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Michael Lloyd
01-15-2008, 10:17 PM
I shot this from the edge of my campsite (SW4) up on the SW rim at Big Bend National Park. I was taking a nap on the bear box (long hike :p) when I heard something rustling around. I grabbed my camera and with the camera to my eye I slowly walked toward her. I stopped about 3' - 4' from her and took this shot. She walked off a few seconds later.

EOS1DsMkII
24-70mm f2.8L
ISO 800
70mm

1/80 @f2.8

http://images33.fotki.com/v1068/photos/4/42560/5438515/BigBend_09_27_07_M4L9815-vi.jpg

D. Robert Franz
01-16-2008, 08:52 AM
Nice even illumination of your subject here Michael. As far as comp goes I would have preferred the doe more on the right side of the frame so the eye was close to the upper right power point. I'm never crazy about a down angle on wildlife. I always try to shoot from slightly below eye level.. Thanks for sharing...

Jasper Doest
01-17-2008, 03:14 AM
Call me conservative, but I've never been crazy angles on wildlife either...(although it does work in some cases). Here I would have preferred it from a lower angle. It would have worked better if you would have chosen a longer focallenght, leaving you with less DOF. This would bring the rest of her body OOF, and leave you with a more creative photograph. You did very well getting close to this one. Composition-wise I'd have to agree with Robert here....it would have been nicer if you would have placed her more to the left of the frame.

Michael Lloyd
01-17-2008, 09:44 AM
Thanks for the comments guys. In hindsight I probably should have dropped to one knee. I wasn't sure how she would react though. I was 10-12 miles and 2,500 - 3,000' up a mountain trail in the middle of nowhere so it's not like she was tame.

Jasper- As it was my pack was 55 pounds and I was on a trip to take sunrise / sunset images from the rim of a canyon. I wanted to take my 300mm f2.8 or at least 70-200 f2.8 but the weight of the gear made me rethink it. Trust me, there was enough wildlife seen on the trip that I had boot marks on my backside for not manning up and taking at least the 70-200 but on the other side of the coin, I made the trip up in 8 hours and by the time I got there I was wishing that my pack had been left behind. I tried to pace myself at 1mph but I stopped too many times and the final push up was pretty steep in places.

Thanks again guys.