Pushin 'n Shovin 2+REPOST

Gallery: WildlifePosted October 29, 201365 views5 comments

An image from my photo session yesterday at the local nature preserve. This depicts another sparring match (meaning not a dominance fight) between bucks but this time it is 2 young bucks; probably yearlings and pretty well matched in size. They did quite a bit of back and forth pushing but also a lot of head twisting. Nevertheless, I could still tell this wasn't anything very serious as they seemed pretty relaxed in their efforts. I watched them for close to 10 minutes but never got a real clear image for even though they were mostly in the open, they lowered their heads to engage and there always was grass or other veg at that level. A few basic adjustments to the photo including a little extra exposure, some warming in the white balance, a little more contrast, and removal of a distraction. Comments and critiques are welcome.

Tech Info

Canon EOS 60D with 70-200mm f/4L with 1.4 TC = 280mm
1/500th at f/5.6 and ISO 1250
tripod

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on October 30, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Peter, I think this would be improved if you cropped it tighter. Even though the surrounding vegetation seems to frame the deer it also draws the eye away from the main subject. Not much you could have done except move around to avoid some of the plants between you and the deer. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Andrews on October 30, 2013 at 8:40 AM

A difficult situation indeed Peter, I had a similar one with two bull elk whose heads were always partially obscured by sage brush, but sometimes we just have to work with what we're given. I do agree with John however that a tighter crop may have worked better by focusing (no pun intended) viewer attention more on the deer and less on the distracting vegetation that surrounds them.

Registered on December 31, 2011, 45 Posts, 222 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on October 30, 2013 at 2:35 PM

Most what I would comment has been said already Peter, so no need to repeat. I do like habitat and the natural coloration here.

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

Comment posted by Peter Cross on October 30, 2013 at 6:56 PM

I took everyone's suggestion and cropped this down to focus on the 2 bucks. Hope this works better. Please let me know and any additional comments you'd like to make.

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

Comment posted by Wayne Jones on November 4, 2013 at 11:04 PM

Wow Peter, that crop made a huge difference. Now it really focuses on their behavior. The habitat was nice, but it detracted from the action. (I have witnessed similar scenes with whitetails, who sometimes paused to lick each others' faces. Not sure what the significance of that behavior was, but it sure didn't look like aggression.)

Registered on April 18, 2007, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments