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Thread: Fur Seal enjoying the fresh snow

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    Default Fur Seal enjoying the fresh snow

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    From the same trip to South Georgia and Falklands as Andreas, but different seal.

    This image was created in the morning at 10: 53am in Cooper Bay, South Georgia Islands, Southern Ocean.

    Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM lens at 244mm, and the EOS-1DMIV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering: 1/800 sec. at f/9.0 set manually.

    All comments are welcome.

    More images from my recent trip to South Georgia and the Falklands at
    www.clemensvanderwerf.com




    Last edited by Peter Kes; 12-05-2012 at 02:31 PM. Reason: Type not visible

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    Clemens,

    What a great subject to be able to photograph, and in the Arctic environment no less! I think the pose you captured of the beast is quite appropriate, and the details and color in the animal are quite nice.
    I see two things I think would have made it better:
    1) I would have liked to see a bit more detail in the snow; I think it is slightly over-exposed. Likely there is not much you can do about that now.
    2) There is something funky going on over its right flipper and under its chin. It looks like you may have had some moisture on your lens or something; it seems kind of blurry.

    Otherwise, fantastic image that not many of us will get the chance to photograph in our lifetimes.

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Clemens,
    like the image for its techs , that you handled quite well and nicely processed .
    Beautiful fresh snow and the still falling snow adds interest to the image.
    Like the overall tonality and contrast , and there is enough detail in snow, maybe not on every screen , but take it into PS and you get a different view.

    But i am not sure about the crop, for me it is too tight on LHS and too much dead space on RHS , so i would suggest a different crop , minor thing.

    Nicely done , Clemens.

    Cheers Andreas

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Clemens - Nice view of the fur seal. I like the falling snow and the grey bg - they convey a feeling of coldness. Good pov. I think the fur seal is slightly oversharpened at least on the chest area but it is often difficult to sharpen wet fur. I agree with Andreas that it needs just a little more room on the lhs but I would hate to take any from the rhs and lose the highest mound with the grass. I think that mound helps to balance the image. I hope you'll post some more images in wildlife.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Clemens, like the aloof expression and you have capture the situation with the falling snow nicely. But I agree with the others, that the crop is not ideal and for me, the image does't really work sadly.

    TFS
    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Waugh View Post
    Clemens,

    What a great subject to be able to photograph, and in the Arctic environment no less! I think the pose you captured of the beast is quite appropriate, and the details and color in the animal are quite nice.
    I see two things I think would have made it better:
    1) I would have liked to see a bit more detail in the snow; I think it is slightly over-exposed. Likely there is not much you can do about that now.
    2) There is something funky going on over its right flipper and under its chin. It looks like you may have had some moisture on your lens or something; it seems kind of blurry.

    Otherwise, fantastic image that not many of us will get the chance to photograph in our lifetimes.
    Thx for your comments Jeff.
    1) There is plenty of detail in the snow and I even could pull out more if I wanted to, but the emphasis is on the seal therefore I like my background and foreground not too detailed. You also run the risk that the snow gets too grayish. The snow is not overexposed at all. The highest value in the red-channel is 241.
    2) The only thing that is funky are the oof snow flakes that show up as oof white circles. With the snow fall like we had at the moment of capture there is not much you can do about that. The dark spot on the right flipper is a natural coloring.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rachel Hollander View Post
    Hi Clemens - Nice view of the fur seal. I like the falling snow and the grey bg - they convey a feeling of coldness. Good pov. I think the fur seal is slightly oversharpened at least on the chest area but it is often difficult to sharpen wet fur. I agree with Andreas that it needs just a little more room on the lhs but I would hate to take any from the rhs and lose the highest mound with the grass. I think that mound helps to balance the image. I hope you'll post some more images in wildlife.

    TFS,
    Rachel
    Thx Rachel for your comments. The frame as presented is full frame with no crop at all. I agree with you that the tussac grass on the right side of the frame balances the composition. The purpose was to show the fur seal in his natural environment, and not to create a close up portrait with a tighter crop.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    Hi Clemens, like the aloof expression and you have capture the situation with the falling snow nicely. But I agree with the others, that the crop is not ideal and for me, the image does't really work sadly.

    TFS
    Steve
    Steve, thanks for your comments. I am not sad at all that the image does not work for you. It works for me!
    I suppose you have some suggestions on what would make it work for you. Curious to find out.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Clemens, all it would be, is to move the whole crop to the left, adding a bit more space there and avoiding the 'clump' coming in from the RHS, I think would be better, but avoiding a central placement. However, having more room all round to provide the facility of having options to cropping would have been better and more flexible overall, shooting like this is limiting your options I feel, unless it's bang on in composition.
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    Clemens, all it would be, is to move the whole crop to the left, adding a bit more space there and avoiding the 'clump' coming in from the RHS, I think would be better, but avoiding a central placement. However, having more room all round to provide the facility of having options to cropping would have been better and more flexible overall, shooting like this is limiting your options I feel, unless it's bang on in composition.
    Steve, you can not have your cake and eat it too. If you add more space to the left and leave the "clump" out on the right, you will end up with the seal dead center in the frame.

    I would prefer to add some to the left and top of the frame and leave the basic composition in place.

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Hi Clemens. I'm going to be 'otherwise' and say I quite enjoy the crop with the almost proud pose.
    Perhaps just a tad off the bottom with an equal amount more on top?

    The falling snow adds heaps!
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Hoping to get there someday Clemens.
    Nice cpature and elegant pose.

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