This is definitely not one of my sharpest images, thanks to the snow, the distance and the low light, but it was worth 5 hours of waiting in cold weather. Finally the lynx appeared and the cat took plenty of time to pose.
All feedback is welcome.
Is this a composite: No
Pentax K3 Mk. iii, Sigma EX DG 4/100-300mm @300mm + 1.4TC, f/4.5, 1/320s, ISO6400.
Cropped to approx. 10MP.
Sharp enough though and definitely worth the wait. I especially like the surroundings - waiting where you did was a good idea. Have you tried extracting some detail with a separate software like Topaz Sharpen? I’ve gotten some pretty staggering results with it and some careful masking. The snow on the cat is especially nice. Are they terribly engangered?
@Kris_Smith : Yes, they are endangered and a very rare view. But this one isn’t captured in the wild; 3 of them live in a large, fenced area where they have plenty of space to hide (as I found out) but they are fed about once a week. On irregular times, to prevent predictable behaviour.
I didn’t use any sw like Topaz Sharpen, but I did little luminance noise reduction and increased the contrast in the lynx, and sharpened only the animal using the same mask as for the contrast. In my experience the results of AI-based sw often results in “fake details”, although the impression of increased sharpness can be pleasing.
Thanks for the suggestion, I might give it a try.
Awesome environmental catch here. Well done.
Well worth the wait. I love that paw sunk in the snow.
I think this was well worth the wait - sharp enough to me - nice that you gave it some room especially with that paw going forward
I suppose you knew it was there to wait 5 hours for it ?
@Karl_Zuzarte : yes, I knew it was there. We didn’t see anything in the previous days, but that morning we saw a glimpse of the back of a lynx as we arrived, when the cat disappeared in a small, dense spruce tree. We waited for maybe one and a half hour and then walked half a mile to another viewpoint, more from above, but without any luck. We returned to our original position and the lynx came halfway out of the tree for a few seconds, enough for 3 or 4 unsharp images, and disappeared again. In the meantime it started to snow, sometimes heavily, and the camera told us that the light faded rapidly. After another wait, the cat apparently decided that we had deserved something and it lay down under the rock in the image, where it found shelter against the snow and it stayed there for 15 or 20 minutes. A second lynx appeared as well.
Sometimes you get what you’re hoping for.
I think this is an excellent image, Han. The cat could be a little sharper, but it’s adequate and it’s a lovely environmental image. Well done.
