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A Brief Pause
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A Brief Pause

by Peter Cross

Gallery: WildlifePosted November 7, 201461 views2 comments
This buck and 2 does greeted me as I walked into the nature preserve this morning. This early middle-aged deer was pursuing one of the does at a slow pace. He stopped here for a few moments which gave me an opportunity to grab a few shots. He departed soon after at a full gallop after the does. Not a iconic pose of a great buck but still a pleasing image to me. Early morning sunlight is highlighting his antlers and part of his head. And I got a fairly good BG for a change. This is a full frame image to which I added 1/4 stop of light and a bit more warmth. I then added some contrast and clarity. I also opened up the blacks and shadows just a bit. Curious as to whether you think I should have taken out some of the big log in front of him. I didn't think it would improve the photo, so I left it as is. Comments and critiques welcomed.

Tech Info

Canon EOS 60D with EF 70-200mm f/4 at 200mm
1/500th at f/4 and ISO 1000
tripod
Lightroom 5

Comments

2 comments
Comment posted by John Tobias on November 7, 2014 at 10:23 AM
IMHO you have great light on the buck. I would crop this to a vertical composition to put the focus more on the deer and less on the surroundings including the log. There are 2 stumps which seem to have been cut, at least I would crop to get those out of the image. Really like how the light strikes the buck. I am envious :smile: Thanks for sharing.
Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments
Comment posted by Brad Hill on November 9, 2014 at 8:38 AM
Hi Peter,

I do find the log and posts in front of the buck to be a pretty "heavy" and dominant element to ignore - for me it's a pretty big distraction. That said, given it overlaps with lower portion of the buck's legs I'm not sure there's really an effective way to remove it. I think finding an alternate place to shoot from would have been a better solution rather than attempting to deal with the log in post-processing.

Cheers...

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