Northern Highlight

[purplehaze]

This is the last little photo essay I will impose on you for a while, I promise. But it is the one I am most excited about. We were on a little bus, headed out to the Tundra Buggy dock on day 3, when we came upon an arctic fox. Our guide slammed on the brakes, opened the doors and yelled at me to get out and shoot as I was the only one on the bus that day that had anything longer than 70 mm. I stepped out (not far, because polar bears) and proceeded to squeeze off shots as the fox wandered around looking for prey. He scampered up some rocks and disappeared for a bit, but then he came back and headed more or less straight for the bus. I could not believe my luck, especially as the morning light was still fairly low and absolutely gorgeous. He walked straight to the back of the bus and then turned and looked at me. I had lowered my camera to warm my hands, but when I lifted it again, he started, and then, in a flash, he was gone.

#1



#2



#3


#4



#5



#6



#7

[Urbanflyer]

Wow! What an adventure and what great images!!

[Teton Chuck]

Very nice set of photos. They are special little animals.

[Shadowman]

Nice series, looks so harmless yet you never know. I assume the temperatures are still reasonably tolerable otherwise there would be smoke trails visible from the fox's breath and you'd tell us how the weather affected your gear?

[NorthernFocus]

Beautiful little critter shot in lovely light.

[Donald]

A gem.

Now it's about editing them to have the one or two that you will show the world.

[DanK]

great images. I prefer 4 because of the greater detail in the fox and 6 because of the more interesting context.

[Geoff F]

I think I would crop a little from the foreground from #2 and #7 where there is quite a lot of soft focus area. Otherwise, excellent shots.

[zen]

What a beauty he is! Thank you for sharing.

Zen

[purplehaze]

Thanks, all.

John, the temperature was about -22, but I was only shooting for about five minutes, so the battery didn't fail. A wee bit of condensation formed on the live view screen when I got back in the bus, but quickly evaporated, so I didn't worry about it.

I shot maybe 80 frames, and only discarded about 10 of them so far. I am having a great deal of trouble deciding which to print, Donald, though, like Dan, I am partial to the ones among the rocks.

I think you are right about the crops, Geoff; thanks for the suggestion.

I am surprised no one jumped on my one major edit, which I was thinking was pretty glaring. Does no one see it?

[mugge]

Janis, I think Donald is correct that now it comes down to editing. I think #4 and #5 for mine. That is only my opinion. I would like to ask other members for their opinions. Just marvelous Janis.
Cheers Ole

[KindachiShota]

Seriously, this is the best photo set i have ever seen! The white fox is so glorious..

[Wavelength]

A single subject and yet i enjoyed it in every frame...so lovely !!!

[rpcrowe]

What a great collection of images! Although #6 is my favorite, any one of them is super. If these images were mine, I could envision an edited 30x40 inch (or larger) canvas of #6 hanging on my wall.

[purplehaze]

Thanks KindachiShota, Nandakumar and Richard. What edits would you suggest for #6, Richard? Am always open to suggestions for improvement.