Steppin' out Brown hare UK L europeas

[Stuart Philpott]

This is probably the youngest leveret i've made an image of. It was a long ol day and this was at the end of it around 8 :45 pm

We had pitched at a little spot by some maize on our low chairs and settled to wait. I then close the distance to a subject if and when one arrives. There is a rough area largely weeds but not high with a shallow roll away downhill into a gentle wolds valley . It's a pretty spot to make an image We already had some fantastic times with roe muntjac and hares here. Very slowly pennies are starting to drop as to how I can utilise the contours of the land to make an image when flat on one's face in the mud. This time of year being very low POV wise.... with smallish subjects ,the veggies are also problematic. i'm sort of trying to pick a spot not only where I think a beastie might be but also a spot that might lend itself to an attractive frame. whether all this will have any result I don't know,but the thought process is good.


This image hurt to make physically, it was one of those out in the open stalks no cover . Hmm where the cotswold scree scapes ya bones removes skin and three days late one still aches . I have to be honest( it almost hurts to admit this but it's true) I nearly didn't try. I debated with my lady we both knew it was going to be incredibly tricky as fella was a bit jumpy to say the least. ,so it's playing that game of never appearing as a threat being utterly on it with movement and so slow one can hear the plants grow

Little fella had settled and was tiny,it would fit on my outstretched hand..... so rather reluctantly I pulled me self together and made say 100 of the 150 yards I needed towards him/her. A few grab/ record shots resulted in interest.... a few more and bless very slowly he came towards me. I'd already had a good day with an older kidlet,my first attempt at this fella scuppered by a helecopter. So, I took a chance and got very lucky, it was a shame this didn't happen earlier the light was gorgeous.

Fella's camo is astounding in the field incredibly difficult to stop once your eye was off him,even if you knew were he was a few seconds back !! It really is unbelievable just how much those legs and snout are going to lengthen

The image is not cropped
processed in cannons DPP WB colour gentle nr dust bunnies then a further selective NR and sharpening on separate layers in PSCC . There might be some room for tonal improvement I'm wary of separating him too much because of what we both saw.

1/1000 f5.6 iso 3200 Canon 1Dxii 400DO is II ext 1.4iii

There might have been an issue at the export as stage in PSCC if any of you educated souls spot anything could you please make me aware

Finally thanks for all the comments and as always heaps of wisdom bestowed. Steve cheers for checking the base things for me,i'll always be fallable

Gabriela this fella is for you, I just know you'll fall in love with him I just wish I had that light from earlier to work with

stu