How to shoot a fox !

Muineach

Well I was out working in my shed when I went outside for a smoke, next thing I knew, there was a fox standing in front of me, at 2:40 PM, I know sounds unbelievable but it happened. So I got my camera and took a few snaps, these are the best of them, hope you enjoy, for the rest of the set try my
flickr
.

Just wondering if I went a bit overboard on the sharpening/de/saturation on a few of them ?



Aren't I so damn cute ?




What ? , does my bum look big ?




There, thats the spot, ohh yeaa?




Stretching before hunting is advised




I can see you !




No threat

Paulw

Some brilliant shots there. Well captured.

shepthedog

They are excellent.. couple of great candid captures there..He looked quite relaxed

Muineach

I know, it was a surprise to me as well, after eating the bread he went down to the back of the garden where he seems to have made a nest in a grass plant, that's where the last one was taken.
The thing that I'm really pleased about is that they aren't really cropped at all, nearly all at full 8mp res., which should be good for enlarging

The problem I have is that as a set, it was a bit awkward to keep the grass the same shade in all the pics was driving me mad so I left it :rolleyes:

gandalf

Jaysus he looks quite tame and foxes are beautiful looking animals. Brilliantly captured as well but the first shot does look a bit unnatural to me so you may have gone a bit overboard on it.

I love the 4th and 6th the most.

5uspect

Those are some amazing shots!
Sometimes you just get lucky, but if you don't have the gear its a wasted opportunity. I agree that no.1 is a wee bit over done but that would be my only criticism.

sineadw

Wow! You lucky git!

The last one would be my favourite. Lovely shots though

Muineach

Yea the last one is my favorite as well
sorry about the size of these, it's just at medium size you can't tell the difference.
I dropped the opacity from 88% to 28% on a high pass filter, seems to be better.

Original





Less Sharp

Muineach

5uspect wrote:

Those are some amazing shots!
Sometimes you just get lucky, but if you don't have the gear its a wasted opportunity. I agree that no.1 is a wee bit over done but that would be my only criticism.

I got caught out with him a few times before, like not having the camera at hand, having wrong lens, ISO setting way off etc., this day he was mine all 180 RAW files :rolleyes:

Oh the shot of him curled up, was of course the last shot of the day

nilhg

Cheeky bugger, they don't do that down here:rolleyes:

Lovely shots, well caught.

Cabaal

Lovely shots, nice vibrent colours,
Very lucky it came so close

Borderfox

beautiful shots, well done

philstar

super shots, i'm suprised he/she did'nt run away....it seems quite tame

just out of interest ...have u seen foxes in yr garden before??......do live in an urban or rural area??

Eirebear

That last shots an absolute beauty, well done.

RCNPhotos

The one of him stretching is amazing

mikeanywhere

gandalf wrote:

Jaysus he looks quite tame and foxes are beautiful looking animals. Brilliantly captured as well but the first shot does look a bit unnatural to me so you may have gone a bit overboard on it.

I love the 4th and 6th the most.

Ditto!!

Well done

Muineach

philstar wrote:

super shots, i'm suprised he/she did'nt run away....it seems quite tame

just out of interest ...have u seen foxes in yr garden before??......do live in an urban or rural area??

Well I'm in a village/town but I'm about 1 mile from the village and fields all around me, theres also badgers, hares etc/ around me.
Of course you can see for yourself

As for the stretch, this was a second later, it hard to tell if he's running or stretching, but it was a stretch.





I really like this one, but I doubt if most people will agree

I can see you !

elven

That's some set of shots you got there. Excellent stuff. I really like the last one where he's curled up - might be worth darkening down those blurry bits on the right because that would be well worth a big print

Regards sharpening, I don't think you went over the top - remember as well if you're going to print you need to sharpen more aggressivley than looks ok on the screen.

dingdong1234567

Top Notch shots!!

Ruu_Old

Brilliant work, thanks for posting. It has been ages since I seen a fox. Where I used to live in Ireland, it was a common sight that I used to enjoy but nothing of that sort in central Illinois. Beautiful creatures.

Muineach

While I was working on the photo's I got a song stuck in my head, here's what happens when you combine a bored person, a song and 180 RAW files

Foxy Lady

This one was taken a few days ago, I think I may have posted it in the random thread, if i did sorry. There was a story to it though:

Well at 8:34 while most of you were stuck in traffic I woke up to hear the yelps of a fox, so up I get and see that there's 2 fox's in the back garden, i grab my camera, with of course the the wrong lens (Sigma 70-300m), the proper one (Canon 300m IS) was out in the shed near the fox.

So there I was, outside, wearing only a pair of speedo's (joking, boxer's) and a t-shirt to get this photo

hope u enjoy, it was bloody freezing :P


The Morning Fox

5uspect

that video feels kinda dirty...

gerky

Excellent shots Muineach, Really makes me mad that people go out and kill them for fun and claim their vermin:mad: :mad:

Fajitas!

Fantastic shots there. Really impressed.

Muineach

angel2 wrote:

Excellent shots Muineach, Really makes me mad that people go out and kill them for fun and claim their vermin:mad: :mad:

I agree, going "lamping" is moronic, if they want to call if a "sport" let someone go out and track the fox and use a bow and arrow/crossbow, to me that's far fairer rather than sit in a jeep with a rifle and a shotgun.

Off topic, better stop

Oriel

...where's the blood and gore?

Oriel

angel2 wrote:

and claim their vermin

Foxes own their own vermin now?

Muineach

Oriel wrote:

...where's the blood and gore?

if you want gore I have some photo's of half eaten sheep if you really want them.
hmm wonder if the ministock sites want them.....

Oriel

Muineach wrote:

if you want gore I have some photo's of half eaten sheep if you really want them.

Scratch and sniff?

Muineach

Oriel wrote:

Scratch and sniff?

sadly, no.
i took them when I was in a field full of sheep (duh!) where the farmer had them in a complete disgrace, half were lame, half with the coats falling off them and a few dead ones lying in the water, where they get they're water from.

I wouldn't recommended smelling a sheep that's been dead for a week sitting in stagnant water, with pigs you've got about 3 days before they start to leak, that's when they stink. (previous job in a piggery), never, never poke a bloated pig (break the skin), they can splatter gunk all over the place, and it takes a long time to get rid of that smell, trust me.

Does this make me sound like I have some sort of dead animal fetish ? :rolleyes:

Oriel

Muineach wrote:

sadly, no.

Sorry, not interested.

yellowdoor

Great shots. Really captured the little fellow.

ThOnda

Eventually a fox which is noy lying on the side of the road...
Wonderful shot. I hope you don't have kids!

Muineach

Nope no kids, 4 nephews though, they were amazed with actually seeing a fox, they were surprised at how small they really are.

Why the concern with kids ?

ThOnda

If the foxes get used to people a lot, they could attack them. Just be aware of that. They are wild beasts all the time, not a pets.
I wouldn't feel comfortable having them in my back yard.
But that's just my overstressed point of view.