Sunrise Contemplation

Gallery: WildlifePosted May 11, 201286 views2 comments

Something a bit different from me. No deer or turkeys. This is from my first good series of photos of a black-tailed jackrabbit. They're pretty common on the nature preserve but they're out of here as soon as they see you. Today was different. As I stopped to look around for telltale ears or heads of deer, I noticed some movement to my left. Lo and behold, a jackrabbit only 10 ft from me. Do I dare move? I did and it could care less. So I openned the tripod and shot a series of photos of him for the next 15 minutes while he (or she) just calmly nibbled on shoots of vegetation. It finally moved to about 20 ft away and I could actually increase the lens to 200mm. Of the bunch, I liked this the best. It was just a brief respite but it looks like he's just sitting there and enjoying the sunrise. I did very little to this other than increase the contrast a bit to try and get better separation from the backgound and sharpened for the web. Full frame image. Comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated.

Tech info

Canon 60D with 70-200mm f/4L @ 200mm plus TC 1.4 = 280mm
1/640 at f/6.3, ISO 800
tripod

Comments

2 comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on May 11, 2012 at 6:31 PM

HI Peter,

I like the positioning of the subject in the frame. Interestingly my first thought with this image was very similar to that when I say your "Spring Morning" deer image post - that it's too bad the band of light was just behind the subject and not on the subject (or, probably more accurately, not a bit MORE on the subject). I'm also wondering if warming this up just a bit would make the image a tad more appealing?

One final comment: while I'm not familiar with how that TC pairs up with the 70-200 you were shooting with (and specifically how it works when shot with the lens wide open), I think a little better separation of the subject from the background (normally accomplished by opening up the aperture more) would enhance this shot. But, perhaps with the TC that wasn't a viable option (this, BTW, is one of the reasons why I tend to shy away from TC's whenever I can).

Cheers...thanks for sharing this - looking forward to seeing more...

Brad

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

Comment posted by Peter Cross on May 11, 2012 at 7:10 PM

Thanks Brad. With the TC, the lens loses an ability to open completely. With the 70-200, the f/4 is lost and wide open becomes 6.3. It's a compromise for me as a way to get a little more horsepower without the big bucks of a longer lens. I certainly agree that better separation between the hare and the BG is needed. The contrast adjustment helped some but still was a weak point. BTW, I made an adjustment to my last post as you suggested. I hope it's in the range of what you were thinking of. I like it better myself.

Registered on April 3, 2010, 271 Posts, 1342 Comments