Portrait Of A Moose

Portrait Of A Moose

Portrait Of A Moose

The environmental portrait is one of my favorite types of portraits. Sure there is something to be said for a good, simple head-shot.

But when a person (or creature) is captured in its normal surroundings… and it works… its kind of magical.

Setting Up The Lights

One of the most important elements of an image is light. Good light makes an image while bad light can ruin an otherwise amazing image.

I’ve made my fair share of “nasty light” pictures (and still do). It is so easy to think that I’ll just fix the picture in post processing. So instead of taking the time, or waiting till a good time (sunrise/sunset) I just take the picture and move on. It never works as good as I thought it would.

Sometimes you can fix semi-bad light in post processing. But it is way harder to fix an image made in bad light than it is to just make the same shot in beautiful light.

This moose was goofing around right at sunset. A beautiful Maine sunset.

I had nothing to do with the light. But it was some beautiful light!

The Actual Post Processing

This image was made with a Canon 5d Mk3. I rented the camera for this Maine trip and was quite impressed with it. I wished I wouldn’t have had to send it back. The lens was my Canon 70-200 mm f4 L. That camera/lens pair is pretty sweet. If the light gets a bit low you can just crank the ISO and keep shooting.

At any rate. I brought the image into Lightroom 5 and did almost all of the editing with the original RAW file. Once things were looking pretty close to what I wanted I took it into Photoshop.

Inside of Photoshop I cleaned it up a bit and did some dodging and burning.

Finally I applied a bit of Topaz Labs simplify.

What The Future Holds

Enough about the image! I’d like to expound a bit about the future of my life/site/blog.

I don’t write to much on this blog any more. Not about photography. Not about life. Not about much of anything… Some of that may change at some point.

First let me update you a bit on what I’m up to these days.

School

There are a number of things that are on my mind these days. One of the biggest of course is the start of the Fall college semester. I’ve got two years to go in a Computer Science degree. I’m really looking forwards to the end of the road!

But this fall I am learning about fun things like C++, Unix, Cryptography, Information Literacy, and the impact of computers on our lives. It’s a pretty full schedule.

The Farm

One of the other big things that I am involved with right now is my family’s farm. I don’t do a lot of outside work but I’m quite active in our social media and marketing.

Interestingly enough most of the photography that I’ve done recently has been to support/promote the farm and our fall activities. It isn’t really nature and landscape photography, but it is interesting and rewarding!

The Blog/Site

I have a few things in the works for this website. They might be of interest to some of you… 🙂

Firstly there is a fair chance that the focus of the entire site and blog might change in some regards. I’m not quite sure how all its going to pan out, but suffice to say the blog portion may just get a bit more diverse.

Now that I’ve got your interest up I need to stop writing for tonight. I’m tired and ready for bed!

Blessings to each of you,

Eldon