A "Normal" Buck
by Peter Cross
Although the genes for atypical antlers is established in this herd, there are still lots of normal bucks. The buck here is pretty much a young typical buck. Nothing unusual about his antlers. Here he's checking out the big boy whose antlers are seen partly above the log. Not a great image technically as I'd added the extender and had the ISO up real high to capture this at the end of the day in falling light. Still it shows that modern cameras can capture passable images that would have been impossible to get just a few year ago. I cropped about 40% off of this. Mostly to get rid of most of the FG log. I also warmed it up some and added contrast and clarity. Just simple adjustments. Your critiques would be appreciated. Tomorrow one last look at the big guy.
Tech Info
Canon EOS 60D and EF 70-200mm f/4 with 1.4 TE = 208mm
1/250th at f/5.6 and ISO 6400
tripod
Lightroom 5
Comments
3 commentsI'm a little confused as to why you would add a TC (with the associated negatives - such as a loss in sharpness and reduction in light) and then zoom back to the point where you're pretty much identical to the maximum focal length of the lens shot without the TC? Seems like you're just penalizing yourself. Perhaps it just happened so fast you had no time to take the TC off?
I do find the OOF foreground tree that cuts the legs of the main subject off on the distracting side.
Cheers...
Brad
Points are well taken. The fact that I wasn't zoomed in to the full 200 on the lens was an error on my part. My use of the TC in the first place was definitely a compromise. I took this photo while mainly photographing the buck with the bizarre antlers. In that case, my 200 wasn't enough to get a good look at the antlers (to compare to last year) and so the TC was a way to get that along with a loss of resolution and a stop of light which then required higher ISO to compensate. Getting closer was not an option as I strictly adhere to the policy of "stay on the trail." The TC has been removed and I hope I don't need to use it again. Now if I can come up with the bucks (pun intended) to get that 150-600, I wouldn't have to make a decision like this. Maybe next year.