Sleepy Momma

Gallery: WildlifePosted April 15, 201586 views5 comments

Hi everyone! This is the same red fox vixen my dad posted last year that was so relaxed with us that she came over and took a nap near us to get away from her kits!

Right before she closed her eyes she took one last look over to the den to make sure everything was OK and I got this picture.

I really enjoyed photographing her and her kits and we are hoping we can find her again this year!

Nikon D7100
Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/4D IF-ED with Nikon TC-14EII teleconverter
ISO 200
1/320sec @ f/5.6

-0.3EV

Monopod mounted

Processing Notes from Dad:

mostly full-frame left-to-right with a bit cropped off both the top and bottom (sky distracting at top and excess OOF grass at bottom)
cloned a distracting tall white stalk from right edge
light adjustments to exposure and selective contrast (yes, I know this would likely look great with more contrast added in on the fox, but I think this is fairly representative of this particular moment and scene after the sun went behind some heavy cloud cover. Still, we definitely welcome your thoughts and suggestions for improvement!

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Hisham Atallah on April 15, 2015 at 10:34 AM

Josiah, I like the pose and the setting. It's nice how her face is framed by the grass around it and the background is just busy enough to show the environment around her without being distracting. Nice job on the DOF.

Cheers,

Hisham.

Registered on November 5, 2014, 121 Posts, 352 Comments

Comment posted by Betty-Lou Luyken on April 17, 2015 at 6:56 AM

What an endearing image of this vixen. I like the way you put her in the frame and her expression. Nice job!!!

Registered on July 9, 2007, 17 Posts, 82 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on April 17, 2015 at 8:44 AM

Hi Josiah,

Love the look on this vixen's face - feels almost like boredom or a slight disdain for whoever is looking at her! I like the colour contrast and the DoF in this image. Some might argue the white spots above the fox's hip are a bit distracting - they could be easily removed if you wanted to (but in my view they're not a problem and I'd personally just leave them in).

To be fully honest (critiquing gallery, right?) I don't really see the need or desirablity of the pano crop here. For me it feels a bit tight on top and with a bit of extra space on the left side (to produce the crop). If this were mine I'd experiment with a couple different options to return it to a 3:2 crop (by returning some of the space on top, cropping some of the space on the left, or possibly a combination thereof). But that's definitely a personal preference issue...

Hope to see more of this fox...from anyone in the family!

Cheers...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on April 17, 2015 at 6:07 PM

Great eye contact and nice low angle Josiah, I am not sure about the pano crop here. I would prefer more room on the top and right even if it's just a little bit more. devil

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on April 22, 2015 at 3:23 AM

Hi Josiah! I like this portrait a lot. It has a wonderful quiet feel to it. I think the grass has a really great look to it as well. I agree the pano crop isn't ideal, but as you and I made the decision together, I also know why we did it--to eliminate the brightness of the sky immediately above this crop line that was just way too distracting. I think you did a really good job here. Maybe next time this is one of those rare situations where you need to raise your camera angle up a little bit so the horizon line would be higher.

Registered on April 5, 2011, 223 Posts, 1193 Comments