This is actually the same cat I entered in Wildlife III, but taken purely by chance. The zoo asked me to take some photos of their new vampire bats for press releases, but when I arrived the bats weren't in yet. However this lynx was unusually active, and positioned just right in an environment that's downright hostile to photography. I wasn't planning to enter, but might as well, huh?
Processing: Exposure and contrast in RAW conversion, Levels to pop a very flat original, smooth some edges on the subtle background bars, then Noise Ninja and gaussian blur to smooth it out even more and reduce noise, Dodge and Burn, USM and spot saturation on the eyes and background.
Statistics
Place: 6 out of 99 Avg (all users): 6.9396 Avg (commenters): 7.7333 Avg (participants): 6.2708 Avg (non-participants): 7.2574 Views since voting: 2560 Views during voting: 452 Votes: 149 Comments: 29 Favorites: 2 (view)
I don't know what's funnier, you shoehorning another zoo shot in a wildlife challenge or Simms "shooting fish in a barrel" calling you out on it.
Much ado about nothing. If you ask someone if a lynx is an example of wildlife they'll say ABSOLUTELY, but a stray siamese cat would get hammered by voters even if it had never seen a house in its life.
Meh. Like getting "called out" by someone taking a photo of deer in a nature preserve is any different anyway, on the grand scale.
I don't know what's funnier, you shoehorning another zoo shot in a wildlife challenge or Simms "shooting fish in a barrel" calling you out on it.
Much ado about nothing. If you ask someone if a lynx is an example of wildlife they'll say ABSOLUTELY, but a stray siamese cat would get hammered by voters even if it had never seen a house in its life.
I don't know what's funnier, you shoehorning another zoo shot in a wildlife challenge or Simms "shooting fish in a barrel" calling you out on it. Only at DPC.
Its an amazing capture but you havent really said what this "hostile environment" was.
I explained it on my last entry. The enclosure dates back to the early 1900's (the zoo started with PT Barnum's circus animals), and is constructed with heavy iron bars on the front and back that are difficult to blur away. There's another fence 8 or 10 feet in front of the bars, while a roof and the surrounding trees limit the available light. The only area that allows good lighting away from the bars and any artificial structures is confined to just a few square feet, although the catchlights a couple of people mentioned were a natural opening in the trees behind me.
"The zoo asked me to take some photos of their new vampire bats for press releases, but when I arrived the bats weren't in yet. However this lynx was unusually active, and positioned just right in an environment that's downright hostile to photography."
So this wasnt in the wild? Its an amazing capture but you havent really said what this "hostile environment" was.
I am not sure how to judge this one because the square catch lights in the eyes makes it look like it may be captive animal which would make it questionable as far as the challenge so I am not going to judge it in case I am wrong. Pretty cool cat though, kind of wish the top of the ears were not cut off but still a nice shot. Good luck in the challenge.
A bit too much vignette going on here for my taste but it's a captivating photo. Instead of alert though I see sad emotion. Eh, regardless, very nice work.
This is very well done, I really like the feel of this. It should score fairly high, the only minor fault is the tufts on the ears. They are a very distinguishing mark of the Lynx. I would have predicted a Ribbon here if they were not cut off.
Good Luck with this I hope it does well for you.
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