First snow and deer

[DouglasRC]

Our first snowfall of the year and my first chance to capture snow and deer in one shot. Naturally, it was fairly dark and late afternoon (around 4:00 pm), but seemed like a good candidate for my new lens. The snow shower lasted only about 15 minutes, so I was a bit pressed for time. The first 2 pics are fairly similar, while the 3rd is a different pose (the buck was getting jumpy as I was fairly close). I slightly prefer the first one but there is a plant dead in front of his face. I took the second one from a different angle to avoid the plant, but then snowflakes produced a blur around his left eye. I'm not sure if any of these are keepers so I would appreciate any and all advice. The only PP was mild adjustment to levels (no cropping or sharpening). Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS MkII.



f2.8; 1/1000; ISO 500



f2.8; 1/1600; ISO 800



f2.8; 1/2000; ISO 1250

Cheers,
Doug

[jeeperman]

Nice series Douglas, new glass is fun.. looks to be doing well.

[PBelarge]

Hello Doug
I do not like the 2nd image at all.
The first image would be good if you could clone out the grass and crop some from the left side of the image.
The third image may be a good candidate for a major croping in tight with the deer and his body/head/antlers.
...imagine February is almost over and it is your first snow - wow!

[DouglasRC]

Nice series Douglas, new glass is fun.. looks to be doing well.

Thanks Paul. The new lens is very nice and a good addition to my gear. It will take me a while to get used to it, but so far I'm impressed with the wide aperture, fast focus, and IQ; also it's nice that with my 1.4 extender I'm able to autofocus, which I can't do with the 100-400.
Cheers,
Doug

[DouglasRC]

Hello Doug
I do not like the 2nd image at all.
The first image would be good if you could clone out the grass and crop some from the left side of the image.
The third image may be a good candidate for a major croping in tight with the deer and his body/head/antlers.
...imagine February is almost over and it is your first snow - wow!

Thanks for the comments and analysis Pierre. Very useful. Sorry, I should have been more clear about the date these were taken -- it was about a month ago (I'm trying to catch up on things). Oddly enough, today was our 2nd snowfall and very similar to the first, but no critters anywhere close by.

I can see that some cropping of the 1st image would be beneficial, but unfortunately my PP skills aren't up to cloning out the grass. That's why I moved to a better position, but that introduced another problem.

I have tried a crop on the 3rd photo. Is this reasonably close to what you were suggesting?
Cheers,
Doug

[Teton Chuck]

Douglas, I like your first photo the best. For me the combination of the ground vegetation and the bushes does not make the surroundings as busy as the next two photos. With the deer lying down, could you have increased your f stop and lowered your shutter speed to bring the foreground in the first photo into focus?

The clarity of the face of the deer and the antlers in the first photo are very nice.

[DouglasRC]

Douglas, I like your first photo the best. For me the combination of the ground vegetation and the bushes does not make the surroundings as busy as the next two photos. With the deer lying down, could you have increased your f stop and lowered your shutter speed to bring the foreground in the first photo into focus?

The clarity of the face of the deer and the antlers in the first photo are very nice.

Thanks Chuck. Good point. I was a bit fixated on the low light and too worried about getting a sharp pic handheld. I should have tried some shots stopped down, probably with some overexposure. Or it might have been better to shoot in manual, lower the shutter speed, select a reasonable ISO and maybe overexpose 1/3 or 1. Lots of things to try and work on.
Cheers,
Doug