Fur and Feathers

[PixelRabbit]

Good Morning
No spider today (phew!) Instead some fur and feathers from the past couple days.
C&C always welcome.

I saw a big bird in the trees yesterday and ran out to shoot him.. alas he wasn't cooperative .. but this guy was! Came up on the deck and he let me get right up in his face and smiled for the camera

Windblown female Cardinal.

Meet Angus! Angus found the light while he was watching the snow slide off the roof of the greenhouse

 

[GeorgieGirl]

Love the Kitty!

 

[PixelRabbit]

Thanks GeorgieGirl, he is such a poser! Catching him not hamming it up for the camera is rare lol.

 

[AceCo55]

Kitten shot is nice and crisp - it pops quite well. I think it would be better if light lines (in the background and around the cat's eye level) could be cloned out. Less of a distraction.
Really love the composition in #2. The struggle against the fierceness of Winter is obvious. Shutter speed of 1/100 possibly a little slow as the feathers show a little blurring. Terrific image.
#1 looks a little "soft" to my eyes but that could be my eyes. Love the out of focus background - really isolates the squirrel nicely. The snow line running diagonal out of the photo is great compositionally.
Very nice set of photos

 

[ph0enix]

I like the Cardinal best - love the falling snow trails. I would maybe try cropping it differently though.

 

[Ron Evers]

I like the Cardinal best - love the falling snow trails. I would maybe try cropping it differently though.

If you mean cutting some off the left, I disagree, as the snow trails set the scene.

 

[sm4him]

I actually really like the softness of the feathers in the second one, because it adds to the whole "poor, cold, windblown" bird look. The blowing snow, and the soft, ruffled feathers give the photo a great atmosphere.

I like the last one, too. I have never gotten any of my cats to sit still when I try to their pictures! They always have to look over at me or the camera, and usually they start to move toward it before I can get set and get a photo. Only pictures I have of them sitting still and not sticking their little noses into the lens are when they're asleep!

 

[ph0enix]

I like the Cardinal best - love the falling snow trails. I would maybe try cropping it differently though.

If you mean cutting some off the left, I disagree, as the snow trails set the scene.

How about something like this?

 

[bazooka]

Still making progress I see! Excellent.

#1 Great detail in the fur. I think you could probably bump up the exposure a little. The catchlight in his right eye is very busy and there is no light on his left eye which breaks the otherwise cheery mood of the image. With some additional editing, I think you could probably help both of these issues. The square crop doesn't feel right to me... I'd rather see a portrait crop as there isn't much interest to his left or right.

#2 I like the composition except the board at the bottom is not level which is a fairly big distraction for me. The image overall isn't sharp and I suspect shutter speed was the culprit. Shooting 1/100th at 190mm on a crop body is going to be problematic although theoretically you should be able to with IS.

#3 Excellent. I think I would have left some more room at the bottom because one of the really nice details of this photo for me is how the front paws hang over the wooden edge, but they feel uncomfortably close to the edge of the frame. It doesn't need much. But that's a small nitpick. You saw excellent light and an excellent, elegant pose and you composed it very well. I agree that I would probably burn (not clone) the faint lines in the background near the eye. But at the same time, they do break up the void so it may work just as well as it is.

 

[PixelRabbit]

Wow, I need to catch up! Thanks for your comments everyone

Kitten shot is nice and crisp - it pops quite well. I think it would be better if light lines (in the background and around the cat's eye level) could be cloned out. Less of a distraction.
Really love the composition in #2. The struggle against the fierceness of Winter is obvious. Shutter speed of 1/100 possibly a little slow as the feathers show a little blurring. Terrific image.
#1 looks a little "soft" to my eyes but that could be my eyes. Love the out of focus background - really isolates the squirrel nicely. The snow line running diagonal out of the photo is great compositionally.
Very nice set of photos

I agree about the lines in the door in the shot of Angus. I cloned out some marks on the door but didn't dare try to take the lines out. I'm only using my Canon software to edit my photos right now (fixing the desktop computer today, fun fun fun!) and have never done much beyond fixing exposure, cropping and sharpening at this point. I'm looking forward to learning it all when I'm up and running with Lightroom and Photoshop (going to try both).

Thanks! You hit the nail on the head with the shutter speed. I was trying to get the motion of the snow and a clear shot of her, the first few were exposed better and she was sharper but froze teh snow so I quickly adjusted the shutter speed on the fly. I think I could have probably could have upped the speed a bit and gotten away with it though.

Again, agree on his softness, after I exported the jpg it seemed to have almost a really subtle under exposure to it ... little foggy? hard for me to put into words.

I actually really like the softness of the feathers in the second one, because it adds to the whole "poor, cold, windblown" bird look. The blowing snow, and the soft, ruffled feathers give the photo a great atmosphere.

I like the last one, too. I have never gotten any of my cats to sit still when I try to their pictures! They always have to look over at me or the camera, and usually they start to move toward it before I can get set and get a photo. Only pictures I have of them sitting still and not sticking their little noses into the lens are when they're asleep!

Thanks!
Angus normally does the same, the second he sees or hears the camera in his vicinity he starts posing lol, our older cat Bear walks straight at the camera and Miss Gabby, our dog, mostly gives me the "put it away lady" look lol

I like the Cardinal best - love the falling snow trails. I would maybe try cropping it differently though.

If you mean cutting some off the left, I disagree, as the snow trails set the scene.

How about something like this?

I agree with Ron but I like this crop, taking a bit off the top cleans it up a bit and you kept enough to the left to maintain the "wind".

Still making progress I see! Excellent.

#1 Great detail in the fur. I think you could probably bump up the exposure a little. The catchlight in his right eye is very busy and there is no light on his left eye which breaks the otherwise cheery mood of the image. With some additional editing, I think you could probably help both of these issues. The square crop doesn't feel right to me... I'd rather see a portrait crop as there isn't much interest to his left or right.

#2 I like the composition except the board at the bottom is not level which is a fairly big distraction for me. The image overall isn't sharp and I suspect shutter speed was the culprit. Shooting 1/100th at 190mm on a crop body is going to be problematic although theoretically you should be able to with IS.

#3 Excellent. I think I would have left some more room at the bottom because one of the really nice details of this photo for me is how the front paws hang over the wooden edge, but they feel uncomfortably close to the edge of the frame. It doesn't need much. But that's a small nitpick. You saw excellent light and an excellent, elegant pose and you composed it very well. I agree that I would probably burn (not clone) the faint lines in the background near the eye. But at the same time, they do break up the void so it may work just as well as it is.

Hi Bazooka Thanks!
#1 **see above about Photoshop/post processing** agree As for the crop, there really isn't any left above him so can only add foreground.
#2 Teehee, crooked boards... I'll get them straight yet! and heading to search/google to figure out what you just said and how it applies/how to fix it.
#3 Thanks! I'm very happy with this one, it was gorgeous straight out of the camera (other than being crooked lol) Again .. no more picture to the bottom, I will have to remember to zoom out a bit more to allow for different crops.

 

[Ocho_1]

nice, I think about 60% of my photos have been of my pets, lol

 

[PixelRabbit]

Thanks Ocho
I took a lot of the pets when I first got the camera, and they started to dislike me when I had the camera in front of my face lol I tend to leave them alone for the most part now unless I can get a ninja shot in like the one of Angus lol.