I shot some deer

kdog

... in my yard with my 20D and 100-400.











I have a real love/hate relationship with these critters.
They're awfully cute. But they're hard on the landscape.
Notice how skinny they are. The population is out of control and there are no predators.

Pictures were taken in the early evening at ISO1600, wide open at f5.6. I think that was the right call.

Thanks for looking.
-joel

bfjr

Hey Kdog
did you say in your yard, well then not only are these good but you are one lucky Kdog indeed!!
IMHO these could benefit from a tad less exposure.
I really like the first one and last one with the catch light and tongue action is great!!

PatandRich

I Like the #4 and 5 really like the tounge in 5. But I agree with Ben they look a tad over exposed. At 1600 the overall lack of noise is great. What are you shooting?
I just moved from Northern Ca. and they were a problem in the SF Bay area Mountain Lions were comming back but that led to it's own set of problems some locals would tranq and relocate others would just put them down. I never got a good shot of one but ran across a few on hikes they are one magnificent animal.
Other areas where wolves were the primary preditor are in bigger trouble their populations are totally destroyed.
I don't think we are doing the deer population any good by not allowing hunting if we destroy the preditor something has to take its place if not hunters then stravation and desease.
I am not a hunter but seeing deer with their ribs showing when they should be at their plumpest makes you wonder how many will live through the lean times:cry

I will get off my non-PC horse now:uhoh

Thanks for the post
Rich

kdog

bfjr wrote:

Hey Kdog
did you say in your yard, well then not only are these good but you are one lucky Kdog indeed!!
IMHO these could benefit from a tad less exposure.
I really like the first one and last one with the catch light and tongue action is great!!

Thank you, sir! Actually, I lied. That was the front yard. They are a bit bright, aren't they? Not certain why they came out this way -- it was pretty late when I shot them. All the camera settings were flat too. Shot in AV mode. I like the first and the last ones the best as well.

kdog

PatandRich wrote:

I Like the #4 and 5 really like the tounge in 5. But I agree with Ben they look a tad over exposed. At 1600 the overall lack of noise is great. What are you shooting?
I just moved from Northern Ca. and they were a problem in the SF Bay area Mountain Lions were comming back but that led to it's own set of problems some locals would tranq and relocate others would just put them down. I never got a good shot of one but ran across a few on hikes they are one magnificent animal.
[...]
Rich

Thanks PatandRich. Wait, over exposed? Wouldn't that make them darker? I guess I'm kinda confused exactly what you guys are seeing. Should they be darker or lighter? (Yeah, I'm kinda new to this.) I have the RAWs for these, and could try adjusting them if you guys have any suggestions.

Where in Norcal were you? We moved to NY from Northern CA two years ago as well. Small world, eh? We lived in San Jose in the Almaden Valley, against the Loma Prieta mountains. Lots of wild boar, deer, rattlers, and mountain lions as well. The mountain lions are really elusive. I've spotted them briefly only a couple of times while bush-wacking. Anybody who's seen them is lucky indeed. I know what you mean about the starving deer. It's a real dilemma.

The shots were taking with a Canon 20D, and 100-400 zoom.

Take care,
-joel

PatandRich

kdog wrote:

Thanks PatandRich. Wait, over exposed? Wouldn't that make them darker? I guess I'm kinda confused exactly what you guys are seeing. Should they be darker or lighter? (Yeah, I'm kinda new to this.) I have the RAWs for these, and could try adjusting them if you guys have any suggestions.

Where in Norcal were you? We moved to NY from Northern CA two years ago as well. Small world, eh? We lived in San Jose in the Almaden Valley, against the Loma Prieta mountains. Lots of wild boar, deer, rattlers, and mountain lions as well. The mountain lions are really elusive. I've spotted them briefly only a couple of times while bush-wacking. Anybody who's seen them is lucky indeed. I know what you mean about the starving deer. It's a real dilemma.

The shots were taking with a Canon 20D, and 100-400 zoom.

Take care,

If you step down (-5 or so) the exposure it will darken the shots and decrease blowouts of bright colors. In the case of you shots the dry grass in #1 would not be so bright and let more of the contrast of the deer and green grass show. Another option is to change the metering to center weighted or spot then when you focus on the deer it would use it's lighting to determine WB.
I don't shot Canon although most here do so not sure how to do it with your camera or software. You have a great Camera there just not available when I made my switch if it was I could give you better advice:D
As far as NorCal goes I lived in Vallejo, Hayward, Sacramemto, Union City, Pleasenton and Dublin. with stops in NJ, TX, FL and over seas in between.
For the deer Fort Bragg and Medesino area are really bad no preditors, no hunting, no bad winters lots of very hungry deer eating not enough flowers:cry

Andy

we get 'em on our property, too.
welcome to dgrin... watch your color balance, these are off-whitebalance. they have a purply-cast to them. shooting in raw makes this easy to fix.... holler here if you need help with that

found this guy eating choke cherries next to my garage the other night

kdog

Rich, thanks for the tip. I've got to try the center-weighted metering mode. Maybe that's why my WB got messed up. Good deal.

Andy, thanks for the welcome. Great shot! Funny, I don't recall seeing property like that in NYC. Maybe you're in the suburbs a bit, like me (Stony Point area).

I do have the RAW's, and played around with the WB a bit. Not really having a clue, and since PSE doesn't have a "dusk" WB setting, I chose cloudy. I also bumped the upper end of the level editor back a bit to get rid of a flat spot to the right end of the bell curve.

Here's a redo of shots 1 & 3 (it's too late to do 'em all.)
I'll include the before and after to make it easier to compare.







Thanks a bunch, man. These look way better to my eye. They actually look like deer now, the grass is green, and my trees aren't blue any more. :giggle

So am I on track here? Is this what you had in mind? Any other tips?
Thanks again,
-joel

PatandRich

I like the redo's better especially for the time of day shot the lighting looks much more natural


Rich

Andy

kdog wrote:

Andy, thanks for the welcome. Great shot! Funny, I don't recall seeing property like that in NYC. Maybe you're in the suburbs a bit, like me (Stony Point area).

(click on the pic to map it)
[imgr]http://williams.smugmug.com/photos/35647181-M.jpg[/imgr]hiya again, joel - hey! much much better - they look really natural. well done. i'm in nyc nearly every day but i live outside of the city, in westchester county.

kdog

Thanks Andy!

Hey, you're just across the river from me.

Cheers,
-joel