Red Fox in Yellowstone

Gallery: WildlifePosted February 28, 201118,968 views28 comments

Finally got to Yellowstone again in the winter a couple weeks ago. I have never seen so much snow, wow! We experienced temps from -36 degrees to +40 degrees during our eight day visit. Generaly the wildlife photography was slow, but we did have a few excellent opportunities, including this one with a hunting red fox.

Canon Mk IV, 600mm, 1/5000 @ f6.3, ISO 640, spot meter off snow, +1 2/3, full horizontal frame pano crop

I appreciate all your comments and suggestions

Ken Archer

Comments

28 comments

Comment posted by Ralph Kerr on February 28, 2011 at 6:11 PM

A very nice Fox Photo. I like the snow contours and texture, and the fox is sharp. Snow looks slightly blue but that is hard to overcome. Nicely done

Registered on January 30, 2007, 369 Posts, 852 Comments

Comment posted by Andrius Pašukonis on February 28, 2011 at 6:24 PM

Fantastic! I absolutely love this shot

Registered on July 23, 2005, 111 Posts, 408 Comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on February 28, 2011 at 6:27 PM

Very nice, Ken. I was there at the same as you, but didn't have an opportunity to see one of the foxes hunting. I think the contrast and sharpness here are great. The composition is aided greatly by the subtle contours of the snow.

The snow does look a bit blueish, but with the varying light conditions we had that week, it may well be an accurate representation. Regardless, the orange fur stands out nicely.

Edit: on my calibrated monitor at home I don't really notice any unnatural bluish caste. Looks great from here.

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments

Comment posted by Darren Colello on February 28, 2011 at 7:09 PM

Stunning Ken. The fox is sharp and I love how you have highlighted it in its stark, snow-bound environment. Stellar image imo.

Registered on July 27, 2009, 175 Posts, 1100 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on February 28, 2011 at 8:31 PM

Absolutely perfect exposure with the snow WHITE like it is supposed to be... the contrast of the red fox is visually stunning and the undulations in the snow are great.

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Jerry Imprevento on February 28, 2011 at 8:37 PM

Ken, the exposure and detail in the snow great, and I love the way he is positioned in the frame. Spectacular image!

Registered on September 11, 2010, 29 Posts, 78 Comments

Comment posted by Ed Cordes on February 28, 2011 at 11:12 PM

Super image. The reds of the fox really stand out against the snow. The snow does look a bit blue, but if it were shadowed this is the accurate color. I really like the contours in the snow as it gives some depth.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 451 Posts, 3366 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on March 1, 2011 at 12:12 AM

Wow, really nice photo Ken. I am particularly impressed with the amazing contours of the snow drifts. Colors look very good, accurate and attractive.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Mauro Pasquero on March 1, 2011 at 1:45 AM

A very nice shot, Ken. I like the colorful image of the fox in his snowy habitat. Great composition and light. Well done.
Mauro

Registered on January 21, 2010, 650 Posts, 2500 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Peters on March 1, 2011 at 9:31 AM

Works well for me! Having just been to Yellowstone myself I can appreciate the huge amount of snow and slow wildlife photographic ops! A lovely fox image though, the crop works very well

Registered on December 22, 2005, 28 Posts, 126 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on March 1, 2011 at 1:03 PM

This is beautiful Ken. I like the sense of scale created by the size of the fox in the frame against that all white BG with those lines in the snow.

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

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on March 1, 2011 at 7:10 PM

What a beautiful fox. The soft lighting really shows it's coat spectacularly and allows the subtle textures in the snow to be seen.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on March 1, 2011 at 7:28 PM

What a beautiful picture! I love how he stands out from the wintery scene. The shape of the snow drifts really help make this picture, and I love how you can see his trail of tracks in an interesting line behind him. I have been looking for foxes to photograph all winter, but for some reason they are staying hidden in the area around where we live.

Registered on February 8, 2011, 254 Posts, 1302 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Olsen on March 1, 2011 at 7:55 PM

A beautiful combination of the fox and snow patterns. Like something from a dream world.

Registered on October 19, 2006, 306 Posts, 1571 Comments

Comment posted by Ajit Huilgol on March 2, 2011 at 12:57 AM

Just love the red against the white snow, and the placement of the fox in the frame.

Registered on December 19, 2008, 302 Posts, 2055 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on March 2, 2011 at 11:06 AM

The positioning of the fox moving into the confluence of subtle lines created by the layered shapes in the snow makes this an excellent composition. I would be interested in any notes you could provide about the post processing, especially whether selective adjustments were needed with the fox against the snowy background. The fox did well, too, by walking into that pleasing, diffused lighting! Good work!

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by Ernie Marx on March 2, 2011 at 9:51 PM

Nice! The pano crop, the composition, the light, the contours of the snow, the contrast between the fox and the snow...it all comes together perfectly.

Registered on July 14, 2010, 10 Posts, 67 Comments

Comment posted by Marsel van Oosten on March 3, 2011 at 2:54 AM

Great shot! Composition and crop are spot on. I'd prefer to see better leg positions (hind legs), but that's a minor nit.

Question: why did you choose to shoot at 1/5000 and ISO 640? You could have stopped down to f8 for more dof, a lower ISO, and still have a shutter speed fast enough to freeze potential action. Just curious.

Registered on March 9, 2004, 285 Posts, 2277 Comments

Comment posted by Fabio Giarrizzo on March 3, 2011 at 9:25 AM

Superb winter shot- Composition and exposure couldn't be better than this- thanks for sharing this beauty, Fabio

Registered on December 3, 2010, 90 Posts, 1614 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on March 3, 2011 at 10:04 AM

Almost missed this one, wonderful composition and great job handling the bright snow, excellent shot all the way around, way to go.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on March 3, 2011 at 6:20 PM

Hello everyone, Thank You for all your encouraging comments on this photo.

Lon, my post procesing of images is very simple actually. First of all I do my best to get it right in the camera, meaning exposure and composition. Then on the computer I start with curves and/or a levels adjustments then I may increase the saturation up to 10 points. Occasionaly I may tweak the color adjustment if the image seems tinted one way or the other. One thing I did do different with this photo was that I selectively added 6 points of saturation to the fox only, I did not add any saturation to the snow. For me, the less time I spend on the computer the better I like it, I would rather be outside shooting photos.

Marsel, the light was constantly changing while I was with this fox so I picked an ISO that would be fast enough to capture a action sequence for the difussed light that was happening fairly often, while also keeping noise to a minimum. It worked out pretty well because I finally did get a fairly good mousing jump series about 15 minutes after this photo was made.

Ken

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by Petr Slavik on March 5, 2011 at 9:48 AM

Stunning winter athmosphere image. Winter fairy tale

Registered on December 12, 2010, 15 Posts, 12 Comments

Comment posted by Greg Schneider on March 5, 2011 at 10:46 AM

Top notch image Ken - I'm sure this would look great printed large.

Registered on February 9, 2008, 84 Posts, 138 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Willison on March 5, 2011 at 4:35 PM

Ken, the techs are spot on. But the positioning of the fox and those subtle sloping lines of the snow take this over the top in story telling.

Registered on April 10, 2009, 292 Posts, 3967 Comments

Comment posted by Matt Shellenberg on March 7, 2011 at 10:21 PM

This is just beautiful, Ken. The composition is perfect. You did a spectacular job with the techs on this. Great detail in the fox and the exposure on the snow is as good as it gets IMO.

Registered on February 6, 2008, 168 Posts, 3118 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on March 9, 2011 at 10:55 PM

this is a real beauty - nothing like a red fox in snow. The lines and banks in the snow set off the fox exceptionally well.

Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Roberts on March 10, 2011 at 7:30 PM

Excellent photo. Great detail and exposure on both snow and fox. And having nothing else but snow in the picture makes the fox stand out in stark relief. Really nice.

Registered on March 9, 2011, 69 Posts, 501 Comments

Comment posted by Ashleigh Scully on July 1, 2014 at 11:26 AM

I know this was many years ago but I just love this shot! So beautiful and love the composition.

Registered on November 4, 2013, 36 Posts, 210 Comments