Not a great image but a more unusual species, thought I'd share. Unfortunately my 50 % crop lead to some loss of IQ. These guys are so clever and sensitive that one cannot get close to them - they have extremely acute hearing and eyesight, this is because so many species prey on them (foxes, badgers, snakes, wild cats, birds of prey).
Brant's Whistling Rats dig a number of holes/warrens in the ground (up to twenty) connected by tunnels about 8 cm in diameter. The species prefer hard, sandy soils between dunes. Inside the tunnel system there is a "nest" chamber of about 30 cm high, usually lined up with fine shredded material collected from surroundings. They are active during the day, but especially early morning.
I took this image at about 9:45 but I remember waiting since 06:30 am for this character to pop up. Lots of coffee and patience, all in perfect silence, only one frame...At least I get to show you what he looks like:)
Hi Gabriela - You have somehow managed to make him look cute. From your description of his tunnel system I can just imagine you sitting staking out this hole and him popping in and out of the other ones like the gopher in Caddyshack . Yes, the IQ has suffered from the large crop but it still works at this size and on the web.
Well you patience yet again has paid off, any chance of being even lower? You needed an extender here, do you have one as it would have certainly helped to avoid the crop and improved IQ. I quite like the framing, but wonder if a tad more above could be lost? I feel you need to balance the environment more in terms of evening it out and he does look a bit dark to me, but without going into the 'boring/tech stuff' and yet another RP, I'll fire off a thought.
Rachel, glad you find him cute, for he really is. Especially when he sits up and munches on a flower near his burrow, which is what I wanted to capture in the first place. But his senses are so acute that he can hear you breathe:)
Steve, I ordered from Nikon a 2x converter which only arrived when I returned from the KTP. I have not even tried it yet. It is because of these little chaps - and also my beloved three striped mice - that I decided to buy it, LOL. In this instance I tried to get closer to the burrows so perspective not great. He looked right at me as he popped up, gave a "tzzzzz" sound and dashed back in, eh, left me with just one shot. I was so frustrated, I felt like to go out of the car and pull him out, glue him to the sand near his burrow, LOL.
A tad more above I agree, I actually thought about it but the IQ worried me. I suppose 2 cm won't hurt? BTW tech stuff not boring for me, but I will look again at this rat and his environment (it does looks a bit pale and lifeless), thank you so much Steve
Hi Gabriela i really like the difficult to photograph rats ...always a pleasure to watch them .
The fresh grasses are a nice addition i think and i like the typical checking out of the hole pose of the subject .
Nice fine detail in the subject .....
Overall colors do look good and natural to me .... i just think the image is a bit thin from the mid tones to the HL .
Just my take ....
Hi Gabriela -- I liked this image , what a cute little character here ! It feels so rewarding when waiting patiently leads to some sort of result . Nothing more to comment here for me as it is well covered by the above comments. I had lost so many images to to poor IQ because of the big crop , where easily i could have used a TC , but a different situation in your image , nonetheless a TC would have been very helpful here .
Brant's Whistling Rat ( Parotomys Brantsil)
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. Yes, the IQ has suffered from the large crop but it still works at this size and on the web.
