Life is Good

Gallery: WildlifePosted February 28, 201450 views2 comments

Here's a shot from earlier this week at the nature area. Last year's fawn feeding on the new grass. Usually we consider the summer the easiest time for many animals. But in this part of CA., the summer is hot and dry and many food sources dry up. In the winter, the rains and moderate temps here, lead to luxuriant growth of many grasses and other plants. Life is, indeed, good. But this year, the grasses just got started when the spigot was shut off and no rain for almost 2 months. Not real bad for the animals but certainly it could have been much better. We finally got some rain about 10 days ago and the grasses seemed to jump over night. So, life is good now. No crop on this, but I did decrease exposure by 1/4 stop, added contrast, and worked the blacks and whites. Still a little hot white area on left rear leg. I wanted to clone out the deer in the BG but couldn't do it well enough. Need practice. Critiques and comments are appreciated and welcomed.

Tech Info

Canon EOS 60D with EF 70-200mm f/4L at 200mm
1/1000th at f/4.0 and ISO 640
Tripod
Lightroom 5

Comments

2 comments

Comment posted by William Bickle on March 1, 2014 at 8:52 AM

Hello Peter

Rain was welcomed to your area? I have read about the very dry conditions in CA. Your area affected by the lack of rain?

In the image I like the detail in the well exposed front end of the fawn and the eye is very good with the light getting in there to admire it's expressive look. The dark hind quarters are ok with detail but maybe a little cold with the shadowed blues? The background legs of that deer are very bright and maybe toned down some would bring back your eye to being focused on the main subject.

Bill

Registered on June 13, 2011, 183 Posts, 1702 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Cloran on March 1, 2014 at 11:08 AM

Pose and lighting on the fawn are very nice. The detail shows well in both views. Bill touched on the bright back leg. Shadow / Highlight might helps to balance that contrast a bit. If you are comfortable in Photoshop and have CS5 or later lasso an area larger than the deer in the BG and jump it (CTRL-J) to a separate layer. Remove the deer (you can use the eraser if it is easier) and then make a selection for an area just slightly larger than where those parts were and run content aware fill. With it isolated on a separate layer, the fill should look fairly realistic. You can even try doing it separately for each leg and then the neck and head.

Registered on April 6, 2004, 119 Posts, 1989 Comments