A walking catfish (exotic species in Florida) caught by a Great Blue Heron. Only had a split second to compose before the heron switched to a pose parallel to my camera.
Very cool shot Judd, I quite like your composition, a bit more depth of field (to the eyes of the heron) might have made it even better, but it sounds like you didn't have time.
Thanks Nate, the critique and advice are much appreciated! Even with more time it would have been a major challenge to get the fish and the eyes in focus on a single image. It's sometimes fun to play "what if" in situations like this using an online DOF calculator (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html). With the camera, lens, and subject at 15 ft, I would have had only 3.6 inches of DOF even at f/45!!
Last edited by Judd Patterson; 02-12-2009 at 01:00 AM.
Dude, crank it down to f/300 and do work!! haha. Great capture, Judd. This works very well as a Florida Conservation photo, the lack of DOF draws our attention to our little invasive exotic friend (the walking cat) and shows our native Great Blue Heron making lunch of him.
Increasing populations of invasive exotic fish have been harming our native species. So we end up seeing our native birds feeding on exotic fish more and more.
Judd,
I personally like the shallow DOF.
IMO the catfish (an exotic invasive species) in sharp focus works.
"the lack of DOF draws our attention to our little invasive exotic friend"
Your eye is drawn to it immediately.
This is an awesome and original image Judd. I like the oof heron set back behind the catfish, which is super sharp... I think it makes the image more interesting and let's you look further at the image to see what's happening here. Love the composition too. Awesome capture!
I would have really liked that the eyes would have been in focus on the bird. One of the best prey captured shots I have ever seen. You could have used a slower speed with a large F no. but I'm sure you had little time to adjust--or--tilt the camera up in the next 1/4second after shooting the fiish and shoot the bird separate, and then do a composite.
Paul
Last edited by paul leverington; 02-12-2009 at 09:26 AM.
Certainly this is the best you can do with DOF and a long lens. The catfish is sharp, the eyes are evident, if not sharp, and you can see the beak holding the catch. Good composition and BG. Nice job, Judd.
You feeding that pet GBH Catfish? ;)
Its a terrific image and the DOF works great! I think these type of images are far tougher to get than the B.O.A.S. stuff. Congrats!
Hey Judd,
This is super as presented! Since nobody mentioned it..........the bill on the other side of the fish...!!!!....this just has a great feel and mood to it as well as a very nice comp. Very nicely done!
Magnificent - you could not have done better with the DoF, with a bigger f-stop you would have sacrificed shutter speed and probably caused camera shake and a soft image. Well done!
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