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Gallery: WildlifePosted February 27, 2010140 views8 comments

For a pair of young red foxes, everyday is full of discoveries!
Photograph taken on April 18, 2008 at The Celery Farm, Allendale, New Jersey.
I just managed to shoot this through a very small gap in the bushes and trees, which left no room on the left for better composition. However, I liked their posture and the backlighting. Would appreciate your comments and critique.

Nikon D3, Nikon 200-400mm with 2X teleconverter, f/11.0, 1/125, ISO 800.
Kumar

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Robert Bunch on February 27, 2010 at 4:04 PM

I agree with you about the nice pose and the backlighting. It's too bad your shooting postion left you with no option to add space on the left but IMO it's not that big of a deal. Ideally it would be better to have more space on the left but you could just crop off some from the right to balance the comp a little better. I would crop at about the top of the lower white highlight on the right foxes back. Cropping issues aside it's a very nice picture of these two guys and better than anything I have of red foxes (actually I have zero shots of red foxes) and I would be pleased to have one this good.

Registered on May 18, 2004, 124 Posts, 2503 Comments

Comment posted by David Schoen on February 27, 2010 at 5:37 PM

animal parks can be really difficult places to shoot because of physical restrictions but you always know you will see some wildlife... as said before, nice capture but needs space on the left

Registered on November 6, 2006, 1213 Posts, 4587 Comments

Comment posted by István Molnár on February 28, 2010 at 1:19 AM

Nice work.
István

Registered on January 7, 2010, 114 Posts, 704 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on February 28, 2010 at 1:57 AM

This is cute Kumar. I like it for the same reasons as you do; the identical poses and the rimlighting. You handled the back-lit situation well. A pity about the lack of space on the left though and the chaotic BG.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Sandipan Dutta on February 28, 2010 at 9:16 AM

They are really cute and the I like this image for their symmetrical and slightly oblique pose.
Exposure is well controlled despite being backlit.
Space in the left is desirable off course but we can't get everything right in the field. Good work.

Registered on March 9, 2009, 171 Posts, 493 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on February 28, 2010 at 11:39 AM

Hi Kumar,

Good title and your own assessment of the image is spot-on in my books. Given that there's no more image to include on the left side (for good reason), I think Robert's suggestion of cropping some of the right side of the image off has merit. One final comment - this is one of the best images (if not the best) I've seen come from that lens/TC combo (and one that is notoriously difficult to "squeeze" good out of). Were you using the "new" series III 2x TC (the TC-20EIII) or the previous version that's been out for several years (the TC-20EII)? Just curious...

Cheers...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Kumar Patel on February 28, 2010 at 1:32 PM

Thank you all for your interest and comments.
Robert,
As per your suggestion, here's the result after cropping on the right.
Brad,
I have the old 2X teleconverter. I often photograph birds in flight with the 200-400mm as well as 600mm Nikon lenses. The old 2X is no good for this (ineffective autofocus). Therefore, I use the 1.4X (rarely 1.7X). I tried out the new 2X last week with the 600mm lens. It does not autofocus any faster. For stationary subjects the old 2X works fine --- it often allows me to fill the frame.
Kumar

Registered on February 16, 2010, 27 Posts, 36 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Bunch on February 28, 2010 at 10:18 PM

I think the second cropped version balances the comp better and is definitely an improvement. Nice shot.

Registered on May 18, 2004, 124 Posts, 2503 Comments