Spunky

Gallery: WildlifePosted July 9, 2010121 views7 comments

This foal was less than a week old when we saw the band this Spring. Mom was up ahead a bit too far, so she's tearing up ground to catch up. Pretty capable and athletic for her age!

D700, 300/2.8 with 2x converter on tripod w/RRS BH-55 ballhead. f 10, 1/1000, ISO 800. (Too much jpeg compression, darn it.) Cropped to 10x8.
Thank goodness for that ballhead- a good upgrade this year, made the photo possible. Thanks RRS!

Thanks for viewing and offering feedback.

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on July 10, 2010 at 11:47 PM

A very nice shot - though I don't much care for the 10X8 crop.

P.S. you spelled your own name wrong on the copyright... Pretty sure you did it on purpose to see how sharp eyed your fellow NPNers are, well you can't get 'nothin by me

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on July 11, 2010 at 3:40 AM

Great running pose of this foal Catherine with its tail straight like that. Good detail and processing as well. I do wish the foal would have been a bit more separated from the BG; a shallower aperture would have helped, without compromising sharpness on the foal.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Catherine Reilly on July 12, 2010 at 1:56 AM

Boy, you guys are TOUGH! Okay, Luke, you got me.

I should just agree that I did it on purpose, like you said, but even via email, I'm afraid I would look guilty of telling a lie. I've never been able to tell one without somehow giving it away… And since we're doing true confessions and correcting mistakes, "she" is really a "he."

Obviously, wildlife is NOT something I do day in and day out like so many of you here on this forum. I can't think like you do yet; I'm so excited to see the quarry that camera settings are far from my mind. Usually I've preset everything so I don't have to worry about changing settings in the middle of all the action.

In my defense I'll just add that I hadn't seen the badlands before nor a truly wild horse, and so I was as interested in the habitat/landscape as much as I was in the horses. And that in general I tend to favor avian and animal images that show more of the habitat. Do believe it, though, I will keep your comments in mind. So I wish you'd keep right on sharing them.

Thanks a bunch!

Oh, and uh, Luke: what's wrong with the 10x8? Personal preference or compositional factors?

Registered on August 16, 2006, 603 Posts, 9192 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on July 12, 2010 at 1:04 PM

Catherine, I like this comp quite a bit personally. I also like the aciton you captured and the tail waving horizontally shows what a hurry this fellow was in! I would proabbly of used a larger AP also to blur the BG more, but also understand what you were trying to accomplish and you did that well. Nice work!

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on July 13, 2010 at 12:00 AM

Nice as posted. I especially like the horizontal tail.

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

Comment posted by Jess Lee on July 17, 2010 at 11:46 PM

I think it is a good shot under less than perfect lighting conditions.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 114 Posts, 929 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on July 18, 2010 at 1:33 PM

Hi Catherine,
Good to see that you caught up with some wild horses on your trip! I like the image a lot and I think your choice of settings emphasize the nice habitat as well as the horse. I realize that you cropped this to 8x10 but for web I wouldn't mind seeing a little more room behind her. Nice work!

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