Eye of the Bighorn

Gallery: WildlifePosted January 9, 2016110 views7 comments

Hi everyone--and all the best in this new year for your photographic (and other) endeavors!

With three of us in the Launstein family shooting essentially full-time now, I am so far behind in processing I've started taking more of a scattergun approach to it and just enjoy the journey. angel

I hunted this one down from memory...Josiah and I spent a week camping in our truck in the snow in December to catch the last of the bighorn rut. We ended up with thousands of images of sheep, but each day a few stood out for us and invariably it was because we moved into the forest to work in the lower light it provided. This is one such moment.

As always, I wanted to go black and white here, as it really would present well in that format I think, but it was the gorgeous tones of the eye as the ram looked back toward the sunlight that kept me from going monochrome. Bighorns have, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful eyes in the animal kingdom (and they do happen to look wonderful in black and white as well!). When this guy lined himself up with one of the few beams of light at the end of the day penetrating the trees, what's a guy to do?

Looking forward to your comments and suggestions...please view the larger version if you have time!

I played around with a dozen crop ideas but kept returning to the original composition, so this is full frame with a very light vignette to take the natural shading down one more notch.

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Nikon D600
Nikkor AF-S 500mm f/4D
ISO 1250
1/1250sec @ f/5
-1 stop exposure from meter
Mounted on FEISOL CT-3372 Elite tripod with Acratech GV2 ballhead and Wimberley Sidekick

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on January 9, 2016 at 9:18 AM

Gotta love those eyes. Unusual anle, but I think it works in this case. Well done.

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

Comment posted by Thomas Haney on January 9, 2016 at 9:21 AM

Beautiful shot John, definitely my kind of image. I think it would work great in B@W as well, but what little color their is I think is wonderful and adds to the image. I got nothin in terms of crop ideas, I can't see anything better than as-is, and the only thing I might try is a tad more darkening on the top of the image, especially above the ram. Well done!

Registered on April 7, 2013, 138 Posts, 537 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on January 9, 2016 at 10:59 AM

Hey John,

I was wondering when we'd see more Launstein images!

RE: "Bighorns have, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful eyes in the animal kingdom"

I agree that they can be just stunning (though I suspect everyone will have a bias towards the eyes of their favourite subjects).

I agree with Thomas about the colour adding a lot to this image (even though it is subdued)...I vote for the colour version (even without being asked to do so! enlightened

). Since Jim Brandenberg's famous "Brother Wolf" shot I have quite enjoyed these type of "just a glimpse" shots (sorry, don't know what else to call them). In my view having everything but the in-focus subject in the same tonal range is quite important to these shots fully succeeding...which is a prelude to me saying that I find the rather large and much tonally lighter out-of-focus butt a bit off-putting in this shot (sorry...just being honest). Note that the OOF vegetation obscuring the top of the horns to be a complete non-issue here (because of their tonal similarity to rest of the shot).

Good luck with your "random" image-pulling and processing - definitely looking forward to seeing more!

Cheers...

Brad

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

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on January 9, 2016 at 12:46 PM

Hi John,

Nice looking bighorn. I like the pose and the composition. In the larger version, there is a diagonal OOf stick that is traversing the rearmost horn. You might be able to remove which could improve the comp. The OOf vegetation that covers the top of the horn looks good to me and does not negatively affect the comp. Other than that, it is an impressive shot and am glad that you posted the color version. ....................Jim

Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on January 9, 2016 at 6:07 PM

Thanks for the feedback, Jerry, Thomas, Brad and Jim! Much appreciated.

Brad - I know, I know...I should have named it "Butt of the Bighorn" instead. enlightened

Not that there is usually the time to make such adjustments, but I squeezed this shot off when the ram stopped and looked into the light, and then immediately looked to my left to reposition for a 3/4 angle, shoulder-forward shot, but alas there was no possibility of a clear view because of obstructing foliage. I'll give you at least a few frames in the coming weeks where the butt of the animal doesn't occupy 1/6th of the frame. laugh

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

Comment posted by Stephen Kaluski on January 10, 2016 at 8:43 AM

Hi John I've looked at the image many times, as my initial though was that the 'butt' was just too 'in your face' and draws the eye, probably due to being brighter than the rest of all the elements. However, once past that I do feel getting channeled down the barrel to the eye, so perhaps it does work cool

. I also agree on the foliage creeping over the horn is not ideal, but given your last reply I feel we all would have pressed the shutter if we were behind the camera at the same time as you did. Having a darker BKG does provide more separation and again, helps that eye 'pop' even more.

Look forward to seeing more.

TFS
Steve

Registered on March 25, 2007, 189 Posts, 1064 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on January 10, 2016 at 3:09 PM

I really like the eye, head turn and dark feel of this image John. I do wish the foliage wasn't obstructing the horn so much and the OOF butt is a little distracting. That probably sounds funny coming from someone who just posted a bighorn butt, but with the butt being right on the frame edge, it seems to pull my eye there immediately.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments