Baaaaaa....Hiding on Amherst Island

[Polar01]

While out shooting owls, came across this herd of sheep with this fellow hiding out. It looked interesting so I took the shot, What do you think?

Cheers: Allan

[flashback]

Which one is not like the others? Proverbial black sheep in the family?
Great shot.

[Stagecoach]

Love it.

[Barbara Ponder]

Too cute!!

[ashcroft]

Excellent quirky shot. The type of shot I like. The plain background is good as it really makes you focus on the sheep.

[ShaneS]

Great composition Allan and very well seen! Being a bit picky here but does it look a bit soft to you? I really like the high key treatment here but I might experiment with just a tad more contrast although I can't quite picture if it would change the feel of the image too much as that would be a bad thing.

[Mark von Kanel]

love it!

[Shadowman]

Nice catch.

[IzzieK]

Hey! young fella!!! Yes, you! Did you just took a shot of me?!? Here is my best -- boring or different? Cool it, willyah???

Nice find. That's my play of thoughts with this one...I think it is really cute, too...

[John 2]

Patience or luck Alan? One way or the other, it's a great capture.

[KimC]

Love this!!!

[cuilin]

brilliant!

[NorthernFocus]

It's excellent. Nicely done.

[Mike Buckley]

Great concept and eye!

However, the execution leaves me feeling that the photo has so much more potential. A depth of field that renders all of the sheep sharp, increased contrast and a lot less negative space at the top would be a big help for me. Converting to black-and-white would also place more emphasis on the primary subject.

[Polar01]

Shane what you see here is a quick down and dirty post production of the shot. I was using the older 80-400mm mounted on my backup D90, the data states that it was set at 330mm so that equals about 500mm if on a full frame and a f-stop of f/7.1. The combination of the three along with the distance gave me a depth of field of less than 1 foot. The other thing was I was shooting through a wire fence so I needed to do everything I could to make it go away. We had very, very soft flat light, the white behind the sheep is not sky but snow. I could darken it some overall but then that one black sheep does not stand out as well, the whole story of that image is that one black sheep.

Cheers: Allan

[Polar01]

Mike you are correct, however the physical layer out prevents a number of problems, the two foot high snow bank from the plow, along with a 2 foot deep ditch snow covered, my knees, a 6x6 heavy gauge wire fence 6ft tall to keep the coyotes out and the 4 dogs quarding the flock. As we were gunning to shoot owls, hawks, and some eagles I only had the 80-400mm mounted on a D90 cropped senor to get some more reach for the birds a 70-200mm would have worked well for this shot, but not for the flying critters.

Cheers: Allan

[Mike Buckley]

I don't understand, Allan. Why would the 70-200 lens have been better than the 80-400 with regard to the details I mentioned?

[Polar01]

I thought that it might work better (I do not have one so not sure) is that being a shorter length and shooting the same distance to subject the depth of field would be greater.That said I could and am likely completely wrong. Using the 80-400mm at the distance I was using it leaves almost no DOF.

Cheers: Allan

[Mike Buckley]

When using the 70-200 lens and the 80-400 lens at the same focal length, distance to subject and aperture, the depth of field will be the same. So, rather than use your 80-400 at the 330mm focal length, you could have used it anywhere from 80 to 200mm and achieved the same depth of field available at those focal lengths using the 70-200 lens.

I don't know the high-ISO capabilities of your D90, but you also might have been able to use a higher ISO and smaller aperture to increase your depth of field.

[Nicks Pics]

Really it's a nice shot. Very classic. It feels like perhaps the front row faces shouldn't be OOF, but on the other hand it does draw the eye to the black sheep more.