One Dead Rat
D300 200-400VR 1.7TC @750mm ISO800 f/6.7 1/250
Once again Arkansas beats Texas for the largest. This rat was easily the size of a squirrel, one of the largest I have ever seen. I do understand N.Y. has some big ones and recently that Jersey has a few too :), but this made a good meal for the young hawk.
You stumbled upon a neat scene here! I imagine you had time to take a series of images...do you have one with a better HA? With the hawk looking back I would have preferred more room behind it rather than in front, and I would look into raising the colour temp a wee bit and/or upping the saturation some (careful not to overdo it!). I love that we can see the prey's face, and also appreciate seeing the talon powerfully clutching the rat.
Neat situation but there are two other problems with the image in addition to the above:
1-rat's tail cut off
2-bird on a concrete structure
The head turned away is the biggest bummer.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
Thanks Daniel. I always appreciate your careful critiques. It just so happens I had to pick between the rat HA and the hawk and the rat won. Here is what you were looking for instead. I will give sat a little bump and take a look. It was a soft light falling.
Man your tough Artie. :) The rats tail dropped below the concrete wall immediatly below my crop and the wall was part of an old campground step that was unavoidable. Maybe I will try cloning it out - but I took the shot.
Last edited by Bill McCrystyn; 12-11-2009 at 05:42 PM.
I need to be as tough on your boys and girls as I am on myself or else there is no point in my being here at all :)Originally Posted by Bill McCrystyn
The repost though less than perfect offers the best of both worlds via some Quick Masking... Also sharpened the bird and the rat.
later and love,
artie
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
Nice job on the head transplant, Artie. Also, an excellant job on the sharpening. Nice sequence on both of the shots, Bill.
Glenn
Wow Artie, you are the Wizard. I am really interested in knowing what your sharpening factors were, if you can recall. Thanks as always. I was afraid you didn't love me any more. ;)
Just a few Quick Masks with transform and rotate. I painted a QM of the bird and the rat and ran a contrast mask: 10/50/0.
And, I am a lover of what is so unless you ain't, I am loving you.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
Thanks Artie. I am going to work on it as we speak.
Bill
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote