Pika

Gallery: WildlifePosted September 23, 2011104 views7 comments

I'm finally getting to process some photos from my trip to RMNP last week. I thought I'd start with this little guy/gal. they are fun (and sometimes tough) to photograph. Very fast and mostly never still. This one was kind enough to pop out several times at about 8 or 10 feet from me.
This has a slight crop from the right side.

Bruce

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on September 23, 2011 at 3:17 PM

Very well done. No nits, good as is. The detail is good where it counts, the BG really sets out the little guy and the rock in the foreground is a good anchor without being obtrusive.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Willison on September 23, 2011 at 5:02 PM

Good Pika portrait, Bruce. As Phil said, the detail is where its needed. The dark bg allows the subject center stage. Nice work.

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

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on September 23, 2011 at 11:38 PM

Very nice detail, sharpness and BG in this Pika shot Bruce. One of my favorite subjects

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on September 24, 2011 at 8:45 AM

Hi Bruce,

Very nice detail and I quite like how the pika stands out from that very dark background. My only very minor nit here is that the head of the pika is slightly too centred for my personal taste (i.e., I wouldn't mind seeing a LITTLE more room on the left side of the frame). If you own Photoshop CS4 or 5 this is the type of image were it would be a simple matter (using Content Aware Scaling) to "slide" the Pika to the right and open up a little more space on the left. Not suggesting you SHOULD do this or that this kind of adjustment works for you (ethically), but just noting that the alteration/adjustment COULD be made even if you don't have the room in the original capture.

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

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

Comment posted by Bruce Painter on September 24, 2011 at 11:34 AM

Thanks for the comments.
Brad, I wondered if anyone would feel this was too centered, thanks for letting me know. I was leaning that way myself. I do not have any room on the left in this shot. The autofocus point (canon 30D) that worked best,focusing on his eye, left him off to the left side of the frame and I cropped only from the right to get this comp. I have another wider shot that my be compositionally better and I may post it later but I liked the "closeness" and the detail in this one so I thought I would see what everyone here thought.
I do have CS5 but it is new to me and I did not know about the Content Aware feature. I don't know that I would do that here and am really not sure in a case like this how I feel about the ethics of it, although I do know in other situations, photojournalism for example, I am against this type of "editing".

Bruce

Registered on May 11, 2006, 50 Posts, 207 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on September 24, 2011 at 2:28 PM

HI Bruce,

I completely understand your reticence in making a subject position shift with Content Aware Scaling. Just wanted to point out the possibility of the modification if you wanted to go that route. Like you I do like the closeness (and corresponding detail) in this shot.

Cheers...

Brad

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

Comment posted by Dan Walters on September 25, 2011 at 12:17 PM

Great detail in the pika. Like the dark background as well.

Registered on October 30, 2005, 405 Posts, 3693 Comments