Walrus swimming in front of an island somewhere up there in north. It was cold, I had 3 long John's on and 6 layers on top. Never had to freeze, only my two fingers I need to bush the buttons and turn the wheel on the camera. They changed in some place a little bit the color but never got black. Best solution was, just forget them :)) We have found them on a beach on a island. Sadly we could not land, due a PB was happily sleeping behind some stranded wood. Yes he woke up later on, much later on, very much later on! The walruses come quite close, when they are in their curious mood, as Rachel mentioned it already.
LR5 all adjustments, WB...etc. PS just Mid-tones, Levels, a tad burn/dodge that's about it. Selective sharpening in PS6
Posted FF !
1DX ISO800
f/7.1 1/2500
70-200mm L IS II & 2x ext. III
Hi Anette, love those tusks! nice color and good details on the walrus. The beach was a bit busy. I'd suggest trying a pano crop to reduce the clutter BG. Loi
Love the yellow tusks, and the colours complement nicely. I would also go with a pano crop as the beach is messy but it works as it is now too. Details are great and I like the expression on his face!
Ed
Anette, this isn't really cutting it for me, sorry! I wish there was more OOF water in front of the walrus, and the majority of land at the top cropped off...make sense?
Colour and contrast and exposure all look good...just the comp/framing is not working for me.
Hi Anette - too bad you couldn't land because I found that shooting the walruses with the sea as a bg really was better. I'm not a fan of your beach bg here either and would look at a pano as has been suggested. Watch the slight halo along the top of the head though I seemed to have that type of light differentiation in a lot of my walrus shots in the RAW file too.
Thank you very much everybody for your kind comments.
Thanks a lot Steve C.
Loi, your are right, the beach is busy. I pulled a graduated filter over, could have darkened a bit more for sure , even cleaned up :)
Andre, f/7.1 was set, as this big huge chap actually came towards us. He just went into the water. I assume they are between 2.5 -3m long, massive! When my AF is on it's eye/head, as it was, than the f/7.1 does not come much in sharpness towards me, it rather goes much further into the BG! His back was turned to me!
Check that out: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html Maybe there are better ones out there! I have an App on my phone and when out there I check from time to time not to forget with certain length of animals
Thank you very much Rachel, have seen the halo, but only when it was in the thread already! Thanks so much Will be more careful with the brush
Messy beach indeed. Stranded wood and a huge piece of plastic ( the grey/silver spot ) I took this shot for several reasons.
Shouldn't we take images to show the environment of all those endangered or not animals as well, sometimes ? The "real" environment and not in Photoshop cleaned up environment?
In Africa it is maybe clean! What I have seen on certain beaches in Svalbard, all those stranded goods/trash from who knows coming through the current! Honestly, it was quite a bit shocking on one island. Would have loved to go on land and clean up. ( It was not everywhere, keep this in mind, other islands or beaches have been totally trash free. Might current of the ocean matters! )
That's just my other thought on Photography. I do not want to do images for Photographers, they can do their own! I do what feels right in me, and this felt more than right!
Sometime or maybe it is already, those images will sell & tell.
I also understand, when people take images for printing to hang them up somewhere to have a clean environment. For that reason I would clean the beach, of course, or would take a much better one from my hard drive
Thanks so much for all your comments, pano it is for this one.
Do not start now an environment discussion in this forum, use the PM or my e-mail address, if you really like!
When you see trash on your outings or trips, pick it up. That will make you feel sooo good
My only thought was the Walrus looked a bit thin/light, now that might be down to the light reflection off? However, just a thought, but adding two channel Curve adjustments, a Selective colour on the blacks and then a % Lumo mask just brings a bit more 'richness' to the subject, WDYT?
Good to keep your SS high when in shooting conditions like this, DOF calculations, iPhones, Apps didn't realise you had a whole team with you, LOL.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Steve, thanks for your suggestions, will give it a shot.
Of course I had a team with me. Love my Apps, especially for LE, but that I have now in my head. It is always good to know with the DOF, but haven't been shooting for quite a while with a FF size sensor camera.
Tested here and there, but but.... I trust my team
I had no idea that a walrus is so massive. Yes big, but that huge heavy and massive! In this area I had to keep the SS high, as we turned with the boat like in a carrousel Also those heavy animals are fast, very fast!