I photographed this Mountain Goat during a very foggy day. However I enhanced that with a layer of Nik Color Efex Pro bleach bypass, Silver Efex Pro wet rocks and Topaz Simplify 4 oil paint. Some PS stuff and viola! I actually enjoyed photographing the goats in thick fog, it made them appear as shaggy mountain ghosts which I thought was very fitting.
09-28-2014, 06:24 PM
Hazel Grant
This is a challenging monthly theme, and you nailed it. thanks for the steps you laid out. I think the small rock it's standing on makes it a focused piece.
09-28-2014, 07:16 PM
Dennis Bishop
I like the goat being so ghostly. It probably holds my attention better this way than if if were clearly outlined. At first, I wondered about darkening the rock a bit so the goat seemed more grounded, but I think you made the right call on that. Very nicely done.
Do you see the goats often? How long a lens did you use to get this? My impression -- based on a single trip to the Colorado Rockies a long time ago -- is that they're very wary.
09-29-2014, 11:14 AM
Jackie Schuknecht
Nice work Nancy. Shot from above? Would be interested in the story. I think Dennis has an interesting idea about darkening the rock just a bit, to anchor the MG. Very nice processing work.
09-29-2014, 01:23 PM
Nancy Bell
I go to Mt. Evans, about a hour west of Denver. There the goats are very habituated to people. Once I was sitting in the rocks and some goats had a scuffle and I had to put my hands up to push them away! Here I used a 70-200 mm lens. Folks love to use their cell phones to take pictures. Generally I hope to find the goats away from the maddening crowds and look for them in the more rocky places. Not sure exactly where I was sitting in relation to this particular goat.
I thought about the rock but I did not want to take any emphasis away from the goat. I'll experiment.
09-30-2014, 02:31 PM
Cheryl Slechta
I love this one Nancy. I like the fog and the pose of the goat.:S3:
10-01-2014, 11:43 AM
Michael Gerald-Yamasaki
Nancy,
Greetings. I like the minimalist look, the subtle detail and color. After looking at this several times, if it were mine I think I would blend in a slight bg to fix some 3D. Maybe a faint rock line or something. Just a thought.
Thanks for posting.
Cheers,
-Michael-
10-02-2014, 05:56 PM
Nancy Bell
Michael, thank you and some faint bkgd is a good thought. However I have no bkgd with this image since the fog was so thick. I would need to fabricate something, maybe from another image.
10-05-2014, 02:25 PM
Anita Bower
Nice job with white on white. I like how the goat merges into the bg.