C&C Fox update - careful of what you wish for

Muineach

hi all,
Well the fox cubs are now out and about, at first I thought that there were three cubs but it turns out to be 5. It sounds great doesn't it ?

Well imagine having 5 cubs run around in front of you, each going in different directions, fighting, sniffing and digging holes, plus they are really really tiny, think less that 50% of a "standard" cat, it is amazing to see them all runabout the place. The grass on the first one is only 1/3 way up my calf muscle.

I also took some video as well, it'll take a while to get through as I'm currently running at 250 RAW shots per night so I still have 500 shots to go through plus a first communion as well.

Ah well there are some benefits being off sick from work
Any thoughts of these shots ?

Dink

No 3 is deadly!!!

Alanstrainor

Really great shots, i love the third one, really sharp!

Paulw

Brilliant images. I'm sure some nature book/show would be very interested in these. Great quality and colour in them.

City-Exile

I love the 2nd & 3rd shots!
Great little project you have going there.
Would be interesting if you could track them over the year & compile the images somewhere.

Muineach

I forgot to mention another problem with the cubs, they are small, very small, they move way too quick for a manual focus then with the grass up and around them the AF can easily focus on the grass in front of them. I tend to use spot focusing (not sure of the proper term) so your also there zooming in and out and trying to "thread the needle" i.e. find a spot on the face through the grass. You probably wont see that in the set I just uploaded, but they're coming.

Thanks for the replies,

Thrill

I like them all. Great pics.

stabo

Yep great pics. no.2 i like best,as the cub looks down to see whats going on. no.4 looks like he is taking a no2.

elven

More amazing stuff Muineach. Gorgeous light you got, too - very very nice. It'll be great if you can follow them, as they grow up...

PonderStibbons

2 & 3 are excellent. Were you using off-camera flash, or were you just really lucky with the sunlight? Either way they're brilliant.

AnimalRights

2 and 3 I like.
#1 seems a little over saturated.....
Would love to take one of these home but I live in a flat.:p
Super cute...
Where abouts are these?
Would love to help ya some night and pick up tips of you on photographing these.

Paulw

I'd say you've great fun sitting out and taking photos of them.

It's images like these that I'd love to try to capture. But, I guess it's a case of waiting for them to come out, and it's not likely I'll see any around me.

Muineach

PonderStibbons wrote: »

2 & 3 are excellent. Were you using off-camera flash, or were you just really lucky with the sunlight? Either way they're brilliant.

I didn't use any flash for the fox's, they have their den set up facing west, and it faces into a field, so if the clouds are right they come out as the sun is going down, right at that "golden hour".

As for number 4, it doe's look like he's doing a number 2, but dog's/foxes don't tend to sit down for a "dump", I think he may have been marking the area out as his/hers, they have "scent" glands around that area, so It could be either.

TelePaul

Muineach I have to ask, how far from the cubs are you? In imperial terms please!!! And that's a 300mm, right?

YogiBear

Number 1 is my fave, it's a little dark but little foxy is very cute & I like the composition. Cool shots!

Cabaal

lovely shots Muineach, curious what lens you using for those?

Muineach

TelePaul wrote: »

Muineach I have to ask, how far from the cubs are you? In imperial terms please!!! And that's a 300mm, right?

For the shots on the half gravel/half grass they were all about 6-8 yards away, if you see all grass they were about 15 yards away. Number 1 and the few others they were taken from about 3-4 yards away, he was caught out in the open and I took those photo's as I headed to the den, then he went back to the den. They have come closer now, the problem with that is that the speed they run and the AF can't keep up with them, last night I was trying out the AI servo and the AI focus, i didn't get to look at the photo's yet.

I think the trick to fox's is to go out nearly every day and just sit there, now they pay little attention to me, they look at me but they don't run off. I can even talk out loud and they don't pay any attention, to them I'm probably like a sheep, no threat, which isn't good for them so I keep whistling in an odd way so that they will recognise me and hopefully not other people.

For animals I found that they have a boundary where they won't cross, same with birds, you need to sit there and let them come to you, I sat closer to the den once and they never appeared, then I sat back at the "usual" spot and they came out after 5 minutes, so they are the one that decides where the boundary is and only they can come across it.

YogiBear wrote: »

Number 1 is my fave, it's a little dark but little foxy is very cute & I like the composition. Cool shots!

Yea number 1 was taken in the shade of another tree, that's why the saturation might be a bit off as all of the grass came out as a greyish green when I bumped up the exposure.

Cabaal wrote: »

lovely shots Muineach, curious what lens you using for those?

I used a Canon EF-S 70-300 with f5.6 so I could keep the shutter speed up and no flash.

P.S. If anyone wants to see the full size add me as a contact so you can then see the full size in flickr

just pete

Love No. 3
Good job

Covey

Great stuff, keep 'em coming.

Rojo

now you're sucking diesel!! You deffo got the cub shots this time. :-) Really beautiful. Can't wait to see the next installment.

Muineach

I'll keep them coming, my eye's are all RAW'ed out at the mo.

Remember I told you how fast these guys go ? take a quick look at youtube for a 2 min video, it was taken on a sony cybershot at 5x zoom by a friend.

Paulw

Interesting video clips. Yeah, these guys can move.

If you ever fancy company taking images of these guys, I'd really enjoy the challenge, and it might be interesting too.

Dragan

No 2 does a great job of capturing the natural curiosity of a beautiful creature. Well done!

oneweb

Beautiful shots of the little things Do the parents show at all?

Valentia

I'm really enjoying these photos and following along. Great stuff!!

Crash

Cubs are gorgeous, but by god do the feckers scream when they play :P

Used have 8 cubs in the back garden, havent seen them this year - if they come out i'll have to start taking photos too