There are always lots of big-game critters on here -- figured I'd go for small scale
I came across this little guy as I was out this morning looking for birds.
I am afraid your shutter speed was a little too slow for this fast little fellow…You are using a 500mm lens, from my experience one needs at least 500/s to get a sharp image with such lens… I would have gone for ISO 800 in this instance, or maybe F6.3, depending on how far I was from this little fellow. Tell me more about this Cotton Rat please, what does he eat and what his habits are? Lovely encounter, thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Gabriela. I ususally don't use the 1/focal-length formula when I am tripod mounted unless, of course, my subject is moving around. This guy was pretty still. Maybe it's my aged eyes, but I'm not really seeing any motion blur - what is bothering you here?
As for Mr. Rat, these guys tend to live in overgrown areas near water and eat the typical rodent fare (I don't know for sure, but assume they are a pest in the cotton crop. Cotton is an important crop here in Arizona). Here's an interesting link:
Hi Ian - Nice to see another different animal. With the combination of the tripod and flash it looks sharp to me, in fact it looks oversharp and a bit crunchy. The light unfortunately looks unnatural with the reflection in the eye even though it appears the near side is in heavy shadow. Although I like the inclusion of the tail, I feel the comp is a little awkward and needs more room to the right and below for the rat to move into.
Hello Ian, and thank you for your reply and info about this cutie it seemed to me that the little one wasn't sharp enough from the beginning, and I thought you might have tried to sharpen him too much? I have similar images of my Kalahari mice taken in the shade, they (the images, not the mice) become kind of crunchy during processing. I might be wrong Ian, perhaps you cropped too much and there's a loss of IQ. Sorry, maybe it's my eyes-I am often told I am either oversharpening or undersharpening...
I want to see more images of these guys please, crunchy or not Enjoy your day Ian!
Cute one - though I agree with Rachel here, looks a bit too crunchy and also the whole image looks too "flashed", with no real shadow contrast and the clear flash catchlight in the eyes which looks unnatural...not sure this can be "salvaged", sorry Ian
Thanks, folks. I always wrestle with the flash. I do like a little fill sometimes, but I see how I overdid it. I have to go back and see if I have any that aren't so 'crunchy' (perhaps one where the flash didn't fire). Gabriela, there was very little crop here. I took a bit of junk off the top and bottom and made it a bit pano, but I wanted to keep the whole tail, which made it a bit difficult.
Cotton Rat - Sigmodon arizonae
it seemed to me that the little one wasn't sharp enough from the beginning, and I thought you might have tried to sharpen him too much? I have similar images of my Kalahari mice taken in the shade, they (the images, not the mice
) become kind of crunchy during processing. I might be wrong Ian, perhaps you cropped too much and there's a loss of IQ. Sorry, maybe it's my eyes-I am often told I am either oversharpening or undersharpening...
Enjoy your day Ian!
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