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Washing Up


Washing Up
Photo Information
Copyright: Art Roberts (Art_R) Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 190 W: 16 N: 458] (1871)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-07-07
Categories: Mammals
Camera: Nikon D 80, AF-S VR DX 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED, 72mm UV
Exposure: f/5.3, 1/200 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Date Submitted: 2008-07-08 8:48
Viewed: 318
Points: 18
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Hi Folks , last evening I decided again that it would be nice to go and pay a visit to the beavers , I left home a couple hours before sunset knowing they will not be out till the sun is near to setting. Beavers are a little flexible on this , I see them any where from 7;30 in the evening on , most of their activity is during the night time hours.

this is not the same beaver as my last upload of one , I have no count on how many could be in this area of the river but the tail of the other was much less wide , I am not really sure if this is a gender trait or not , but suspect they are likely mates , hope fully this year I will get a chance to photo the two together. I have not spent all that much time with the beavers this year , I guess it shows but I have been enjoying the macro lens a lot :-)

Castor canadensis

I am sure many folks here are familiar with the 'hinterlands whos' who' web pages... though I don't care much for many of the write ups I have seen on the beaver , this site has a very good one , that is not overly focused on the beavers engineering skills.

one thing I have noticed living in an area with many beavers , is that although they do come ashore at night , they seldom leave very much for foot prints. mostly when a foot print is found it will be quite close to the bank , and left in rather thick mud , this print is left on purpose and is marked with a scent ( a musk oil ) , likely to communicate to other beavers "this is my area"

I got to watch this one for some time , I was nearly laying up on the bank , around 5-6 feet away form this fellow , it was a real treat when it came up on this muddy little island to clean its self up a bit.

some how while shooting I ended up changing my file setting from raw to jpeg and took the bulk of the photos as such. to be honest that worked out ok for me , with the lighting I was at a 1600 ISO to maintain 1/200 shutter , and really I cant say that I could handle converting the raw to jpeg as well as the camera compressed the images , I am rather shocked at the low amounts of grain in these photos. my skills/understanding of the RAW format is rather limited though particularly when it comes to making decisions on sharpness/denoising .
here was my camera setting

format -jpeg , fine
size- medium ( 5-6 mega pixel )
high iso N.R. -normal

image optimization features are not available in jpeg mode.
I would not use these settings on purpose , the image size is around half that of the raw file , and a better result could have been obtained from a raw file with better resolution. but thought the result was at least worth mention. I will post an 'actual pixels' sample in the workshop if you would like to see the grain level at these settings.

PP on this image was a small cropping to 8x10 resize for TN and a touch of sharpening.

thanks for stopping in
regards
Art
eqshannon, lousat, nglen, gerbilratz, Gert-Paassen, pekkavalo1, vanderschelden has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

GREAT shot of the tail too Art. Welcome neighbor! I am proud to be next to such a wonderful image today! Super colouring. Very well saturated and crystal clear!
Bob

Hi Art,whata a interesting moment to take the pic!!Very excellent work,i like a lot the position of the light,the warms colors and the water as background,thanks for share,have a nice day,Luciano

Hello Art,
This is a super capture and good notes too. Oregon (where I live) is the "Beaver State" however I've not yet seen a beaver here! I like the evening light and all the sharp detail in your photo.

TFS
Evelynn : )

  • Great 
  • nglen Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1895 W: 4 N: 5148] (19630)
  • [2008-07-08 11:05]

Hi Art. Great close up of this fantastic animal. You have captured a fine detail and warm colours. your picture shows its tail so well i can see its lost a bit from the end. thanks for the intersting notes .
TFS.
Nick..

Hi Art, Superb subject, amazing animals, just a joy to see them, this one has a bit of tail damage...but it is a great looking animal. The water looks so clear, but cold, the fur is also well defined and natural coloured.

Hello Art,
You get so close of this interesting animal! Very well done. Beautiful light, nice details. TFS,
Catherine

hi Art,

good Beaver shot.
Warm colours and good pov.

gert

Hi Art,
Very good picture of this cute fellow. Nice pose and composition, sharp details and good eye contact.
TFS
Pekka

This is an awesome shot of the beaver! The details are so clear and I am completely amazed about the 1600 ISO, because this shot has less noise than my Rebel XT at 100 ISO! Very nicely done,
TFS

TK

That's a great shot Art. I only ever get a shot of their head swimming by. I didn't realize it's tail was as scaley looking. I like the fact you have a golden twilight on him. Very cool shot. TFS Trevor

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