[Ken Rennie Participant Posts: 153]

Landscape & Nature Photography

on: August 27, 2019 at 9:54 am

The English Lake District again. About 6 ponies live out on a fellside all year round. When I first saw them I stopped, fitted a 200mm lens and started taking photographs and slowly crept forward. Fifteen minutes later I realised that I could get as close as I wanted to, the tree shot was taken at 23mm and the other at 19mm. I returned in the winter with snow on the ground but unsurprisingly they weren’t easy to spot. By the time I tracked them down the light had gone, always this winter hopefully. Ken

 

[Kevin Raber Silver Member Posts: 1288]

Re: Fell Ponies

Reply #1 on: August 27, 2019 at 9:47 pm

Ken, simply eye-catching images.  well done and well processed.  In the second image, the horse’s ass bothers me as it is distracting and makes me ask what it is then I realize what it is.  I would have used content-aware and removes that horse and maybe even the others. The image with a single horse just is super nice.  My eye explored everywhere but always came back to where it belongs.  Well done!

Kevin Raber
Owner and Publisher of photoPXL

[Mike Nelson Pedde Participant Posts: 641]

Re: Fell Ponies

Reply #2 on: August 27, 2019 at 9:56 pm

Beautiful work. I can see Ken’s point; have you tried cropping the second image vertically – leaving the background on the left and cutting in behind the horse’s tail on the right to balance?

Thanks for sharing!

Mike.

P.S. One good way of approaching wildlife is to use what’s called the lost wallet method. Act as if you’ve dropped something on the ground and are looking for it. Don’t walk straight toward the animal, but zig-zag, slowly, paying them no (apparent) attention. If you have an electronic shutter, great, but if not, don’t worry too much about it. Easiest if you have an LCD screen you can tip out to see what you’re looking at. Eye contact among animals is often seen as a sign of aggression, but if you’re just there, and not caring what they’re doing, they’ll be more relaxed.

Having said that, every animal has a 2-ring-bulls-eye around them. Mouse or moose, it doesn’t matter. Outside the first ring, they’re aware of you but you’re not considered a threat. Inside the first ring they’re becoming more aware of you and as you get closer to the second inner ring they’re getting more nervous. Cross inside that second ring and you trigger a flight/fight response. NB: These rings vary from species to species, and from animal to animal. And no, they’re not painted on the ground. 🙂

 

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Mike Nelson Pedde
Victoria, BC
https://www.wolfnowl.com/

[Ken Rennie Participant Posts: 153]

Re: Fell Ponies

Reply #3 on: August 28, 2019 at 12:03 pm

Kevin I don’t want you bothered by a horse’s ass, is there something you need to come clean about? This is a quick and dirty fix. Ken

[Kevin Raber Silver Member Posts: 1288]

Re: Fell Ponies

Reply #4 on: August 30, 2019 at 9:01 pm

Ahhh. good call…. you made me address my issues.  I like it though.  It’s an image to be proud of.  You handled it well.

 

Kevin Raber
Owner and Publisher of photoPXL

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