I’ve seen these fellows in the local refuge, but usually there are three together and they’re moving so fast it’s hard to catch them in the camera. This time he was solo and came up on the ground to shake off the water, before sliding back in to the stream.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Oh how cool! Otters are the fastest things sometimes and they don’t come on land all that often. Although yesterday morning I looked out the window and saw movement in the water and thought it was geese. Turned out to be a couple otters that were in the shallows and came up on shore for a second. Suddenly out of one side came and eagle diving at them. I don’t think an eagle can take an adult otter so no doubt it was trying to steal fish. It dove and then landed in the tree next to where the dock would go and harrumphed that it didn’t get any. The otters laughed. Anyway…that’s my backyard for you. Always some drama.
I’m going to bug you again over the cyan cast. Sorry. Other than that I like the looking back pose and the sharpness seems good. The camouflage of the fur color variations shows really well here - like loons and other water birds they’re light facing down and dark facing up. Wish it was facing on to you, but they’re not that cooperative most of the time.
Thanks @Kris_Smith, try as I might, I haven’t been able to figure out a way to ensure no color cast–cyan especially–using the tools, RGB Readouts, White Balance picker, etc…does this look any better?
The image is a truly fine take on this otter, David. Good job on eliminating the cyan. As I only shoot film color casts are inherent. So, I find there is a finite amount of color corrections most times.
Along with setting white-black-gray points Bill Chambers had a neat cast removal process I use to this day. Using it provides a nice global adjustment with opacity too.
A nice compact pose, allowing us to admire the otter up really close, including the tail!But we get enough of the environment as well. More otters please, David.
