks for sharing.

[Doug Brown]

Which category in Shell? For the last three years, I have not been able to break the Semifinal jinx.

Thanks Sabyasachi! I made the semis with 2 photos this year. This one was in the Animals in their Environment category. The other was in Animal Behavior: Birds (no surprise that I entered the Birds category :)).

[Vincent Grafhorst]

Very nice reflections indeed Doug, and the detail and lighting on the head and eye are great. A bit more DOF would have been nice though to get the nose im focus.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Thanks Sabyasachi! I made the semis with 2 photos this year. This one was in the Animals in their Environment category. The other was in Animal Behavior: Birds (no surprise that I entered the Birds category :)).

In the Animals in their Environment category, two of my shots reached the semifinals. I had posted one those here. I am pasting the link here.

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7174

The post processing suggestions given by members helped.

Total 14 shots had reached the semis this year. I hope, next year will be better. I hope you have more shots from your Costa Rica tour.

[Vincent Grafhorst]

Total 14 shots had reached the semis this year. I hope, next year will be better. I hope you have more shots from your Costa Rica tour.

Sabyasachi, what do you mean with total 14 shots? You mean of your submissions? I entered 19 images in this competition and 17 of them reached the 'semi-finals'. Reaching the 'semi-finals' is no achievement at all (even though I wish it was), there are thousands of images that reach this stage. I am no judge in this competition and have not reached further than the 'semi finals', but I believe this stage is more like a filter to get rid of the rubbish before the real judging starts...Actually it should not even be called a 'final'. All of us that only reached the 'semi-final' still have a looooooong way to go.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Hi Vincent,
I fully agree with you. The semi-finals is a filter and is designed more to exclude based on a nit here and there. To me it helps in measuring that a shot is better than average, but still a long long way to go.