Polly Krauter
December 2024 - American River Otter with Unlucky Catfish
Original
About the Image(s)
We were photographing Sand Hill Cranes in Merced a couple of weeks ago. As the light started to fade we happened to see a North American River Otter on a creek bank happily munching a colorful catfish. I could hear him crunching the fish’s cartilage. I was surprised to see the fish’s face when I started to work on the image. It made me laugh out loud! I cropped in very tight to see the fish’s face. Did I crop too tight? I used Topaz sharpening and Gigipix. I increased the exposure (which brought out the bright catfish’s colors) and darkened the foliage in the lower left corner.
Handheld canon R5, 100-500 zoom
ISO 640
500mm f/8.0
1/1250 sec
8 comments posted
I love this kind of shot. I've never seen a yellow catfish and the color sets it off nicely against the dark otter. To my eye, the background looks sharper than the subject and the camera may have missed focus a bit. I think I'd blur and darken the background a bit and use whatever sharpening tools you have to sharpen the eye, nose and mouth. Cute shot. Posted: 12/08/2024 17:07:56
Thank you Mike, I will work on the background, it is distracting. I looked up the species of the catfish and it is a Black Bulhead. This species is not native to my state and likely was planted here for fishing. Posted: 12/14/2024 17:49:04
A great opportunistic shot and i like the texture of the otter's fur which adds to the detail. I agree the expression of the Catfish is comical but guess he too was resigned to his fate!
I might have cropped in a bit more from the bottom as the foilage is a bit distracting. Think Mike has a point about sharpening the eye and the nose. A fun image though with a good story. Posted: 12/14/2024 23:11:04
I might have cropped in a bit more from the bottom as the foilage is a bit distracting. Think Mike has a point about sharpening the eye and the nose. A fun image though with a good story. Posted: 12/14/2024 23:11:04
Great action shot that tells a happy/tragic tale of life in the wild. The expressions are amazing: the otter looks joyous, but the poor catfish looks simply stunned. I agree that the background could be deemphasized. Posted: 12/15/2024 02:33:05
What a great shot, right place right time and it tells the story. The otter certainly seems extremely pleased with himself. I have to agree about the background, I too find it rather distracting.
Happy Holidays. Posted: 12/15/2024 19:33:46
Happy Holidays. Posted: 12/15/2024 19:33:46
I think you did a good job of getting down to the level of your subject which is a perfect perspective to make me feel I am right there in the scene.The image also has a good nature story. I feel the entire face of the otter is a bit soft,and as has been pointed out, the background is in sharp focus. For wildlife and birds I really like the animal eye tracking ability of the R5. If you use that combined with back button auto focus the liklihood of getting the face and especially the eye of your subject is greatly increased. Ron Bielefield (Whistling Wings Photography) has a great YouTube video on this. You might want to looks him up. (PS - I think he is a friend of Mike's.) Posted: 12/16/2024 14:50:16
Great suggestions. I do use the back button auto focus and Topaz sharpening but I really should use a mono or tripod. I will continue to attempt to get a sharper image. Posted: 12/19/2024 04:40:44
Thank you all for your very helpful suggestions. You often point out things I don't initially see. Happy holidays and happy New Year! Posted: 12/19/2024 04:43:07