Shaggy Goat

Gallery: WildlifePosted May 24, 2011132 views5 comments

I was going through some images an found these which I had forgotten about. They were taken in the Black Hills in South Dakota one year ago this month near Mt. Rushmore. He is still pretty shaggy from his winter coat. Not your usual iconic view of a Mountain Goat high up on a nerrow ridge, but the must eat some time. They are protected, thus not much fear of humans. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

Canon 30D
Tokina 80-400
Aperture Priority
Shutter 1/500
Aperture f11
ISO 800
120mm

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Pete D on May 24, 2011 at 6:36 PM

Beautiful animal. I like the stare, but I wish there were a bit of sparkle in his/her eyes.
Pete D.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 590 Posts, 1794 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on May 24, 2011 at 11:20 PM

The surroundings are not ideal, but you handled it well, with subject exposed just right. I like the face on pose, but agree catchlights would have been nice. I sense a slight over-sharpening along the hair of his back line and also notable with the slight halo around the horns.

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

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on May 25, 2011 at 12:29 AM

The super-low angle is a very strong point that makes the image work Richard. The gaze also adds more intimacy to the scene.Exposure looks perfect. A sparkle in the eye would have been nice indeed. The rock in the FG is a bit unfortunate.

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

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on May 27, 2011 at 12:08 AM

Very unusual (for me!) image of a marvelously shaggy beast Richard :^)

You didn't mention if this was cropped or not, but I think with a shot like this, where there's little you can do to eliminate distractions, going the other way and showing more of it's immediate surroundings might work better. Having said that, I just noticed you set your aperture to f/11, so now I'm wondering whether a wider aperture would have managed to blur out more of the FG and BG.

Still, always nice to see another species I was previously unfamiliar with :^)

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

Comment posted by Julia Flanagan on May 27, 2011 at 9:58 PM

It is interesting Richard that he isn't up on a some rocky ledge. Mt goats are one of my favorite subjects and this expands my thinking about them. The oof fg rock is a bit distracting for me and overall the compostion seems a bit static-perhaps because of the central placement of the goat in the vertical sense. Exposure seem spot on. I have found catchlights hard to get in goats, but some fill flash might be helpful there. Nice job.

Registered on November 13, 2003, 59 Posts, 986 Comments