Coyote Encounter

[Marylynne_Diggs]

Image(s)

Image Description

There was a time I fancied myself a wildlife and bird photographer, but in truth, I don’t have the patience for it. Any image I was able to make was a result of a great deal of luck. I think I’m too noisy and too hyper.

This guy was one of the first wildlife encounters I had that made me think perhaps I could do more of this. It was several years before such an opportunity presented itself, and that time, I didn’t have a long lens on.

We were wandering around the little oasis (literally) near Fields Station in Fields Oregon looking at owls, which we had heard the evening before. I saw a barn owl, a great horned owl, and I left the trees to return to the cafe, because milkshakes, when I saw this coyote. It was looking to my left as my spouse was saying something about chocolate v. vanilla, then it saw me. I got a few shots off at 365 mm before the coyote slipped away into the brush. I have one shot with more direct eye contact, but it was moving and I was excited, and blur happens when holding a 100-400 mm lens.

The moment was very special to me. The animal was curious about us more than frightened, and we scared up a rabbit too, which went into the same thick brush as the coyote. I didn’t want to interrupt that opportunity, so everyone had lunch. Except the rabbit, I suspect.

Feedback Requests

None really, mostly participating in the weekly challenge, but I’m open to anything. I struggled with separation of tones on the right as the coyote and the tall desert grasses had similar color, even before going with black and white conversion.

This was taken in 2011, using the Canon 7D, notoriously unsharp and noisy.

Pertinent Technical Details

Canon 7D, 100-400mm at 360mm
ISO 800, 1/500, f/5.6
Cropped about 50% for Portrait Orientation

[Cathy_Proenza]

Gotta love a hungry-looking predator! Especially with a good story to go with it. I love the yote’s thoughtful expression – as if they overheard the milkshake discussion and were pondering chocolate vs. vanilla vs. rabbit .

I really like the indistinct line between the coyote’s chest and background/foreground. Excellent lighting too. Small nit that the texture or contrast might be a touch heavy on the coyote’s fur, which has a bit of an edge (or maybe it’s my monitor?). But great portrait for the weekly challenge.

[madd_laura (Laura Maddalozzo)]

I like the fur’s direct gaze. Like you, I don’t feel there is enough contrast between the fox and the bushes in the foreground. Perhaps it’s just a matter of toning down the background?

[Marylynne_Diggs]

Thanks @madd_laura and @Cathy_Proenza. I only yesterday converted to black and white for the challenge. I did it in LR, so perhaps doing it in Silver Efex or something would give me some additional control over the tonality.

Laura: I tried darkening the foreground, but the plane of focus and the color consistency of both fur and grasses is such that it looked weird. You mention toning down the background. Did you mean foreground, or do you think working on the darker background would actually help with the foreground separation?

I’m posting below a marked up version of the image:

Green is where I think there is some hyper crisp fur (perhaps the focus point in a very shallow dof aperture), with the circle being very sharp and the line next to it a blade of grass out of focus. Other blades of oof grass are along the coyote’s body to the left.

Blue is where the focus and tonality are so merged that I can’t seem to get separation there without also taking some notches of coyote fur darker as well. I could try to go brighter, as tips of fur are often naturally brighter with the lighting, but I’m not sure it would be much improvement.

ML

[Cathy_Proenza]

I prefer the lighter background in your original image. To me, the merging of the fur and OOF background and foreground in your blue circled areas is a positive aspect of the photo. I guess I’m drawn to a bit of ambiguity.

[Marylynne_Diggs]

I have a print of a landscape version of this (actually, sold a house with it hanging on the wall–the only print I’ve ever “sold”). It really adds to the environmental portrait effect. And as I look at all the exports from this morning, brighter foreground actually gives more separation. I don’t think I could have seen that without doing it and looking at all of them lined up in a folder at once.

[Dennis_Plank]

A fine shot of the coyote, Marylynne. I understand what you’re saying about the separation from the background, but it really doesn’t bother me. To me, the texture difference is sufficient to separate the two quite nicely. Given how little room you have on the right,if you have enough pixels left I think a 4x5 vertical might be interesting to look at.

[madd_laura (Laura Maddalozzo)]

You’ve given this a lot of thought. Is it too crass to put a vignette around the fox?

[Marylynne_Diggs]

I too thought about a vignette. Not crass at all, but I did decide it violated the coyote’s right to wildness .

The one hanging on the wall in the house that’s no longer mine is a color version. S/He’s got lovely golden eyes, but I’m enjoying playing with the options in monochrome for the first time so long after the original experience.

[Marylynne_Diggs]

@Dennis_Plank : I think that’s what’s at the top, or 5x7?. For years I saw this as a horizontal “body emerging from the grasses” shot, and then I realized vertical portrait made sense. Someone here might have suggested it back in 2012-13. This is truly from the archives and may have been posted in NPN 1.0!
ML