It's been quite a long time since I posted anything, but I started law school which turns out is all consuming! My wife and I took a trip to Maine last June to see Acadia, some moose, and some puffins. We saw moose and Acadia, but our puffin trip got rained out by a pretty rough storm. It was my first time seeing moose and they are A LOT bigger than I anticipated. We took two guided canoe trips in hopes of seeing a moose out in a pond, but had very little luck. My wife and I went out on our own the third day and we wound up spotting this moose in the back of a bog. She stayed in the back for a while, but I waited on the bank in the hopes she would come out into a better spot. It took a while, but she wound up coming right to me. She eventually crossed over several limbs to my side of the bog and then just walked right up almost to where I was sitting. I knew she wouldn't see me, and I had my camera in quiet mode so I wouldn't spook her. She seemed to be coming straight for me and I was preparing to move out of her way when she finally smelled me! She then gave me an odd look, turned around, and went into the woods on the opposite side of the bog. It was an incredible experience for me and I'm sure a completely forgettable one for the moose!
Techs:
D3S
500 f4 AF-S
ISO 2500
500mm
f5.6
1/400
This is full frame, I sharpened the moose slightly and de-noised the BG. All C&C appreciated.
Hi Lyle - Welcome back! Law school can definitely be a bit time consuming (hate to say it only gets worse once you start practicing). That looks like you were pretty close to the moose! I agree with you that you can take a little off the left. She was so close that the comp is one of those difficult ones because the legs are cut off but the splash adds so cropping tighter from below isn't really a great option. If it were mine I would drop the blues a bit and also add just a tad more sharpening. I'm curious about your techs because your EXIF shows -2/3 EC. I would have dropped my ISO and increased my ss in the field to get the exp and maintain IQ. Thanks for jumping right back in and commenting on other threads. I hope your winter break gives you a chance to do some photography and also to post some more images.
Thanks for the feedback. I had the same thought about a crop from the bottom and I already dropped the blues -26 in LR. I can probably go a little farther. I think I was at -2/3 because I was blowing out some bright green foliage and white trees in the background right before she began walking right towards me. I haven't touched the exposure or shadows though.
Nice close-up here. I do agree on dropping some blue and I would desaturate it a bit all-over. Strange looking moose thought, having lost all itīs fur.