Watchful

Hi everyone! Here's another image (and there's probably more to come!) of our favourite fox from Waterton Lakes National Park.

He's far from a sure thing, but he has let us find him a few times and almost always gives us a few photo opps once we do locate him.

I do have a confession right off the top: Jenaya was kind enough to let me post my version of this pose even though hers was possibly a little better. The thing is, she smoked me on most of the other moments he gave us (thanks largely to her lens combo yielding sharper results, but I'm certainly not dismissing the fact she's got some mad skills with the camera!), so this was really one of only two images of mine that competed enough to post. The next image Jenaya posts of this guy will likely steal the show, so I thought I'd try and sneak mine in.

I like the soft feel to the scene that matches the late evening open light (Waterton is largely in a valley with the mountains rising ABRUPTLY from this area, so no chance of late, warm directional light here!). And even though I was tempted to crop this into even more of a panorama, how many times do you get to photograph a fox in this setting with a lake in the background? Not many for this photographer, anyway!

I hope you enjoy this gorgeous animal giving a great full-body pose in (IMO) a beautiful setting...but feel free to suggest improvements in comp or processing or field techniques for the future!

Nikon D7000
Nikkor AF-S 200-400mm f/4 IF-ED VR Zoom @ 400mm
ISO 1000
1/160sec @ f/4.5
on beanbag from truck window, VR on