A Happy possum

[gregj1763]

Just before I head off for dinner here is a quick one from Cradle mountain Tasmania.
No editing sooc.
One happy possum with a full tummy

[Stagecoach]

Brilliant Greg.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[deetheturk]

Great capture Greg!

[gregj1763]

Cheers David, John & Grahame they are such a cute animal. I see so many not real well after an accident on the roads here. It is just a real reward to get close to them when they are alive and well.
Cindy and I have just finished dinner, came back to our cabin and had one waiting at the door for us. Needless to say it got a small bedtime snack

[csa mt]

Greg, that is a great photo! He certainly is a happy little camper!

[NorthernFocus]

Cute little bugger for sure. The North American version of the opossum is the only marsupial on this side of the pond. Here they also have a propensity to end up mashed on pavement. But ours aren't nearly this cute looking more like giant(i.e.10kg) rats with canine teeth.

[Manfred M]

I see bribes work in trying to get something (or someone) to pose for the camera, even in the 'possum world.

Cute shot.

[John 2]

Nice capture. Hope you both enjoyed your dinner.

[Nicks Pics]

I didn't know there was another possum out there besides the ones we have in the US! This guy is really cute, but this,

But ours aren't nearly this cute

, this is arguable, (but confidentially I don't really think ours would win that argument ) though this,

looking more like giant(i.e.10kg) rats with canine teeth.

may be true

[NorthernFocus]

...this is arguable...

I don't want to hijack the thread, but to amphasize how much more attractive the NZ version is it may be necessary to point out the differences...

First, for some reason, we spell it Opossum which I've never figured out since the O is silent

Clearly beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But I submit a description of the North American opossum for comparison: drab grey coat, thick/hairless prehensil tail, hairless ears, long white whiskers, beady/black eyes, and a propensity to sneer/snarl at anything close to it. IMO, NOT cute. Here's a photo out of Wickimedia of a young one. And let's face it, if something isn't cute as a baby, there's no hope

[bnnrcn]

Cute indeed

[Nicks Pics]

Clearly beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But I submit a description of the North American opossum for comparison: drab grey coat, thick/hairless prehensil tail, hairless ears, long white whiskers, beady/black eyes, and a propensity to sneer/snarl at anything close to it. IMO, NOT cute. Here's a photo out of Wickimedia of a young one. And let's face it, if something isn't cute as a baby, there's no hope

Well, you don't got them in Alaska, so no need to worry about them anyways.

How nice of you, Greg to support your local Possums in the winter

[Manfred M]

First, for some reason, we spell it Opossum which I've never figured out since the O is silent

Interesting down this way the "O" is pronounced, unless one abbreviates and pronounces it 'possum. I've heard both used.

[Wavelength]

When it stands still and poses, let us call it "pose-um"; if it denies a chance, it must be called "Oppose-um"
Very lovely and cute indeed

[pnodrog]

Greg it reminds me of one we kept as a pet until it got a bit stroppy and we let it wander off to find a mate. It is frowned upon in NZ to have one as a pet as they are considered a pest and do a lot of damage to our bush and have been filmed eating birds eggs (Kiwi in particular).

While it was still young it made a great pet and had a strange love/hate relationship with our cats. It loved aniseed wheel sweets.

[gregj1763]

Thank you all for your comments.
Paul I have never had one as a pet but I can understand the stroppy side of them, I had to remove one from our backyard once after my dog had bailed in up in a small tree. I snuck up from behind it and grabbed it around the back and under the front legs. The result was like having a grenade go off in my hands I would imagine. I managed to remove the ball of fury back into the bushland over our back fence with no harm to him or me

[IzzieK]

Yeah...I think that one is a good candidate in the looks department. the one of Richard's is pretty OOG-leee. I've been here for quite a while and I haven't seen one but we have a good number of squirrels and chipmunk which we bring across the river so it can live with its mates over there at the reserve.

[DanK]

Greg,

A very cute shot. As Dan points our, ours look very different. Usually, you see them squashed on roads. As one person put it to me, 'their main natural predator is now the car.'

I don't know if you want editing suggestions, so if you want me to delete these images, I will, but you can do a lot even with an image that dark to bring out detail. Here is a very quick and not at all careful edit in Photoshop:



It required only a few steps. First, dodge a little on the sides of the critter. Second, create a selection of the bright areas (I selected the snow and the yellow part of the apple), invert the selection, and create a mask. That allows you to brighten the rest of the image without blowing out the snow. Attach that mask to a curves layer and play with it. Here's a screen shot:



Layer 1 is the dodging: 50% gray, set to "overlay" and a reduced opacity, painted with the brush in white. Usually I use about 20% opacity, but this was about 40%..

What I found really puzzling when I started learning photoshop is how to turn selections into masks and put them where I wanted them. If you find this confusing too, it is actually quite simple: create the selection. Go to refine edge, and increase it by a few pixels. maybe feather it by a few pixels. Then invert it, which you can do from the select menu. Then, without doing anything else, create a new adjustment layer, in this case curves (the little half-filled circle icon at the bottom right). The selection will automatically be added as a mask on the adjustment layer.

I hope this is helpful. If you know all of this, or if you don't want people to show edits of your image, I apologize. And I will delete the edited image if you would like.

Dan

[gregj1763]

Thank you Dan for the edit, I like it a lot and I will have a go at it myself tonight.
I never mind someone editing my images and your detailed explanation will be very helpful.
Thanks a lot mate
Cheers, Greg