10
Votes
Michael Higgins's picture

Snow Day

December 2012

I was able to capture a wide-angle low perspective of this handsome buck. Although he is wild, he and others in the area are very docile. Their range overlaps a handful of popular trails outside of a suburban area of Ottawa, ON.

Nikon D90
28mm · f/6.3 · 1/60th · ISO 400
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2 Comments

Two things. First... OMG!!!! I consider myself a fairly outdoorsy person. I make an annual trip in Jan or feb to snow shoe in the backcountry of Colorado 4 miles, we start at night and hike via the full moon reflecting off the snow. I’m spent a lot of time in the western Montana wilderness, and way more time than I’d like to admit in New Mexico desert. Once, and only once have a walked up on a white tail (Montana, New Mexico has mule deer). I actually snuck up on the poor girl by accident. So seeing a wide angle of one this close completely blows my mind. Now second, your eye for lighting is incredible, but after looking at your photos quite a bit, I feel some of the softness I’m seeing is post edited in, but it looks so natural. If you don’t mind me asking, how much is brought in through photoshop?

Wow that moonlit snowshoe trip sounds amazing. I'd have to leave my camera at home or risk making next to no progress lol.

Thanks very much for your kind words! So I work full time at a dog rescue/kennel as a photographer. Its an awesome little job that came along just as I was starting to veer my career towards pet photography, and I'm getting pretty good at it. The problem is that due to the day to day operations of the kennel, the window for taking the daily shots falls at midday. As you know, this is just the worst light, especially this time of year. I can make due in the winter, but I get off on cloudy forecasts for this reason in the summer, or just stick to the shade from trees on the sunny days. All this to say, I've started to make my own light in photoshop for alot of my dog photos. I plan it so its consistent with the ambient light, and these techniques have spilled over a bit into my nature shots. In that porcupine pic you commented on, the light on the quills and branch beside him is real, but I added that soft glow in the corner. I do this by creating a new layer, blend mode screen, and clicking an orange/yellow paint brush once from the source direction. That one spot of softness can next-level a photo I find.

Here are some examples in my dog photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/keshet_rescue/28941610518/in/album-7215766...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/keshet_rescue/28744722048/in/album-7215766...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/keshet_rescue/39717377330/in/album-7215766...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/keshet_rescue/38254238516/in/album-7215766...