Mountain Goat in the fog

[Nancy Bell]

I photographed this Mountain Goat during a very foggy day. However I enhanced that with a layer of Nik Color Efex Pro bleach bypass, Silver Efex Pro wet rocks and Topaz Simplify 4 oil paint. Some PS stuff and viola! I actually enjoyed photographing the goats in thick fog, it made them appear as shaggy mountain ghosts which I thought was very fitting.

[Hazel Grant]

This is a challenging monthly theme, and you nailed it. thanks for the steps you laid out. I think the small rock it's standing on makes it a focused piece.

[Dennis Bishop]

I like the goat being so ghostly. It probably holds my attention better this way than if if were clearly outlined. At first, I wondered about darkening the rock a bit so the goat seemed more grounded, but I think you made the right call on that. Very nicely done.

Do you see the goats often? How long a lens did you use to get this? My impression -- based on a single trip to the Colorado Rockies a long time ago -- is that they're very wary.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Nice work Nancy. Shot from above? Would be interested in the story. I think Dennis has an interesting idea about darkening the rock just a bit, to anchor the MG. Very nice processing work.

[Nancy Bell]

I go to Mt. Evans, about a hour west of Denver. There the goats are very habituated to people. Once I was sitting in the rocks and some goats had a scuffle and I had to put my hands up to push them away! Here I used a 70-200 mm lens. Folks love to use their cell phones to take pictures. Generally I hope to find the goats away from the maddening crowds and look for them in the more rocky places. Not sure exactly where I was sitting in relation to this particular goat.
I thought about the rock but I did not want to take any emphasis away from the goat. I'll experiment.

[Cheryl Slechta]

I love this one Nancy. I like the fog and the pose of the goat.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Nancy,

Greetings. I like the minimalist look, the subtle detail and color. After looking at this several times, if it were mine I think I would blend in a slight bg to fix some 3D. Maybe a faint rock line or something. Just a thought.

Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Nancy Bell]

Michael, thank you and some faint bkgd is a good thought. However I have no bkgd with this image since the fog was so thick. I would need to fabricate something, maybe from another image.

[Anita Bower]

Nice job with white on white. I like how the goat merges into the bg.