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Thread: Buck 'n' cups Capreolus capreolus UK

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    Icon1 Buck 'n' cups Capreolus capreolus UK

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    Hello guys, I hope all are well

    I live in the middle of England UK. For the last twenty or 30 years in the same little farm workers cottage in the vale of Evesham close to a limestone escapement called the Cotswolds. A very very rich man, very local to me, sadly passed, recentlu ......his legacy to us is a 30,000 acre baby forest ,that is all but on my doorstep. This is my patch my home it is beyond fascinating watching it slowly change from English farmland into a baby woodland and if I live long enough maybe a semi mature one. .

    What I'm now seeing I might possibly look back on as a life time experience. The number of roe encounters in maybe a year for the same image maker with the same set of skills now condensed into weeks maybe days. My original absense caused by a little camper van, so I can explore photo ops on my little island then got extended into watching roe as often as I physically could / can !!

    We are now right on the cusp of two things in the world of english roe firstly they are having their kids now,. Second they are about to rut. So image wise I'm chasing a hard won fawn and mum but bumping into a few folks along the way... For a few weeks I could have taken anyone to within a few hundred yards of a dozing buck I got to know it's been an utterly bewildering few months I've honestly never seen so many roe here before. or anywhere else for that matter

    I've discovered I have a hidden ability as a cloud whisperer, when I pick up a camera,it's uncanny!! This foray after rain and in rain left me sliightly bemused ,I really quite like this frame but having crawled through wet grass I resembled a dish cloth and if one wears specs hmm........ try as I might, to get them dry, I simply really couldn't see much at all

    Naturally with a roe buck dancing round me yards away, I sort of forgot my backup cloth stashed safe and dry .




    The image is not cropped

    it's made at 4;43 pm on a grey old day Canon 1dxii 400 DO IS II 1.4 ext iii 560 mm Most processing for colour WB gentle NR in DPP then selective layers for NR on BKG and gentle sharps to subject in PSCC 1/1000 f5.6 iso 2500 i'm shooting roughly across the tops of the entanglemant of buttercups grasses and possibly camomile daisies off my knee hand held,I'm coming to love shooting across the top of vegatation the daisy bud to the RHS of buck's right ear has been burnt I hope not too heavily it was really grabbing my eye

    . The very thing I like about this frame the OOF veggies also made getting focus extremely tricky I wondered whether anything might be in focus as I wondered back. This might be a marmite shot with the face partially obscured it's what what appeals to me . his behaviour : he was deliberately looking through things at me,almost like he felt they kept him hidden.........bless !!

    cheers for the previous kindnesses

    stu
    Last edited by Gabriela Plesea; 06-22-2019 at 06:47 AM.

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    I can't see an image it's late i'll try tomorrow i'm unsure what I've done it was there in the preview??

    stu

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    I'm unsure what happened last night ,but better late than never
    Name:  _S2I4648 G and c part deux sm j.jpg
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    Last edited by Stuart Philpott; 06-21-2019 at 11:49 AM. Reason: add image and text once showing

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    I like the roe deer in the woodland setting and to a large extent I like the obscuring plants and trees but the one thing that spoils it for me are the leaves obscuring his nose and mouth, if they were not there I would like it very much. The image looks a little flat in terms of tone but I suspect you have recreated the condition in which the image was captured so I am not too concerned about that. Probably not what you want to hear because I can appreciate how difficult these deer are to photograph, hey I saw my first wild roe deer only a few weeks ago!

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stuart Philpott View Post
    I can't see an image it's late i'll try tomorrow i'm unsure what I've done it was there in the preview??

    stu
    Dear Stu,

    I copied your image to your original post with the intro, now everyone can see the thumbnail

    I like the elusive, shy appearance of the subject. As well as those pretty flowers.

    The deer is well positioned within the frame but I must agree with Jon, those branches obscuring its facial features are a bit problematic. Having read your intro I do understand the reasons why the scene appealed to you, I just feel that from an aesthetic point of view it doesn't quite work for me, sorry Stu!

    Let us see some more, I take it you had a great number of sightings lately. So happy to see you back, we've missed you around here

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan Ashton View Post
    I like the roe deer in the woodland setting and to a large extent I like the obscuring plants and trees but the one thing that spoils it for me are the leaves obscuring his nose and mouth, if they were not there I would like it very much. The image looks a little flat in terms of tone but I suspect you have recreated the condition in which the image was captured so I am not too concerned about that. Probably not what you want to hear because I can appreciate how difficult these deer are to photograph, hey I saw my first wild roe deer only a few weeks ago!
    Jon my primary feeling on seeing this for the first time almost exactly mirrored yours...shame about the muzzle. I'm always open to processing ideas but yes light was very flat ,so to the best of my ability I tried to create what I saw. Congrats on your first roe my friend that's great news,I wish I had time and could have got you here these last weeks,i've probably learnt more about roe in weeks than years before. I def could have put you on at least one. I actually had 5 dancing round me one evening jon,things like that may well be a once in a life time experience,they are incredibly curious if you play the right cards field craft wise.

    many thanks for the thoughts as always Jon

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    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Hi Stu
    Love your background story to this image, and can totally understand why you like this one so much, I too could fall in love with this image if it not for that small patch of foliage around it's muzzle, but totally appreciate the effort first in the story and second in creating this image itself.
    Nicely seen indeed.

    Jon has summed this up very well and can only echo his thoughts too.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan Ashton View Post
    I like the roe deer in the woodland setting and to a large extent I like the obscuring plants and trees but the one thing that spoils it for me are the leaves obscuring his nose and mouth, if they were not there I would like it very much. The image looks a little flat in terms of tone but I suspect you have recreated the condition in which the image was captured so I am not too concerned about that. Probably not what you want to hear because I can appreciate how difficult these deer are to photograph, hey I saw my first wild roe deer only a few weeks ago!


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    Gabriela how are you?? It's so lovely to hear from you,I was hoping to post on one of your threads before you got to me,but hey ho i'm a bit slow at the mo. Thanks so much for making the thread right for me very much appreciated .

    Gabriela as mentioned I did feel the veggies would not appeal to many I truly appreciate the honesty though, I'm thrilled frankly to have been given this chance yes I have a lot more but not many quite like this although he did give me a clear view or too in this encounter,so you might well see him again. They are a tiny deer you would love them their close sight seems to be very poor,they can see one a field away, but under their nose it's a different matter. When they hear the shutter they come to investigate,this is always done in a circular motion ...they move round one,it's bewildering how close they can come. If they catch my scent they are gone it's been great for someone like me to really have a chance to hone my skillset. It's got to the stage where I have names for the odd buck whom I now recognise!! Lets hope I can find some little ones shortly , to show you aswell....it's not for lack of trying. I do have the odd new hare image to share aswell.

    I must dash we are hoping to get out later on the wolds thank you again so much for the help , and the thoughts re the frame

    take care

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Stu, hopefully this is not a one off and you will be posting more in the coming weeks & months.

    Overall I like the framing ie more at the foot, and the OOF environment works to isolate the head and so good choice in DoF. The image, as commented before, is flat & dull and needs some life put back in, but the real killer is the foliage over the face. I know and appreciate how skittish these animals are, but a slight move to the left may have offered a better shot? Tech wise good, but I would not go lower that 1/1000 HH here, plus DO NOT switch to Silent mode, it's not worth it, but perhaps either single shot or a much lower frame rate so the noise doesn't spook the subjects.

    If you can and when you have a mo, can you either just ping over a raw, or take a screen grab of the image info in DPP, just be good to see camera set up Stu and if we need to tweak anything.

    Not say this is a definitive RP, it can't be, but from the OP I was hoping to see if a bit more depth and colour could be achieved just for and example Stu. Not having that curved branch and masking some of the white with the yellow I think helps to a small degree. Still wanted to retain a bit of dark and flatness.

    happy hunting.

    TFS
    Steve

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    Marc thanks for the lovely words, but more the opinion critique, I adore the honesty here!! Always a fight for me words Marc( sadly) ,but I think the story of how a photographer got in a position to make an image can be incredibly informative. Although the behaviour caught has left me with not quite the frame I'd have liked,it was so considered on his part not to show his face I just wanted the frame in the gap of the veggies a few inches left,he also gave me frames from behind the LHS brush. He was very deliberately looking through things.

    Lovely to hear from ya mate I hope you are well.

    Steve I need to send you the RAW and you have a look at the frame from there. This won't be my last post I just can't keep up tis all. This is a hugely educational place I need to enguage with folks and learn I also want to try as best I can to give back!! But I'm sadly not always in a position to do that.The plus is that the images are still coming in and at some rate. While my processing will never match my field skills,what I learn here I take forwards into the field. Haha day off, I thought I'd easily reply to all yesterday it didn't happen. But I did make some images of my youngest leveret so far OMG cute

    I do use silent mode hi speed continuous................. I don't like it at all !!!!!!! I know how much one misses , it is very apparent to me ,recent events Steve....... but more: Steve I am using the shutter noise as a tool here,Roe are incredibly skittish as you say,i'm using the racket to bring them to me. I was completely in the open when I made this frame no chance to move subject would spook . So I've experiemented with the lesser noise of the more silent mode. As I perfect the technique of getting them to me ,useful in many situations.

    It seems utterly senseless to have a camera that can fire 14 FPS and not use that tool, but if the noise means the subject is no longer with me,one tries to find workarounds.

    Buddy thanks for the repost I'll try and get the RAW to you in a mo

    stu
    Last edited by Stuart Philpott; 06-23-2019 at 06:11 AM.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Stu, got the file thanks.

    Camera set-up all good nothing crazy there, however I would suggest:
    - Keep hi frame rate for high action, here just fire off a few frames at a time. You will then not be filling your card with the same shot 180 times, plus!!!! If the subject moves it will also allow the cameras AF to take into account the change, just slow it all down, perhaps low frame rate and change it to 5fps. This is the good thing about the 1DX you can change/customise the frame rate, unlike the 5D4 which has set frame rates.

    - Change the AF to single point, not Spot

    - Case setting I might have set it to 0, +1, 0
    Overall the file is clean, with very little noise if any and it's pin sharp!!!

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    Hi Stu, great field craft get close to one of these. The greenery mentioned, but it may be possible to remove the stick over the face (if your sort of thing) and that would help IMO. Steve's RP is nice and really brings out the flowers. TFS, hope to see more of these deer.

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    You must have been thrilled to get this close. Very handsome looking buck. Agree with the other critiques here. Do like the framing and the way the buck looks like it is hiding. Hopefully you will have many more encounters at this location. Happy shooting.

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    Hi Stu -- somewhat late on this but great to see you posting once again .

    Like others i too find the foliage in front of the Deer's face a bit problematic otherwise the settings in the FG are quite beautiful for such kind of frames .

    Keep posting more.

    TFS !

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stuart Philpott View Post
    Gabriela how are you?? It's so lovely to hear from you,I was hoping to post on one of your threads before you got to me,but hey ho i'm a bit slow at the mo. Thanks so much for making the thread right for me very much appreciated .

    Gabriela as mentioned I did feel the veggies would not appeal to many I truly appreciate the honesty though, I'm thrilled frankly to have been given this chance yes I have a lot more but not many quite like this although he did give me a clear view or too in this encounter,so you might well see him again. They are a tiny deer you would love them their close sight seems to be very poor,they can see one a field away, but under their nose it's a different matter. When they hear the shutter they come to investigate,this is always done in a circular motion ...they move round one,it's bewildering how close they can come. If they catch my scent they are gone it's been great for someone like me to really have a chance to hone my skillset. It's got to the stage where I have names for the odd buck whom I now recognise!! Lets hope I can find some little ones shortly , to show you aswell....it's not for lack of trying. I do have the odd new hare image to share aswell.

    I must dash we are hoping to get out later on the wolds thank you again so much for the help , and the thoughts re the frame

    take care
    Thank you so much for reply, dear Stu! I am well, so kind of you to ask And very glad to see you back!

    Regarding your image, I do understand how difficult it must be to capture this species. And I actually like the "veggies", except for the one running across the subject's face.

    BTW I encountered a similar situation last week-end, my subjects were very special but tiny and extremely skittish... mostly hidden in tall grass. Very frustrating and I wasted a great number of actuations trying to grab a shot or two with them in the clear. But I persisted until I got a couple of images, will share one tonight

    So I look forward to see more from you, hope luck is on your side Buddy! Also hope the deer get used to your scent and allow you to get closer

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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