Smart As A ...

SCraig · Jun 30, 2012

Smart as a FOX!

I've never seen a Red Fox in the wild when I had a camera. There don't seem to be a lot of them around here any longer and I can only recall seeing a couple when I didn't have a camera.

This one saw me about the same time I saw him. We stood and watched each other for a minute, and as soon as I started to raise my camera he started running. I got a couple of shots before be made it to the woods, and this is the one I liked best.

PinkDoor · Jun 30, 2012

He's cute! I would like it a bit better if the photo was a little warmer and maybe a little darker to create more of an eerie feeling. Excellent capture!

PixelRabbit · Jun 30, 2012

Nice capture Scott

great eye contact!

I love that moment when you are both frozen... Wondering who will make the first move

sam7771 · Jun 30, 2012

I just think there so ugly but he's a but skinny. Nice capture hard to get a picture Of there so skidish.

you fail before sucsess

nmoody · Jun 30, 2012

Very nice action! He is looking right at you which is very cool.

SCraig · Jun 30, 2012

Thanks everyone. He was a cute little guy, and I think he was as surprised to see me as I was to see him. I don't know where he was going but he really wanted to get there. After he ran off I watched him make a big, wide circle around me to get back in the same area and going in the direction he wanted to go.

PinkDoor, you are right about the warmth. I'm not sure how I desaturated it as much as I did but when I compared the shot above to the original it was significantly cooler. I redid it and made sure the color stayed in this time, and it does look better. I don't want it darker though, I like that as it is. Thanks for pointing it out.

Joel_W · Jun 30, 2012

Scott, a really nice capture. Considering you had like no time to compose, it's a pretty outstanding image. The re-edit colors is so much better.

SCraig · Jun 30, 2012

Joel_W said:
Scott, a really nice capture. Considering you had like no time to compose, it's a pretty outstanding image. The re-edit colors is so much better.

Thanks Joel. Yeah, that one was a lucky shot

I was under a canopy where they had a bunch of picnic tables. When he started running I was panning with him and then a column holding the roof up went between us and I lost him for a second. Picked him up again for that shot right before he ducked in some woods.

I agree the re-edit colors are much better. Thank PinkDoor for pointing that out. I'd have liked a little slower shutter speed but I had been shooting birds at relatively high ISO and low aperture in aperture priority. My camera was sitting on a picnic table when I saw him and he saw me. As soon as I picked it up he was running so I settled for what was already set up on my camera.

kundalini · Jun 30, 2012

Once I saw the photo, I queued up Thin Lizzy's Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed.

Nice capture.

SCraig · Jun 30, 2012

^^ Now that's funny

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

PinkDoor · Jun 30, 2012

I like the warmth edit

Very nice!

SCraig · Jun 30, 2012

PinkDoor said:
I like the warmth edit Very nice!

Thanks. And thanks for pointing it out.

I didn't really ADD any warmth to it, I just didn't do whatever it was that I did earlier to desaturate it. I'm not sure what it was, I used my old, tried-and-trued standard editing steps but for some reason it desaturated it some. I'm sure I did something but I didn't save the edits I did to the RAW file so I don't know what it could have been. I want back through again, used my normal editing steps, and the second try came out fine. I dunno, just one of those things.