This beautiful Red Fox came to visit my bird feeders. She seemed quite curious, and when she saw a squirrel, gave chase. The squirrel escaped unscathed. The fox...
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This beautiful Red Fox came to visit my bird feeders. She seemed quite curious, and when she saw a squirrel, gave chase. The squirrel escaped unscathed. The fox seemed non-plussed. I think she was a young one.
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken right outside my home when the young fox came for an unexpected visit. She was quite casual about exploring under the bird and suet feeders and watching the local squirrels.Time
I believe this was taken in the early afternoon, but it was quite some time ago-I just remember my whole family was excited to see he, and we carefully got our cameras out so as to not scare her. This may have been taken through a window.Lighting
The snow was very bright, but fortunately not sunny, so it was not so hard to get a decent exposure.Equipment
Canon 50 D ,aperture f/4?ISO 400?Shutter 1/640?Focal Length 300/1?Handheld no flashInspiration
I am always excited to see any wildlife where I love, and I'm especially fond of foxes. It was a very rare moment to have this visitor right in my yard-a spontaneous event I will never forget.Editing
I usually shoot camera raw, which necessitates some sharpening and sometimes a bit of color or exposure correction. I believe I did that for this picture, and likely cropped it a bit as well.In my camera bag
I have switched to Nikon gear since I took that photo-I have a D500 and D850, with a 500 f/5.6 lens and a 300 f/4 lens. Those are my mainstays for wildlife photography. Sometimes I use a monopod, but rarely use a tripod-there is rarely time to set up for shots like this. I do like my Black Rapit shoulder slingto support and secure my cameras.Feedback
If you have your camera out and ready to grab a shot at ant time, it can sometimes make a difference whether you have time to grab a shot. It also helps to have a very quick look at your screen to check for exposure and settings, though sometimes I just trust to luck when I have to act fast. I use Photoshop to correct under or over exposures, but it can only go so far and still look good. I try to keep the ISO down to avoid noise, but that sometimes backfires and you get motion blur. There's a fine line there between the two. I shoot Aperture priority and adjust the rest accordingly. I find that wide open isn't always ideal with some lenses-I might go down a step or two. Mostly though, you just have to be always observing wildlife wherever you are, and take lots of practice shots of moving animals and birds.