Hi all havenīt posted or commented a lot recently ...... apologies for my limited time .
I was doing all sort of stuff from private to photographic , i made myself a present with a new 500 IS L II . Plus i experiment with fill flash work at local pond on birds , still far away from acceptable results , seems to be a bit tricky for getting stunning outcome.
Regarding the image , it was taken on my recent KTP trip with Andre and Gabriela close to Kijkij WH .
I would have loved to get a more clean shot (already cloned out some stuff ) but the Foxes had chosen this place to be their den . So we had to deal with it .
As being quite small , the puppies has been still very skittish and did not stay outside for a long time and if disturbed by the presence of too many cars they disappeared .
Canon EOS 1D MK IV
EF 500 IS L + 1,4 TC
Window bracket & video head
F 8 ; Iso 800 ; 1/1600 sec
Processed with DPP 4 and PS CC ; cropped for comp ( 60% of FF ) , cloned out some twigs in BG .
Hi Andreas - You've been missed. Definite cute factor here and a species we don't often see posted. Nice catchlights in the eyes. He does look tiny. If it were mine, I would tame the highlights still a bit more.
I have been waiting for your fox images for some time now and I am absolutely loving this little one in sweet light! Do you remember how difficult it was to photograph the pups at Mata Mata? They hardly settled down and when they finally did, it was usually in the shade:) They ran just too fast to follow and seemed to all jump in various directions at the same time, leaving us frustrated but also delighted with the spectacle in front of our eyes. The Kij Kij fox family was also difficult to photograph, with the den situated among little bushes and those twigs sticking out all over the place - well done in capturing this Andreas, those sweet eyes looking right at you, colours are perfect IMO, sharp where needed and I do not mind the natural elements/ twigs in the FG, they were there in the first place and help camouflage the young foxes from larger predators. Love the warmth here, superb tonality and nice detail on those fine white hairs on the ears - congrats Mr. B.E!
Thanks Rachel and Gabriela for your kind comments much appreciated .
Gabriela well described shooting conditions regarding the Foxes in KTP during our gorgeous trip .
Rachel i stick with the whites as per OP enough detail in the whites for my liking , but thanks for your suggestion
What a cute little fox kit. He looks too relaxed to be skittish . You did a nice job of capturing the soft, "puppy" fur of a young canid. Could also see this as more of a pano format.
Thanks to all of you guys for your kind comments , as always much appreciated .
dan i never go tighter than 50 % of FF , to much loss of IQ for my taste , i rather prefer to look at a wider frame . But i actually would also like to see a tighter pano crop if i am honest , but as i said i do not want to loose IQ .
Super cute shot Andreas, got to love those eyes! It's a pity you couldn't have been a little bit further to the left to avoid the stray grasses, but I fully understand why you couldn't move.
I think you could possibly move in a little tighter if you wanted to without a noticeable drop in IQ
Thanks Mike and Steve for your comments , very welcome .
Will stick with this crop for the moment ,but agree with you guys going in tighter would not harm the image , but fear of IQ loss told me to keep the crop as presented . Maybe i was thinking to conservative , because i do not like much cropping in large ratio !!
Steve did you mean by the bullet the new 500 ? If so, yes i bit it , and i am very glad i did so , have a look if time allows in Avian for the two Egyptian Gosling images i posted some days ago for seeing the new lens in action .Are you you surprised by my flash issues ? Well you should know that i am very critical about myself and so far i do not really have a lot of fill flash or flash usage experience . As a result it is a lot of trial and error for the moment . Had to stop the exercises because my battery pack died ,was lying unused for a long time in my shelf , have to replace the batteries or buy a new pack . I am on the way of buying a new one , but not the luxury one i have right now . It is just giving external flash power for faster reloading the flash. When i have the new pack i will go again to my local pond and try to become better with the flash work . If you have any useful suggestions besides the - 1 ev flash blahblah , you are more than welcome to drop me a line ..........
Well the printing ......... a long story , i started of and the results have been not to bad in the beginning for a rookie , at least i think so ! But then other stuff entered my brain and i went away from printing for some weeks now , but will go back when time and mind allows .
Like photography, the printing aspect can be just as challenging, but at times, even more rewarding, but you will find what you see on screen is not always the same as the printed version, anyway before we go off topic, good luck.
Yes, the den was not in an ideal position, being too close to road to be peaceful for the little ones.. Even saw some vehicle tracks there later driving in and around the den... Behaviour like this makes us furious, we are busy mobilising
an effort for better policing in our beloved KTP, but that is another story...
Looked for any evidence of fox presence there again in Feb, nothing, just tyre tracks...
Love the image, to use Gabriela's words: "Can kiss his little muzzle..!"