Bat-eared Fox

[Pieter de Waal]

These and the Cape Fox are my favourites in Kgalagadi. They are mostly insectivorous and use their extremely large ears to locate prey as much as 6" underground before pouncing and digging up the prey. They usually move in groups and can be very entertaining to observe whilst foraging.

50D/EF500f4+1.4 1/800 @ f8 iso250 EC-0.33 Apperture priority. Cropped to eliminate some of the busy BG, applied some BG blur and minimal sharpening.

C&C most welcome.

[Hilary Hann]

Pieter, nice job on the post production, the bg blur looks pretty natural and certainly reduces the busyness of the background. I like the pose of the fox, shows its way of hunting quite well and I think you've positioned it in the frame nicely. Not much I'd have changed, unless you were able to get your dof in camera rather than in pp.

[Robert Amoruso]

Pieter,

I would agree with Hilary. BG looks good with the blur. I do think the colors appear a bit off. Slight magenta but with a brownish tint.

[Pieter de Waal]

Thanks for your feedback Hilary and Robert.

Hilary you are quite right and a shallower dof would have helped with the busy BG, one to remember in the field.

Robert I reduced magenta slightly in color balance and it certainly improved the color. Thank you and well spotted.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Pieter, nice low angle and capture, illustrating the alertness and concentration of the fox. A fox on a mission. You might think about increasing your ISO to say 400, especially at that length of lens & dropping to a more 'open' aperture giving you more SS and difused BG, avoiding some additional PP. Would agree with Robert about the colouration of the image.

TFS
Steve

[Dumay de Boulle]

love these guys too...Still never seen one... i like the pose and detail!

[Morkel Erasmus]

love them as well and dig the pose you got here Pieter!
to my eye there is still somewhat of a difference between the BG on the fox's eye level and that above it...I can see where the blur has been applied. Did you feather the BG selection before blurring?

[Rachel Hollander]

Like the intense look on the fox and the bg blur works well to separate the fox. Agree with Robert on the color.

TFS,
Rachel

[Pieter de Waal]

Thanks guys and Rachel, appreciate the feedback.

Morkel I did'nt blur the grassline and in hindsight I agree with you.

Thank you all for your valued suggestions, certainly the way to learn.

[tiziano cei]

fantastic pose for this fox