Against the Current

Gallery: WildlifePosted December 21, 2013141 views5 comments

I took this back in the fall on the way up to Port Alice, Vancouver Island. My original plan was to just play around with some long exposure of the running water but on the way down to the rivers edge a local informed me that the salmon were running so I decided to seize the opportunity to capture some images of them in their struggle to make it upstream to their spawning grounds.I realize some may object to the position of the salmon as it doesn't conform to "the rules" but I felt it was appropriate in this case as it adds some tension to the image and allows the viewer to envision the force of the water that the salmon must battle to make their way upstream much better than if it was in the lower left.

Thanks for looking and your comments are appreciated.

Nikon D7000
Nikkor 18-200 mm
iso 400
1/500 sec
f 5.6
90mm

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on December 21, 2013 at 1:41 PM

This is a really unique image. It is pretty bright on my monitor. I would try to tone it down a bit. The white of the water overpowers the image IMHO. Great image regardless.

P.S. A larger image would be nice.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Carey Closs on December 21, 2013 at 5:09 PM

Thanks for the feedback Jerry. I'm at work at the moment and we have a 3 monitor set up on my desk. On two of the monitors the image is a bit dark on the third its a little too bright. I also have my laptop with me, which is the computer I did the editing on and it looks just right on that one so it's hard to tell which one is accurate, if any. Me thinks in the New Year I'm going to have to look into some calibration tools.

Registered on April 15, 2012, 107 Posts, 326 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on December 22, 2013 at 4:10 PM

Overall, this is an attention holding image. I think more than brightness correction, it may be "over-cooked" with too strong sharpening applied.

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on December 22, 2013 at 7:54 PM

Great timing Carey! I don't think it is too easy to capture a leaping fish without some sort of motion trap, or a great deal of trial , error and patience. The waterfall is framed up quite well, although had you been positioned further to the right I think the fish would have more impact. Agree with Lon, definitely a bit too much sharpening on the water. Hard to tell from this size but something about this fish suggests to me it is a Steelhead Trout, you might know a bit more about what runs here though.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Carey Closs on December 23, 2013 at 12:52 AM

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions. I took another quick stab at it, let me know if you think it's improved.

Gary, basically all I did was set up my camera on a tripod with a remote and hoped I got lucky. I missed quite a few shots because the fish were too quick but managed to get a few with the fish in the frame.Was there about an hour. I probably should have pulled back on the lens a bit and then cropped after.This image is not cropped at all. I do have another image where the salmon is about dead centre but the camera position is the same as this one. As for whether this is a salmon or a trout, I'm not sure. I was going by what the local guy said about the Coho running so I assumed that was what it was.

Registered on April 15, 2012, 107 Posts, 326 Comments