Bouncing leveret ,Brown hare UK. Lepus europeas

[Stuart Philpott]

From the same evening as recent posts,one of the few where one hare was in frame. Alot of luck here,the head turn and change of direction were almost my undoing fortunately the camera held focus just long enough,even though my active point is only grabbing at a whisker. More luck in that within a second or two that frantic switch to portrait will be required or once again little fella will be too close. A leveret too close is something that simply did not occur to me when all this started to happen,I have a long long way to go before I can say I know how to frame a brown hare up close

I struggled a bit processing this one, colour wise. I feel a bit happier now but over to you good folks on that. Thanks so much for the thought provoking comments on my previous posts The image is as framed ,no crop WB off eye dropper then warmed via colour temp 4100K pic style fine detail. gamma darks 1.98 mif 0.06 highs unchanged contrast -2 shadow +1 hightlights-1 colour tone -1 colour sat +1...............colours orange hue +1 yellow sat -1 green sat -3 hue +1 blue sat -7 sharp to 9

Canon 1Div 1.4 extiii

1/1600
f8
iso3200

take care all

stu

[haseeb badar]

Hi Stu -- What a nice POV and pose ! This is a very nice image , i think you have handled the light quite well , HL might be on the borderline, also the colours are looking good to me. Again sharpness can be improved upon , especially on the face but not a deal breaker. only thing bothering me is the oof blade of grass intersecting behind its back and ear. A slight more space at the foot of the image ? WDYT ? but a fine image overall, probably one of your best so far .

TFS !

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Stu - I like the jumping pose and the low pov is once again great. I do wish the head had not turned so that the nice warm light was evenly hitting the face but you handled the mixed light well. Agree sharpness would have been better if the fp was on the head. I know there's nothing you can do about the bright grass rising from the rump with your current software but in the future I would tame it.

TFS,
Rachel

[Mike Poole]

The jumping pose is excellent Stu, well timed. You can't help but love the size of these ears!

Obviously I don't know your location, but the feature that lets this down for me is the shadow which really impacts on the face. If possible, I think you need to be looking at and predicting the angle of the light for your stay on any given day, and do as much as you can to work with the light behind you whenever possible (for the standard type shots of course - getting all arty is a different ball game!). If you'd managed that here, and been further over to the left then you'd have stood a better chance of more even lighting, even if you were presented with the exact same head towards the camera pose.

Still, when I think where you were 12 months ago, the progression in your work has been superb.

Mike

[John Mack]

Nice light here with a good pose looks a tad soft.

[Stuart Philpott]

Thank you folks....John I struggle with these close incoming images,so point raised by both you and haseeb on sharpness noted,it's one of my better efforts this ,but maybe not quite there yet

Haseeb yes to a bit more at the base I concur mind things were getting tight top and bottom as she approached,I guess on thee moving type shots I er on the upper side of things feeling cut feet might be the lesser of two evils,

Rachel,I agree with you completely on all counts thank you all


have a wonderful weekend guys

Stu

[Stuart Philpott]

The jumping pose is excellent Stu, well timed. You can't help but love the size of these ears!

Obviously I don't know your location, but the feature that lets this down for me is the shadow which really impacts on the face. If possible, I think you need to be looking at and predicting the angle of the light for your stay on any given day, and do as much as you can to work with the light behind you whenever possible (for the standard type shots of course - getting all arty is a different ball game!). If you'd managed that here, and been further over to the left then you'd have stood a better chance of more even lighting, even if you were presented with the exact same head towards the camera pose.

Still, when I think where you were 12 months ago, the progression in your work has been superb.

Mike

Ha ha wicked aren't they,that's the thing they just are rediculous,I see those ears mike and I'm smiling !!

Mike deep thanks for the above as always I'm going to throw the ball back and say credit to you guys.............. wouldn't be here without the awesome eyes and words of you amazing wildlife photographers. Where that is I dunno ,but I'm having alot of fun and see magical stuff and slowly learning what the tools do!!

Buddy thanks also for the advice on setting out my stall as it were with regards to light..... mate the words are spot on and graciously, VERY graciously, received. For me I suppose the lovely bit is that after all the tutoring I knew it at the time and I was actually aware...for once

This frame is within yards of the last Mike,my double grooming image,posted earlier this week. I'm completely scuppered : I have band of twenty yards of longer dead dry rape stems around a foot maybe more high to my left. It's probably the bank throwing the combine out of kilter so right side of cut as we look towards hares is high left low. I'm actually pressed up against them fearing a snap trying to get left.I can't shoot or approach though those stems. Mike the lie of the land makes golden hour images singularly rare. But while the crops are cut and low through to spring now maybe more chances will be possible.

I was incredibly lucky here,they were feeding in a low area and that also gave me a quiet road in I got this kidlet come over for free,she wasn't who I was trying to be friends with. Honestly buddy I yearned for me being left, I could have split the two for a fabulous grooming session, as well as the light, aspect you have so wisely highlighted.

But it would then of been almost perfect,really special conditions to try and make an image with . I feel pretty lucky just to get this type of chance. If I could have gone left it would be having my cake and eating it....... ansome

Great post for me Mike,sure i'm going to go arty or back lit at every chance but yes very much understood I'd loved to have had that light behind my shoulders.

Mike the flip side is as the sun lowered behind those rape stems and the last rays whispered on the hares ,it made for some wonderful dappled light. I muttered at those rape stems............ but they had their moments

I get these incoming chances every now and then mate i've tried ,well I am trying, Steve's suggestion about tracking sensitivity settings (a bit faster than I normally use,this above is one of those. So things are positive ,i'm very much at fault here but the camera has almost held focus. It's been frustrating when I have the red square on the nose and they aren't there consistantly enough but one always has to factor in me.
It's an area I want to be better at Mike,there is something so special about a hare close and coming to have a look it's a joy to try and capture

Have a fab weekend,thank you mate

stu

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Stu, I like the playful pose here and the warm light. I know you can't always predict where the subjects are going to fall in relation to the light, but if you can 'pre-think/anticipate' then it will help and avoid the strong shadows. Yes, you could lift the shadows, but sadly it will be Global, so best leave as is.

Good to see you getting out and about and still having fun.

TFS
Steve