Relaxed

Luke, you're getting some great images from these guys!
They must be getting a little used to you.. they are clearly not bothered in the least - probably a little curious too.
This is delightful - relaxed, natural, bright eyes, and very cute!
Sandy

Great sharpness and detail in the fox. I like the way he is staring at you. Very good color also. Fine image.

Hey Luke,

Cute little devil - and I like that he/she looks quite relaxed here (you're obviously not causing it much stress). I like the pose of the animal, the exposure, and the colour of this image. Not surprisingly, I'm not totally in love with the OOF foreground here and if it were mine I'd definitely crop out some of the foreground (at least the vegetation in the lower right corner) - this would also functionally lower the fox in the frame (which I think would strengthen the composition). To my eye a little critical sharpness is missing in this image, but I think this is likely to be a function of using that TC with the aperture pretty much wide open (but see comment immediately below).

Curious why you're not using a tripod (or other support) here? Knowing you, there probably is a reason, but to me it seems like an absolute perfect opportunity for doing so - you know where the subjects are and seem to have had lots of time to set up multiple times. I understand the trade-off and/or dilemma between stopping down more to get the fox sharper and wanting to soften that potentially distracting background, but the tripod wouldn't intervene on this question and could only give you more options while shooting (including the major "luxury" to study the frame very thoroughly, which is really tough to do when hand-holding a lens with a total EFL of about 765mm). I guess this question is a reflection of my own 3 most important rules of photography: tripod, tripod, tripod (I only HH ANY lens if I am absolutely forced to, which happens a LOT to me! )

Cheers...

Brad

Lovely image, not knowing what type of vehicle you were in I congratulate you on laying doen, I usually only resort ro knelling but then that is the best I can do.

As to using a tripod virtually impossible in a normal game viewing vehicle!

Thanksfor all the comments.

Brad - you suggest I have a good reason for not using a tripod and you are right. It's because I don't own one! I understand the benefits of them and it's been on my short list for some time - but with the possibility of a bigger lens in the future I've held off for a variety of reasons. I wouldn't say I wasn't using any support - I was lying down and I had a pilow in front of me that the lens was resting on for the most part. I included the green on the bottom because I liked how it looked when I composed the scene.

Ken,

This was photographed at a location not far from my house and I was able to easily approach on foot and eventually lay down and do a belly crawl to get a bit closer. Shooting from a vehicle would have been way too far away and too steep an angle.

Also, to make it clera all of the fox shots that I post and will be posted were photographed in April. I went on vacation and upon my return the foxes had outgrown their den and I haven't seen them since, so any advice will have to be put into play next year!

Beautiful image, wonderful that you seem to be providing entertainment for them without any stress. Good job.

very cute and relaxed kit here Luke...
nice light too

I agree on the sharpness not being exactly what one would like - maybe a round of sharpening can rectify it (at least at this resolution).

I like how the surrounding colours compliment the fox's coat colours.
I might crop some off the bottom to lose the bright green grass if it were mine

Great complimentary BG for his guy and I like the relaxed pose and how he's laying into the hill.