Bobcat

[Joseph Przybyla]

Yesterday I was at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Driving along Black Point Wildlife Drive my wife spotted this bobcat sitting in a gated grassy roadway. I captured this from the car through an open window.

Nikon D7000, 70-300mm 4.5-5.6 VRII AF shot at 300mm, 1/1250, f/8, ISO 1100, processed in Lighroom 5

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Joseph, nice catch. Good details and sharpness. Is it a full frame? If so, it is a bit tight at the top. The image looks a little flat to me and could benefit from a little more contrast I think. TFS. Loi

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Joe - Welcome to the Wildlife Forum. Nice to see an image of a bobcat, we don't have a lot of them. Good eye contact and view of the cat though the habitat is a bit cluttered. Looks like the light was on the stronger side. I agree with Loi on maybe giving it a slight boost in contrast. Is the ISO of 1100 a typo? I do see what looks like some noise on the body. I would have probably shot this with a wider aperture and lower ISO to try to separate the bobcat from the bg a bit but I do understand that there wasn't much distance between the cat and the bushes behind it. There's a slight blue/cyan cast in the fur on the chest, easy to remove. The cat is also a bit centered for my taste, with the head on look a portrait orientation would have worked too. Looking forward to seeing more of your wildlife images.

It would be great if you would add your thoughts to others' images. We recommend that you post comments on at least 3-5 other images each time you post an image of your own. It helps us all get to know and learn from each other.

TFS,
Rachel

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hello Loi, thank you for viewing and offering suggestions to improve my image. I did have room to add more space at the top, almost full frame but not quite for composition.

Hello Rachel, thank you for welcoming me to the Wildlife Forum. I normally capture birds but occasionally in my travels come across other wildlife. The blue color cast on the chest was most likely because of the shade the bobcat was in. Dottie and I had driven past it when she said to stop and backup. The bobcat was in a grassy, gated roadway about 30 feet from the open car window. I only had a few moments to capture it through the open car window.

I re-worked the image trying to implement both of your suggestions,

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Joseph - another welcome to the Wildlife forum!
Nice find...and your repost is much stronger colour-wise. The light wasn't on your side, but you handled it reasonably well.
I'd consider cropping off much of the RHS, going for a square presentation (doesn't sit well with many folks, but feel it could work here).

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joseph, nice to see you swing by and a warm Welcome.

Great when you have unexpected sightings like this and that this guy stayed for you.

Firstly, just address the ISO, it was 1400 not 1100. I would agree that you could have afforded to go to say f/5.6 and dropped the ISO, however in the heat of the moment we can easily carry settings over from earlier times. Personally I feel the PP on the OP is OK, just a couple of minor adjustments in LR & PS and you are there.

In LR I would just balance the exposure, both in the FG LHS and at the back. Adding some midtone also helps and I might just suggest opening the eyes up a fraction. You do have sharpness, evident in the grass, but applying some more selective to the subject would bring a bit more detail out, but at times it is difficult with wet fur. You may also want to consider adding a small amount of NR to the BKG. I agree with Loi in having a sliver more space above would be nice, just moving the whole crop up a fraction and perhaps a little off the LHS too, but again all personal taste.

Look forward to seeing more.

TFS
Steve

[Ashleigh Scully]

Hi congratulations on photographing a Bobcat! This is a dream shot for me so nice going :)

I agree with Morkel that there seems to be too much space on the right. Maybe for composition it's OK if the animal is moving in the direction of the open space but when they are just sitting there a tighter crop would work better. You did not have much room between the Bobcat and the background so I guess there isn't much you can do do remove some of the busyness.

I hope this helps, Ashleigh