fox close up at night.

qualitypics · #1 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 08:17 AM

Hi there (im chris woodman) - I took this picture of a fox at 4.30am one morning - could you please tell me what you think of it?

thankyou.

Wild-Woman · #2 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 08:39 AM

Hi Chris. welcome to WAB.
The word fantastic springs to mind, looking at your picture. Tell us about how you got it and give yourself a bit of an intro so the welcome party get to know you and your obvious photographic talents.

Julie

qualitypics · #3 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 08:52 AM

Hi, well Im training to be a freelance photography and my current assignment is wildife photography.
The first thing I thought of was a fox. They are quite a common site in my local area so I thought great, lets go!!!.

I was 10mins into my 4am expediton and I spotted this fox in someone's garden. I stayed completely still for what seemed like an eternity. The fox glared at me and I thought it would bolt.
Instead, what I got, completely surprised me. I spent 70minutes with this beautiful mammal and it didn't run at all.

I was very cautious and slow in all my movements and evetually I sat on the ground and observed through my lense. I took around 65 shots in RAW format and this was the pick of the bunch for me.

I used a canon 20d with a 70-300mm lense and the 580ex flash to get the desired results.

As you can see, its very dark in the background (almost too dark), but my persistance paid off.
Next stop badgers............hmmmm..........not as easy!!!!

smartie · #4 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 08:52 AM

Not bad at all. Welcome to another excellent photographer - look forward to seeing some other images.

Words · #5 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 09:19 AM

Nice shot. I take a lot of flash photos of foxes at night and avoiding getting eyeshine (from the tapetum behind the retina) can be tricky. A slight downward angle, and keeping the fox out of the centre of the frame seems to reduce the chances of that happening. You've done a good job there.

Generally I keep the flash as low as possible and try and get in really close, but that's not always an option. Too much flash can burn out the white area on the muzzle. What distance were you?

Dark backgrounds are fine, I think. Here's one of mine which had the flash on the lowest possible setting to get just that effect. I was in very close (3 or 4 feet away) and slightly below the fox (which also helps with the eyeshine). As you can see the background is virtually pitch. Close up flash shot of fox

Garden foxes are probably very used to people. If you want to keep them interested a handful of sultanas will usually occupy them and allow you to get in closer.

glsammy · #6 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 09:44 AM

Hi.
I imagine you were very close! I also assume you had a large aperture set, something like F6.3? I say this because you've lost the focus on the foxes nose, it's fine where it ought to be, on the eyes. As you were using flash, I'd have set a smaller aperture, F12 or even lower to try and get more of the animal in focus, that's if you wanted that effect.

I'm not saying it's a bad shot, it isn't, I love it!

aeshna5 · #7 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 10:50 AM

Good picure- just as well it wasn't a Wolf- it looks incredibly close! Good luck with your course.

cherrybee · #8 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 12:42 PM

Hi qualitypics and what a lovely photo welldone.A very warm welcome to WAB

qualitypics · #9 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 04:04 PM

Yes I was very close. I seemed to be accepted after a while becuase I wasn't threatening to the animal at all.
At one point it even layed down next to me.

In this shot, he wasn't quite touching distance but very close to it. If anything, he was too close at one point because I couldn't focus with my 70-300mm lense.

Its my first attempt at photographing a fox but I was delighted with the results.

thankyou for the warm welcome everyone.

chris.