C&C : Foxy Mc Fox

Muineach

hi all,
It's been a while since I posted much up, I blame the stoopid **** weather, a whole month of rainy weather, it's beginning to pee me off, anyway here are a few photo's I got of the fox's cub's.

They are getting bigger and their trails are getting further and further so I should start to see them in the garden soon enough.

These photo's 1-2 were taken the one evening we had sunshine, 3-4 was on a dull day.
Number 2 looks a bit blurry around the fox, it's fine atfull 8mp res tho.
Number 4 is an action shot to liven things up a bit :rolleyes:

So what do you think ?


1)


2)


3)


4)

AnimalRights

1+2 easily the best.
#3 The Fox looks too PP (fake)
#4 Too PP too, if you had #4 the quality of first two it would be photo of the month.

Borderfox

1 and 2 are tops, the other two as AnimalRights puts it 3 looks a bit too PP and there is too much obscuring the Cub's face, 4 is soft from lack of shutter speed because the grass is bang on.

If ever you need a loan of some hefty glass 120-300 f2.8 just give me a shout and I will drop it down to you. I will keep where they are secret too

Buzz Lightyear

#1 really does it for me, crisp on the eyes and head whilst the DOF is well balanced.

#2 whilst it is and interesting shop does nothing for me

#3 and the previous posts have pointed out looks fake, not sho much in the PP department, but IMO stuffed and placed.

#4 Whist I agree to a certain extent with Boarderfox about the shutter speed is imo also down to focus, as the grass in the foreground is crisp whilst the grass in the middle ground where the action is happening is soft.

Overall nice shots as wildlife can be very difficult and all down to timing.

If ever you need a loan of some hefty glass 120-300 f2.8 just give me a shout and I will drop it down to you.

Nice touch foxie. The extra dof could be amazing the photos of the cubs.

FDuff

#1 is ok, well exposed, the only thing is that your subject is bang on in the middle! a better composition would have improve the shoot. the focus isnt bang on though.

#2 I think it's a great photo. It's nicely balanced and well composed. also the light is great too.

#3 and #4 I dont know what ppl are talking about PP, they look fine to me. #3 is clutered with grass but in the same way had some intimacy with the animal which tries to hide...
regarding to #4, not an easy shoot but either a longuer shutter speed or a faster one would have make a better pic I think, altough the light isnt that great, it's too dull. but anyway, good try

quilmore

#1 is great, you've got a nice expresion on his eyes, but could have been better without the shaddows on his nose (I know very little or nothing can be done in these cases)

#2 nice, is it not straight on purpose?

#3 nice

#4 lovely action, probably front-focused to some grass, but still sharp enough I'd say

Fionn

well done, i've tried sneaking up on wildlife and not so wild things and the buggers tend to scamper off before you get half a chance.

el_loco_blanco

Great Shots Derek. I always look forward to seeing your fox photos. You are really lucky to be able to see them and photograph them. I love the lost little puppy eyes in the first one. The whole series of photos would make a nice little photography book for kids. I would buy it!

RoryW

I like No 1.

I also think that your back garden grass needs cutting

Muineach

Thanks for the replies, I have a good few photo's that are the "usual" type, these were more unusual type. The cub's have come out of the den completely, they are wandering a few fields where the grass is up to my hips (not in my lawn ). I've been trying to get shots of the cubs that are more "natural" with the grass/background etc. rather than last year with the only backdrop being my garden.

#1
I have him standing further back where there are no shadows from the grass on his face and it's all in focus etc. but I preferred the one with the shadows, I was just wondering what people though of him with the shadows.

The location of him in the centre was due what was to left and right, one big nettle and trampled down thistle, I couldn't shift the crop to left or right so I just went with him head on. In my opinion there is a "frame" within the photo, the fallen down tree on top, with a nice curve on it, and on the bottom left and right with the grass coming in, which is well out of the DOF.

The focus on the full size image was fairly spot on, I think it may be the downsizing, I think I had it set on "smooth gradients".

#2
This was the one time I got him with a decent background, it's not straight as the field is on a slope to the left, I tried to straighten it but to me, it didn't look right, probably that I'm so used to the field. With some photo's you really need things to be "straight" but in this case I think it looks better without it ?
I have him sneaking in on the left, standing and eventually coming across to the centre of the photo, but again I preferred when he was in the coming out of the grass.

#3
When I look back at it, I seemed to have gone a bit nuts on the saturation, but he wasn't fake :P if you don't believe me I think I have him sitting in that spot for 5+ shot's. Again I was trying to get the fox more "in the wild" rather than have a straight clear shot at him, so I was looking for shot's "through the grass" to try and get that effect.

BTW with fox's being an animal and normally they keep moving, I have to rely on the 350D spot metering (only 1 point in the centre is used for autofocus), sometimes its good, sometimes it's not. All of the fox's photo's are taken like this, I've tried the alternatives but nothing comes close, they never "pick" out the fox, if you know what I mean. With #2 I centered my camera on the fox, held the trigger at half way and moved back to get the fox in the bottom left, then pressed it the whole way.


#4
I just threw it in for a bit of action, I didn't really mean to have it C&C'd, it was more of a reminder that these cub's do have a bit of a vicious streak. I agree the focus was off, I think that was taken at 1/320 f5.6 ISO 200.
The problem is you can set up for quick action shots but going up to ISO 800/1600 is not great on my 350D, even at ISO 200 & 1/320 I was pushing the limits.

You take a look at a 1:40 video of the cubs a few months ago , jump forward to 35 seconds and see how long these fights last, again they were small then, now they are a lot lot faster :rolleyes:

Borderfox wrote: »

If ever you need a loan of some hefty glass 120-300 f2.8 just give me a shout and I will drop it down to you. I will keep where they are secret too

Thanks for the offer, but I have to use my 17-85m now, they are too close to me for my 70-300m to focus at all, plus they aren't in the den they are out in the fields, so all you can see in the grass is some grass moving, if your lucky. You can see from #3 when sitting upright they are still hidden by the grass.

I think I've answered any questions and given my opinions, if I'm wrong you can ask again.

So I take it that the shadowy look and looking through the grass is about 50/50 between liking/disliking it ?