September 16, 2009

Doe at Dawn

A friend of mine has a small ranch a little south of Alvin, Texas. The ranch has an old windmill that is quite striking at sunrise. I got up long before the sun and headed down to his ranch to get the shot. The windmill is about a half-mile walk from his house. So, there I was walking along a small path in the dark. I was determined to get my windmill shot.

What did I get? Totally overcast skies that provide zero amount of sunrise.

As I was walking back to his house (looking forward to the big, country breakfast that he always fixes), I saw about six deer on the edge of the tree line. I moved closer and set-up my tripod and waited for the deer to move closer. They cooperated. I got several good shots, but this one was my favorite—mainly because of the way the soft, dark background sets the doe off.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm, shot at ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/6,000th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Photoshop—used nik Color Efext Pro tonal contrast filter on the doe to increase contrast of highlights, mid-tones and shadows.

6 comments:

  1. Good soft background that sets the deer off. Use of f2.8 is a good choice. Did you shoot it at 1/6000 of a second? Wow.
    Ted

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  2. Nice shot Larry. Great separation from the background and lots of detail on the deer. I am not a big fan of tight crops but I think I might look at a square crop on this one. I think that might still leave plenty of space for the deer and enough information about the surrounding environment to help place the deer, while eliminating some of the "extra" negative space. Well done as is though.

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  3. Nice shot Patrick!

    I really like the tonality of this shot! I don't see any monochrome conversion listed in the post-processing details so I guess every thing in scene was some shade of brown. The result to me is a lot of very pleasing and subtle tone variations.

    Well done!
    Barry

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  4. I have gone with my husband when he goes deer hunting. The colors, the pose and the look is something that I have seen very often. Good nature photo.
    Debbie

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  5. I like the warm tones and the separation of the subject from the background. You might consider a square crop suggested by Barry and see if it works better. Now, when you going to buy that longer glass for your wildlife photography career?

    DHaass

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  6. Good wildlife photo. All the pieces work well together.
    Steve

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