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Resting Doe
I went looking for the "Lop Eared" doe I posted here a little while ago. I was horrified to discover that some moron, with the brain of a maggot, deliberately ran over and killed 17 roos. I hope the little lop-eared doe is OK.
This image taken as the sun was getting high and hot. The BG is the sunburnt grass. This doe and her boy joey were resting in the shade of a tree.
Not sure if the crop works. Maybe a CW rotation. They were lying on a hill. The youngster looks a bit pink as posted, but no "pinky" shades played with.
In ACR - Very few adjusments. Exposure increased .45 and shadows decreased slightly. Increased yellow and decreased green in the HSL panel.
In PSC6 - Cloned out some of the brighter and darker spots in the BG. A curve adjustment layer on the roos. NR on the BG, cropped and slightly sharpened using "smart sharpen" or web posting.
Canon 5D2
Sigma 150-600mm @ 560mm
ISO 800
1/800 sec @ f/6.3
Tripod
C&C Always welcomed and appreciated!
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Hi gang -- sorry for being absent for a couple of days. But I have a good excuse -- I'm in Yosemite National Park with the hope of shooting the famous Horsetail Fall light show. It's an ephemeral fall that only has water when there is quite a bit of snow on top of El Capitan with enough warmth to melt it during the day and put some water in its small drainage. The archetypal picture was first done by Galen Rowell some years ago. It depends on sunlight hitting it just before sunset in about a 10-day time frame when it will illuminate the fall and have the cliff face in shadow. (Lots to be found online.) I've tried it 4 times before with either no water or no light -- or both. But this year I got lucky! Last night was awesome -- Michael Frye posted some information this morning and said it was probably the best he has seen it -- and he has lived in or very near the valley for many years.
I'll stay in hopes of another light show tonight (lots of water in it this morning which should get even better by late afternoon) and then will hit the road and arrive home near midnight. If I have time tomorrow I'll post one in Landscapes. If I don't manage it will be another week as we leave Sunday for a week in Oregon.
All that is to apologize for not responding to new posts for a few days -- internet is very slow and spotty here and I've been running around finding some good luck with other shots. (There was a little snow a couple of days ago which gives a nice touch to the scenery.) I should have time to catch up during some evenings next week.
Hang in there -- you guys are a great group!! All I'll need to do is chime in with "All said above!"
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I was feeling a bit lonely, but knew you were travelling to the Horsetail Fall. What an amazing journey! Sounds like the weather is perfect...and I will expect to see those perfect (almost) images from you on your return.
HAVE FUN!
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BPN Member
Butcher 'roo?
Beautiful. I like your crop, given the right edge cutting the joey. Did I get that right? I would have liked to see a bit more light on the left animal. Thanks for putting this one up.
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Hi Glennie,
What a sweet image and just disgustingly sad to hear of senseless death, etc, .... I really like the crop that was reposted despite the missing joey. Your original post has more "joey rump 'roo" and it left me wanting more... Do you have any other joey images we can see, or another doe and joey? I really like the soft colors and the BG, well done.
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Wow, Diane, Im looking forward to seeing this spectacular event, I hope those "stars" line up and you get your glory!
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Jim - These 'roos are perplexing. They are such an odd shape. They mostly flatish, but with a long tail or they're standing up tall. There is constant movement of "portrait or landscape" and decisions on which bloody focus point to use.
Craig - Thank you! She does look sweet by herself. The crop didn't really work for me either, but I thought I would see what others may say. The softness is a bit confusing. The image does look soft. But I took it into DPP and found the FP was right on the doe's right eye. They have incredible eye lashes, and I think this makes their eyes look soft. And as you can see, it's not a huge crop. So that was surprising. The gradient has worked well. I would not have thought about that.
Ann - Thank you! Joey rump, buck bum, doe bum...I have a whole series of roo bottoms. Something, believe it or not, I didn't notice when shooting them. I'm heading out again tomorrow, so I'll try and shoot a bit more creatively.
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A lovely portrait in very nice light. They have very interesting faces! I like the darkening Craig did on the left side. This isn't an easy crop to decide on. Did you zoom wider to get all of both, or pan right to get less of the doe's rump and all of the joey?
I'd consider moving the crop box lower -- less sky and a little more grass. On a tripod I might have gone for a little more DOF. Focus point sounds good to be on the eye.
The lens is reputed to not be as sharp above 500, and there could be issues with front or back focus that vary with the camera body. If you have consistent issues you might consider focus calibration, but other factors are easier to deal with. Any vibration at a long focal length can soften an image. Hold the camera firmly and press it hard against your forehead and make sure the tripod is steady with legs fully spread.
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Just to clarify, The roo on the left (doe) is sharp I was commenting on the Roo, right, that seems a little soft but only its head which is likely a few feet behind the does head. @ f/6.3, that is why its a little soft. I think I might have confused myself with that clarification. 
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Craig, I did wonder about the left or right. I am very unco most of the time and often go left when I say go right. I also wear my clothes inside out an awful lot!
Diane, I don't believe it is a lens problem. It's me. I am a slackass! I had just spent about two hours sitting in the mud shooting ducks when I saw the roos. I was tied and hot. Good excuse so far? I used the tripod like a monopod....
They were moving all the time. Just when I had the tripod set up, they'd move off. Lesson learned! Thank you!
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Glennie, the focus point showed the active one but it doesn't mean it was in focus. If you were in one-shot and the subject moved (changed distance) between focus and shooting, the focus will be off.
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Diane. Yes. I understand...(and you have mentioned that before. It just takes a while to sink in) I was in "continuous" shooting mode, thinking I may get one good one out of a stack.
After I download images, I go through and delete the obvious OOF rubbish. Then I delete poses I don't like. And lately, after Steve K's suggestion, I've been looking at the focus point in DPP. If it's not dead on (or very close) I'll delete that too. Before I do any processing in ACR I bring the image up to 100% (your suggestion) and concentrate on the eye area. If it looks soft or fuzzy, that's gone too. Is this sort of the right track?
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Excellent! That's what I do, except I don't bother to look at the focus point as it isn't always accurate. (Distance could have changed between acquiring focus and shooting. Focus on something and hold focus and shift the camera to have that point in the sky then press the shutter the rest of the way and fire -- the focus point will be in the sky.) I just look at 100%.
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That's a dramatic example. BTW -- when a necessary rotation crop cuts too much off one of the sides, don't crop. Go into PS and add canvas on the problem side(s), and see if you can fill in well enough to then do the rotation crop.
