Walrus Bull

[Rachel Hollander]

A battle scarred walrus bull from Svalbard. Taken around 10 p.m. from the beach. I know it will be tight for some but I purposely tried to fill the frame.

Canon 7D
300 II plus 2x III
1/400
f5.6
ISO 800
Tripod, ff, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, luminosity mask, NR on bg, sharpened in CCPS.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Rachel, lovely portrait of a species we don't see often up close. It is not too tight for me. Excellent detail and sharpness on the tusks and whiskers/nose. I know you were shooting from a moving boat and with the 7D you chose to keep ISO-800 and settle for F5.6, but I think this image would benefit from a little more DOF. TFS. Loi

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Amazing tusks & whiskers! The battle scars show he's been though some rough times! I like the central placement and tight framing.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, well it's a little tight for me, personally I might have gone portrait on this one as it's all about the subject and in doing so, would follow your train of thought, 'filling the frame'.

Nice detail and you gotta love those bristles. Internet is a little hit & miss, been snowing the past 24hrs, but perhaps something like this? Not sure if the small graze adds anything and perhaps is more of a distraction?

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
lovely head on shot of the Walrus. Good detail, soft colors and lovely sharpness where it counts.I think DOF could be a bit more to get more of the head sharp, easy to say with hindsight , sitting in front of images from others….. LOL.
I do not mind the tightness of the frame, but then Steve has the right answer, go really tight, good Job Steve of pointing this option out.

TFS Andreas

[Nancy Bell]

It's hard for me to decide between the 2 crops. Both are good. However for me it is all about the near symmetry of the face, with the 2 tusks and the bright, sharp details of the whiskers, moving to the nose and back to the sleepy-looking eyes! The evenly spread out battle scars, somewhat soft in focus, are an interesting backdrop for the face.

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Rachel,

very nice close up of this walrus. I might would go as well for a closer crop, like Steve did. Oh right, yes for me also to tight, but you know that already

Have a great eve

Ciao
Anette

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone, much appreciated. Steve - I like the tighter crop too.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Jamie Douglas]

Great to see another close up from you Rachel of this big fella.

I like the repost as I found my eyes hunting as they were drawn into the image and down the tusks where the dof dropped off.

Jamie

[Morkel Erasmus]

That's a hunk of blubber! Cool portrait, Rachel. I agree that it's a tad tight on top but no deal-breaker for me. I actually prefer your OP crop as it shows how fat this dude was (perhaps just crop a little squarer on that one, from the sides?)

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Jamie and Morkel. I'll play around with the crop a bit for alternatives.

Thanks again,
Rachel