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Electric Antlers
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Electric Antlers

by Peter Cross

Gallery: WildlifePosted June 10, 2012134 views5 comments
Earlier the same evening as my last post of Barney, I got this buck crossing the road to feed on the grassy field. Just before going down an embankment to cross a stream, he paused for a few seconds with this wonderful late sun backlighting him and his antlers. Maybe he'll be competion for Rudolph. Of the bucks I've seen, this is the one who probably will compete with Barney for king of the hill. This guy (no name yet) looks to be heavier in the body so I'm thinking he's a mid to late prime buck whereas I look at Barney as being in his early prime years. This guy has pretty heavy duty antlers but looks like he will only have the end forks on the main beams as his largest tines. Will be interesting to follow him as well. As usual, this was taken at the local nature preserve of wild deer that were not baited, called, or otherwise attracted. Unless you consider the County's maintenance of a 30 acre field as baiting. :biggrin: For this photo, I cropped it about 25% to eliminate a very birght area to the left, cloned out a distracting stem, warmed the color balance, and did normal sharpening for the web. I'd really like some comments about how I might have done this better. I'm also going to include in a following comment the original, so you can see what I had to work with. And if I did something right, I'd like to know that, too. All in all, I think this is an interesting image and what to know how to best present it.

Tech info

Canon 60D with 70-200mm f/4L with 1.4 TC @ 200 = 280mm
1/160th @ f/5.6 and ISO 800
tripod

Comments

5 comments
Comment posted by Peter Cross on June 10, 2012 at 12:42 AM
Here's the original that I worked with to get the one above.
Registered on April 3, 2010, 271 Posts, 1342 Comments
Comment posted by John Tobias on June 10, 2012 at 8:41 AM
Its not Barney, but it is IMHO a very fine deer photo. I really like the way you have detail in the shadow areas as well as highlights when you had backlight to work with, well done. I think you are right in that this guy will give Barney a run for his money (does). Thanks for sharing.
Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments
Comment posted by Gary Gulash on June 11, 2012 at 12:48 AM
You handled the light very well Peter; love the rim-lighting and the shaded side has excellent detail. Nice mix of warm and cool colors. Wouldn't have done much different Peter. The little twig pointing at the muzzle is a bit unfortunate, but largely beyond your control. Good timing getting this buck in velvet and backlit. :toast:
Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments
Comment posted by Lon Sharp on June 11, 2012 at 9:59 AM
I really like the back-lit velvet antlers!
Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments
Comment posted by Mark Seaver on June 12, 2012 at 8:44 PM
The backlit antlers are great and there's good detail on his shadow side. Very nice.
Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments