Florida softshell turtle

Gallery: WildlifePosted June 5, 2017307 views5 comments

La Chua Trail, the Northern Entrance to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, Gainesville, Florida

I have just yesterday subscribed to Creative Cloud, and whereas before I could copy the information from File Info, it seems that you can't do that now, and I have to figure it out. So let me just say this was 6/4/17, Canon 7D, 400mm fixed lens, Aperture Priority, Pattern metering, 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 640. I don't know why it was Pattern metering.

I've posted a softshell turtle before, and some of the feedback was it would be best to be in front of the turtle so you could see both eyes instead of just one eye. There wasn't enough room to get in front of the turtle and still be able to focus, but when the turtle was not walking it was turning its head around, and there are some in which you can see both eyes, although the turtle was looking up at the sky, not straight ahead. So I think this image makes more of an impact than those do. This is full frame, with light Smart Sharpen on the turtle and light noise removal on the background.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on June 5, 2017 at 10:11 PM

Hi Barb,

Love that snoot! Looks good and turtles are hard to compose. I think that if you can get closer, the head makes for a fine picture---that is if old snoot face will let you! I like those neck wrinkles........................Jim

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

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on June 10, 2017 at 6:44 PM

What a strange creature and you captured him very well by getting down to his level Barbara, the comp works fine for me. devil

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

Comment posted by Brad Hill on June 11, 2017 at 4:19 PM

Hi Barbara,

Wow...what a surreal looking creature! Techs (everything from exposure through to DoF and image sharpness) look good. Always a challenge to compose shots like this where you pretty much have to "cut" a big chunk of the subject (in order to have the head large enough to show detail), but I think you did just fine here. For me the key to showing the uniqueness of this subject is showing that nose, and going profile as you did - even if it meant having only one of the eyes showing - was the right decision (at least in my opinion). I guess somewhere along the line I missed the lesson that said you had to show both eyes in an animal portait! enlightened

Thanks for sharing this one...

Brad

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

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on June 11, 2017 at 5:22 PM

Thanks, Jim, Nate and Brad. Just FYI for anybody who happens to see this, in Florida when you see a turtle walking it's usually to cross a path and get to the other side sad

and the paths or trails are not usually wide enough to get in front of it, and, as you can imagine, if you get in front of a turtle it's going to turn around and go back the other way.

Also, when I took this image I didn't have a zoom lens, only the fixed 400mm. Now I have a zoom lens, so next time I'm in this situation I'll take a variety of shots, and maybe 100mm will get the whole turtle in case I like that better.

But I do like this one. :) Thank you again.

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on June 15, 2017 at 10:05 PM

I think Brad is right, that this guy has such a distinctive profile, it should be shown! Nice posting.

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments