Practice

Gallery: WildlifePosted April 29, 2011183 views5 comments

An overcast October afternoon, I was focusing on a couple of sparring young bucks when two mature muley bucks nearby decided to start a pushing match. It wasn't anything too serious, as you can tell by their stance and lack of dust flying, just getting geared up early for the rut.

I realize that both bucks are pretty close to the edge of the shot - I wanted some symmetry between them and had to rotate what was an already tight original, losing some wiggle room on either end (this crop is about 90% of the original). Is the crop too tight?

As always, comments & suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Roxborough S.P., Colorado
10/24/10 - 3:25 PM

Sony A200
Sony 75-300 @ 135mm
1/200 sec @ f5.6
iso 200

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Andrew Sentipal on April 29, 2011 at 9:34 PM

I like this as is. Not too tight for me. I've seen this behavior in whitetails but have been unable to capture anything as nice as this. Great job !!!

Andrew

Registered on February 16, 2008, 200 Posts, 317 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on April 30, 2011 at 12:49 AM

The distance you have between the tails and the edges of the frame looks fine to me Guy and always nice to seeing young bucks sparing like this :^)

Although it may not have been possible, and if it were perhaps you wouldn't have caught both of their eyes, I think I would have liked this a little more had the image been taken from a lower perspective. Aside from giving the picture a more intimate feel IMO, I think it might have also helped to blur a little of the background and possibly even the foreground.

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on April 30, 2011 at 4:05 PM

I bet you managed a whole series of this action! I like the fact that you have a good view of eyes on both bucks. In terms of how tight to have them framed, one consideration is we always need a tad more space for mat and frame.

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

Comment posted by Wayne Willison on May 3, 2011 at 3:10 PM

Guy, Lon makes a good point for mat and frame, although this is a dynamite image of sparring bucks. Really like the habitat, it's nice to see the types of plants and grasses that grow in the region where animals live.

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

Comment posted by Guy Runco on May 7, 2011 at 11:39 PM

Thanks for the comments!

I would have loved a lower angle on these two for this shot, but the topography just didn't allow it. I was able to get about 25 "keepers" out of this session (20 minutes or so), I'll post another later.

Registered on September 9, 2008, 77 Posts, 705 Comments