What changed: Removed the piece of wood. I stupidly put it there (sprayed with men’s cologne – explanation below) so I took the liberty of removing it! The fox showed up again last night and had a paw positioned for substituting.
Added after receiving feedback from the community.
The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
About This Image
I finally gave in to the longstanding urge to get a camera trap, and set it up with my backup body and some shop lights. The first few nights got a skunk but last night netted this guy (or gal). I’m using hot lights and when the IR beam is broken the camera shoots for 99 seconds at 2 fps. Lots of deleting but I have a chance for several decent frames. Baited with meat scraps.
Feedback Requested
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens: 28mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art 019
Focal length: 28mm
Shutter speed: 1/640s
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 1600
Minor shadow slider move in LR and denoise; into PS for a crop (about 50%), some trivial BG cleanup and a little more light thrown on the subject. No idea what got his attention but there was a moth fluttering around a light in one of the other exposures.
I’ve often thought about setting up a similar system in my yard, but just haven’t gotten around to it. I think it’s difficult to make the images that you get look realistic with especially considering the lighting. That must just be the nature of the beast. I do like the expression that you got on this fox and you got a nice head turn to go along with it. I’ve never seen any foxes, but have seen lots of smaller bunnies and one weasel.
What a cutie pie! I love this Diane. I hope you get more keepers from your set up. I don’t know how you feel about such things, and this is clearly intended to be a natural, candid shot, but I would be curious to see it without the bit of wood in the foreground. Perhaps the wood is what draws the curious animals? In that case, it’s worth keeping it in the yard, regardless of whether you remove it from the image. That catch-light in the eye is wonderful.
ML
Thanks, @David_Schoen and @Marylynne_Diggs ! That piece of wood was just put there yesterday and has now been moved! Backstory: A couple of days ago a neighbor texted that they had been seeing lights at night down by our pump house and wondered if we needed any help with anything, and copied it to the other closest neighbor. When I replied that it was just me and my cameras again, the other neighbor said she would be right over with a bottle of Calvin Klein Obsession for Men. They are big into wildlife conservation and friends of theirs in Kenya use it to attract big cats to a camera trap. (No kidding! – she sent a link to an article from the Bronx Zoo.) She said it had attracted bobcats to her trail camera down by our creek. So I looked for a suitably natural piece of wood, sprayed it and put it there. But tonight it will be off to the right. And the fox didn’t sniff it – he was after a wad of hamburger.
And @Huw_Thomas – you posted while I was typing. That is a great crop suggestion! I might have been too intent on keeping a sense of the night environment.
How on earth did you train him to pose like that! Head angle, expression…all there. The background is awesome as well. I might consider removing that diagonal tree, top left in the shadow?
I have three trail cameras set up in the paddock. I catch all sorts of critters at the waterer, but get dismal images…only for record or ID. I don’t bait with food unless I’m trapping to remove. I’m off to the shop to buy Obsession!
I was so lucky with the pose – I got 3 decent frames but all with the piece of wood in the way. I did wonder about that branch – I think I’ll prune it out. Let me know if you have success!
Bait is the only way I could ever get a subject in front of the camera.
Awesome! and Fun! Congrats on some early success with the camera trap. What a wonderful capture and reward for your setup.
As mentioned, great pose captured including the critters expression. Other than a tighter crop as Huw suggested, I can’t think of any nits or suggestions.
Any expectations of capturing a big cat? I’m not talking about Tabatha…
Thanks, @timothy3 and @Lon_Overacker ! I’m hoping for bobcats and even a mountain lion!! (See my several replies above about the cologne!) We don’t see as many house cats as there used to be. Maybe they are all inside cats these days? There are enough predators, for sure. There are coyotes, too and I wouldn’t mind getting some of them. A (the?) skunk came last night but tasted the fresh hamburger meat and turned up its nose. But it ate grilled salmon skin the first night, but rejected stale Canadian bacon. Once the word is out, I can start targeting species with what I put out. But most of them may be just snurfling along the ground.
Very nice pose and the lighting is perfect. The shadows are nice and soft and the black parts of the BG provides context for a nocturnal animal. The tighter crop will work too. The fox’s pose is excellent. Well worth looking at all the frames to get this one. You may not have got this pose without the wood. The fox is moving around it which produced the ideal pose for this shot. Awesome…Jim
I’m late to this one, Diane, but it’s a great shot of the fox. The camera trap system worked very well. It will be interesting to see what the cologne brings in. We used to have a deer feeder, which was fun, but when a black bear showed up, we decided it was time to take it down. I don’t mind them passing by but would rather not have them in the back yard.
Ooh this is so nice (please post the skunk, too). I wish the log wasn’t there, but what can you do? Critters move stuff all over the place. The head tilt and the eyes are great and the fur looks so thick and luxurious, just the thing for cold nights. I’ve never had the opportunity to see gray foxes (just reds) so this is a real treat. Keep 'em coming!
Thanks, @Jim_Zablotny , @Dennis_Plank and @Kris_Smith ! I took the liberty of removing the piece of wood! Dennis, there are slight but finite odds of a bear here, too. Kris, I’ll post a skunk if I can get one looking up. Got the fox again last night but he made a face at the half-spoiled hamburger meat and left. Putting out cat food tonight!
Thanks, @Glenys_Passier , and thanks @JRajput for the EP! I was so delighted to get a Fox in front of my camera setup (one of the targets I was most hoping for) and now I’m delighted that others have found it worthy!
