Bobcat Kitten

[Doug Brown]

I was in Southern New Mexico photographing Swainson's Hawks a few years ago, and when the light was no longer shootable I headed back to the ranch I was staying at. While driving I noticed some movement in the fading light, so I pulled out my flashlight to investigate. To my surprise it was a Bobcat den, and there were a couple of kittens checking me out from a ledge above the den! I took this frame using flash as main light.

Canon 1Dx, 600mm + 1.4x, f/10, 1/160, ISO 400, FAML, hand held

[John Mack]

Nice to see a bobcat here let alone a kitten. The pose and detail are spot on. My first though was this was flashed. But it is well balanced. This would have made a nice vertical as well. This is great as is though. Background is killer. Nice one.

[Doug Brown]

Nice to see a bobcat here let alone a kitten. The pose and detail are spot on. My first though was this was flashed. But it is well balanced. This would have made a nice vertical as well. This is great as is though. Background is killer. Nice one.

Thanks John. The photo was taken in total darkness. I had to use a flashlight on the kitten to get my AF to work. It is therefore a 100% flashed image with no ambient light in the exposure.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

A really cool shot of the cat Doug. The central placement and those big eyes with front paws showing works well. God use of the flashlight. Are the eyes a bit grainy and natural or is it noise? Just curious

[Doug Brown]

A really cool shot of the cat Doug. The central placement and those big eyes with front paws showing works well. God use of the flashlight. Are the eyes a bit grainy and natural or is it noise? Just curious

Thanks Sanjeev! What you're seeing is texture in the iris. There's very little noise in the original file as it was shot at ISO 400 with a 1Dx. I did push the exposure 1/3 stop in post, but that had a negligible effect on noise.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Doug -- Great to see you posting here. I absolutely loved the pose and the typical cat like inquisitiveness in its eye. I myself have struggled with flash especially controlling its intensity and have ruined many images, hence, this turns out to be an image to look over and get some inspiration. You field work must have been really good to get this so nicely framed and pin sharp inspite of using that big tele with a TC and a low ss, nice use of flash in this case.

I really enjoyed viewing this image.

TFS !

[Doug Brown]

Thank you all for the comments!