At Six Mile Cypress Slough there are a lot of young alligators, which are interesting but usually rather boring. Yesterday I managed to be there when they had caught a large bullfrog and were... well, not exactly sharing a meal, but competing for pieces. This shot was after a leg was removed, and one of the young took off (the watchful eye behind was soon pursuing).
I shot this with a fill flash which gave the distinctive red eye. I considered fixing it, but then decided while a bit not-natural, it seemed to fit the scene.
The young were (I am told) about 2 years old, were about 2' long and still had their strips clearly visible.
Comments welcome. It's a tight crop so not as much resolution as I would have liked. Shot with a D300 and 200-400 @ 400, 1/320th @ F4 with SB800 and better beamer. It's somewhere near a 16th of the frame (about a quarter each way).
Last edited by Linwood Ferguson; 04-21-2009 at 06:11 AM.
Reason: Replace link so I can repost revised.
Linwood, this is a cool looking image. I like how you presented it but would suggest going loser a bit and placing the gators in a Rule of Thirds placement to better coordinate the scene. The FG gator in the lower left power point and the BG gator in the upper right power point.
My first view of the image I was astonished at the size of the bullfrog. After reading through your post, it still looks like it was a pretty big one! I like that you included the guy in the background - gives the image some suspense as the one with the food swims away. Nicely seen and captured.
Linwood,
Good find. I would have liked a wider composition with greater dof. I agree that including the guy in the back increases the suspense. A close up will also work fine. I have heard that this lens works well with a converter. I
I've redone this pulling back so that the two heads are in the thirds position. I'm not completely convinced this is better, but will let it sit a bit and see how it looks with fresh eyes tomorrow. Unfortunately it will not hang on the wall, a bit too few pixels.
As to a TC -- I have a 2x which I've tried with the 200-400, and it is mediocre at best. I love sharp, and it adds a lot of softness. I think it may be marginally better than a crop, but just marginally. I plan one day to get a 1.4x which I understand holds up in terms of sharpness, but what I think I really need is that 600 F4! (And a very rich relative to remember by birthday; wish I had some).
I also dropped the brightness of some of the background weeds a bit as with the greater depth they started to distract.
Thanks for the suggestions.
PS as to the comment on size, here's a shot that I didn't find very asthetically good, but gives a better impression of the relative size of food vs. predator.
Frog leg dinner
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