Ewe Looking at Me?

Ewe Looking at Me?

Seems like we have a bit of a portrait thing happening in here, so I thought I'd jump into the fray!

I occasionally run into situations where I'm forced (or I force myself) into shooting configurations of equipment that stray from my "tried and true" combinations. This portrait of a wild Bighorn Sheep ewe is an example of a shot that was captured using decidedly "non-standard" gear! In late January/early February of 2012 I was hosting a client on a week of guiding and instruction on the art and technique of wildlife photography. While I was shooting some during our field sessions, the emphasis was on his shots and needs. Given this reality, I decided to "streamline" the gear I was carrying and pretty much put away my pro DSLR's for the week. And, I decided to shoot my "toy" Nikon V1 (albeit with some pretty darned nice lenses) almost exclusively. I figured it would be an interesting challenge and that it would give me even more insight into the value of the V1 as a tool for wildlife photography (that 2.7x crop factor of the Nikon 1 cameras is pretty compelling for a wildlife photographer!).

I shot this portrait with a 400mm f2.8 lens on the little V1 (so an effective focal length of 1080mm) from a ways back while watching my client do his thing with the sheep (photographically only, of course). I loved the soft lighting striking both the face of this ewe and the grasses behind it (producing that soft golden glow). I attempted to maximize the difference in sharpness between the key portions of the sheep vs. the background...which was a bit tricky because I hadn't shot this particular camera/lens combo much, but I think I guessed close to right...

The take home lesson out of this? Well, we can all get hyped up about new camera body releases and how they're going to improve our photography. But, unless one is shooting in the dark or under other pretty extreme conditions, at the end of the day the quality lenses (and, I suppose, knowing how to use them) is what it's all about!

Subject: Female Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis) in late afternoon light
Location: Columbia Lake, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon V1
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8 VRII lens (EFL of 1080mm). Supported on tripod.
Exposure: 1/250s @ f5. ISO 160. -0.67 stop compensation from matrix metered exposure.
Crop: This is over 95% of full frame shot

All the gory details about this shot (processing details, conservation, etc.) can be seen right here...

http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/latest/detail_3.html.

Comments and critiques welcomed - I'd encourage you to view the larger version before doing so - this one kinda comes to life in the larger version.

Brad