Thanks guys.
Bob, you'll be hard pressed to see the raw shot of this cause I shoot in jpg. It's a personal choice.
I guess I don't see what you're seeing. Sure, the grass looks sharp in the focal plane, but I won't say overly sharp.
For the web, I make my shots 1200 pixels on the long side. When I enter these challenges, I normally just grab
a shot from my site, and resize them down to 800, long side.
After re-reading the new rules, I see (now) that there is no size limil other than 200K.
I was still working off the old rule of 150K, so I know that I downsized it to around 60% for quality when I saved this for the challenge.
The slightly larger shot is on my site:http://davev.smugmug.com/WildLife/Deer/7185003_PoFiT#701122549_DYZz9But that's about as big as I post on the web.
Thanks again guys.
Really excellent capture Dave and as already stated, not easy to do with creatures of the wild. Well done.
I must comment on something that is not intended as a criticism but more as a personal observation. I find the 'artifacts' produced both by the 'JPEG' compression and the 'USM' (or sharpening algorithms used) distract a little especially in the grasses within the field of 'focus'.
I played a little with your photograph and applied a small amount of 'blur' just to the grass each side of the subject and for me it took away that distraction.
I would love to see the original 'raw' 20+ megapixel shot, I feel sure it would be magnificent, full of detail and crisp. Having to downsize and compress to fit the 'max size requirement' sometimes just does not do justice to one's terrific work.
So... congratulations on a magnificent capture Dave and I repeat that these comments are not a criticism but a personal observation.
This one would also been a strong contender in a "bokeh" competition. Lovely. I cannot speak from personal experience, but I take Trav's word that this is much more difficult than it looks and thus add an additional round of compliments. :-) Regards Nico
