Otter on Bladder Wrack

Hiya... no bladder wrack is not a medieval torture device, its just the common yellow seaweed on the Isle of Mull coasts.

Just want to say a big thank you to all the comments on the previous otter post. Much appreciated.

This was my first real close-up of the trip. I had spent a couple of hours walking along shoreline with the otter cruising its scent marking points. He was reaching the edge of his territory so I stayed put and watched him continue onwards out of sight. After a few nervous minutes he returned and popped up on the rock right in front of me. Thank god I occasionally listen to gut instinct!

EOS 1DSmkII, EF600mm F4 IS L, 1.4xTC, Tripod & Gimbal head, 1/125sec at f/6.3, , +1/3rd, ISO 400. Processed in Lightroom - minor adjustments to white balance and contrast only.

Wow, what a great image. The seaweed below sets the Otter off nicely!

Chris.

Hi Elliot,
It's a picture postcard shot ........ apart from one thing, the weed looks to be more in focus than the otter.


J

Another great shot - the colours in the seaweed work really well with the subtle blue and greys of the rest of the image. You certainly do produce consistently excellent images.

I also just noticed the focus pointed out by John - the eyes look slightly soft compared to the seaweed.

Hi Elliot,

Lovely image , agree with John regarding the focus point.

Regards

Andy...

Very nice image Elliott

I think the focal plane looks to be on the nose and that seems to be inline with the seaweed? The techs look like they would give you limited DOF anyway. Not much you can do with that shutterspeed I'd say. Nice work in those conditions. Looks pretty crappy lighting but it's a nice looking image. Maybe worth working a bit on sharpening for web?

Yep, agree with the above Elliot...............a really fine shot and setting, but not quite there with the focus point.

Unfortunate that you had so little light to play with, and had to shoot almost wide open, as both head and seaweed in good focus would have been the icing on the cake!!



Alan

Great picture, shame you did not get better weather during your trip.
Frederic

Ah the Scottish weather eh, I bet they have webbed feet up there. Charming capture, is there a blue cast?



Tim

Hiya. Thanks for the feedback. Just looked at the shot at 100% and the eyes are sharp. Sorry, must be my lack of sharpening for the web. There is a slight blue cast, but I wanted to keep this, otherwise the water turn a murky grey.

Great shot, well done. For me its a pity more of the body is not in the shot, nice head and shoulders though. Agree about the cast, but its quite noticable.

Paul

Beauty. I see what others are referring to regarding sharpness but the whiskers and eyes are fine. Is the apparent slight softness due to the fur being wet - and it is not really soft at all?

Great stuff Elliot, I like this shot in particular of the ones you have posted.