Arctic Fox at night

Asher Kelman said:

Anyone else have snow pictures with wild animals?

Asher

Click to expand...

Well I'll toss another one out there. You have to take my word that there was snow in the background, however.

This is an Arctic Fox, taken in complete darkness. I was about 50 feet away, with a several million candlepower monster flashlight positioned 90 degrees to my right. To add to the feeling of being there the winds were in the 40's and the temps in the negatives and there was a guy behind me with a shotgun watching for polar bear.

1dsm2, 500/4, iso3200, 1/400 at f/4, 1348, wimberly

A fantastic shot, Steve - appreciate the technicals as well. Where was this taken?

Great shot!

What's this flashlight Steve, and what do you mean positioned 90 degrees to your right.

It was complete darkness on not?

Asher

Hello,

Without the flashlight on it was quite dark.

Boats and other vehicles sometimes have these flashlights. They run off of a car battery and weigh 10 lbs. Maybe "spotlight" is more accurate. Anyway, one of them doesn't have much trouble lighting up things far away.

Relative positions - here's what I meant by 90deg to my right. Might not have been exactly 90 deg, of course.

FOX ON ROCK <-------- SPOTLIGHT


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ME WITH CAMERA


What really impressed me is how good this looks printed at 11x14 or so, considering the quality of light and iso3200. Amazing what noise reduction, WB in RAW and some PS work can do.

Steve,

One small detail, how did you communicate to the the fox that you needed him/her to stay there while you set up the million candle power search light? Seems like a damn considerate fox!

Asher

Don't you speak fox?

That was one of the nicer of 400 or so frames. The guy running the light moved around, I moved around - each trying to position things ideally. It was a team effort and would have been impossible alone.

Or for another animal in snow how about a Ptarmigan?

1dsm2, 500/4 f/4, iso 400, 1/500, beanbag from window

I can't envision myself with someone standing behind me with a shotgun watching for Polar Bears!

It's a fabulous shot. I really like it. But the Polar Bear thing has me really impressed. How do you stay focused knowing one of those bears could come out of the total darkenss from any angle at any time?

And what happens if the bear takes out the gun guy first?

I have a friend who in Northern Ontario was helping a buddy re-roof a hunting lodge when a grissley came by to have a peek at what they were doing. The bear stood up and put it's paws on the eaves. Oh Oh!

This is a big bear.

It proceeded to shake the lodge for about an hour trying to disloge them from the roof. They literally nailed clothing to the roof the shaking was so violent. Good thing or bad..I have no idea but it kept them from falling off the roof!

My pals friend kept saying it's a log home...it's sturdy...just wait him/her/it out! My buddy hasn't left downtown Toronto since! Won't even go to the zoo!

I do not blame him one bit. I may become a squirrel specialist!

Jeff