Hi all! I've sadly been kept completely away from participating in the forums and galleries here at NPN this year due to work-related issues, but I did frequent these galleries often for continued inspiration and to just plain appreciate some great wildlife images (y'all have been laying it down this year)!
I'm so far behind in processing I am not confident I will ever catch up, especially with my son Josiah burning through pixels daily on critters in our corner of the world, but I did manage to at least do some quick and dirty processing on a few files recently.
This is a ram my family and I found grazing the edge of a steep mountain valley in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta. He literally gave us a hundred (or more?) poses, including fulfilling our wildest dreams and scrambling up on a rocky outcrop above the valley at one point (I'm fairly certain Jenaya will post one of her pictures here of that incredible moment in short order).
This guy's far from the biggest ram I photographed this spring, but he does win the prize for most dramatic looks. He was a veritable male model, frankly!
While I failed to take Jenaya's lead on switching to shorter glass and capturing him in his incredible environment, I do like this image through 500mm against the shadows of the opposing valley wall (mostly-treed-canyon is probably more accurate).
I was extremely tempted to clone out the grey-ish OOF diagonal line in the background above his muzzle, but decided to present it completely as shot, with only minor tweaks in post (did I mention he happened to strike his poses in wicked quality light?).
Probably more of this guy coming from all three of us, and a bunch more rams from me as I'm able to get them processed.
Your comments and critiques are always appreciated! Nice to be back for a bit or more I hope!
Field Notes:
Nikon D600
Nikkor AF-S 500mm f/4 IF-ED
ISO 640
1/250sec @ f/8
monopod
Processing Notes:
Converted from RAW using Phase One Capture One Pro 7
Adjustments to tone and contrast in Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and Viveza 2 along with minor selective adjustments and light sharpening and de-sharpening in PS5
Full frame
Comments
5 commentsNice to see you back on NPN - great images and great comments!
I really like the pose this guy is giving you - just classic. Overall it is framed perhaps a bit tighter than I like, but that's incredibly subjective and a personal preference issue. I am left wondering if shifting the entire subject slightly to the right (thus losing a LITTLE of the view of the back but opening up a BIT more space on the left side of the frame - in front of the ram) might appeal to a few more folks than the current framing (altho' I should really only speak for myself!). Just a thought.
On the nits some have mentioned: Personally I think you made the right choice in not removing the thin vertical band above the snout - it's really subtle and likely most noticed by the photographer than the viewing public (I can't say for sure I would have picked up on it if you hadn't commented on it). I personally like the single hair on the tip of the right horn (and the above the ram's back on the left horn) - they don't distract me at all and I think they add a touch of "realness" to the shot.
The techs look quite solid on the shot - the exposure (and/or exposure adjustments during processing) looks good and the DoF is pretty much spot-on (I don't think the slight softening of the right horn tip is significant). On the sharpness - this is getting so hard to determine online these days - on my devices with Retina displays (laptop, iPad, etc.) parts of the snout look a bit soft, but they look fine on my largest monitor (100 ppi) but then the fur on the back around the right horn looks a bit over-sharpened! Getting hard to win on sharpening! My guess is that it would look perfectly sharp if printed!!
Looking forward to seeing more shots from you (and, of course, the rest of the clan!)...
Cheers...
Brad