I Hear You

Gallery: WildlifePosted September 23, 201493 views3 comments

How could she not? With those twin receivers tuned into to my presence. Millennia ahead of the parabolic disks invented by humans. Kind of underscores the value of hearing to black-tailed deer. I caught her just after sunrise and she gave me a good pose that seemed to show she was ready to bolt if needed. But she didn't and settled down and was soon feeding on something. By the looks of the habitat here there can't be much to eat. Chance of some rain (not much) which might signal the end of summer and the start of the wet season here. This is a full size photo. I reduced the exposure by 1/4 stop as it seemed too bright for just after sunrise on a cloudy day. Then added a bit of warmth and contrast while opening the blacks some and reducing highlights. Still not much I could do with the chaos in the BG but at least she's reasonably clear. Your comments and critiques are most welcome and appreciated.

Tech Info

Canon EOS 60D with EF 70-200mm f/4 at 200mm
1/250th at f/4 and ISO 1000
tripod
Lightroom 5

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Gary Reed on September 24, 2014 at 1:51 AM

Peter, I copied this photo and then gave it some treatment to illustrate some of the things I might have tried. Firstly as I often mention. A tighter crop. Not only are there distractions behind the deer ...but in this case in front as well. OOF foreground left and right. Your subject is the deer... so lets get closer. The crop does this and removes the distractions. Second thing I did was darken the BG to make the deer stand out. I then added some sharpness over the whole image. Your original may be sharper than your web version? Lastly I upped the light on the left side of deer (enhanced the natural light source)...you may call it cheating...but end result the deer dang near jumps off the page... Just thought I would show you some changes instead of listing them... and as always...these are just my opinion.

Registered on September 19, 2009, 198 Posts, 1074 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on September 26, 2014 at 9:24 AM

Hi Peter,

Cute little devil, eh? I'm not sure if what you posted is already a crop, but I agree with Gary that a tighter crop (or view) here would be more appealing. I wouldn't have cropped quite as closely as Gary (hind foot appears clipped, and I'd keep the large trunk - to the point where it enters the earth), but would definitely lose some of the foreground - especially the bulk of the OOF "clumps" in lower right and lower left corners.

Cheers...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on September 26, 2014 at 8:17 PM

The curved tree, although "heavy" in the frame does serve to nicely frame the deer. I think the unfortunate branch that appears to almost grow out of the hind quarters is the biggest nit.

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