New Kit in Town
New Kit in Town
I received a text message from Ruth Wedge (Passion for Fashions Studio) a few days ago asking if I would like to make some images of a red fox den with kits. I could not thank her enough for thinking of me. The next evening, I sat in my car blind and made some images of the alpha kit. Here she is standing grass high, proud and inquisitive as can be, ‘New Kit in town’.
The Technical Layer
To read additional technical and location content please click on the tabs below.
Technical: Camera Settings
Technical: How & Gear
I used my Nikon D5 and attached my 200-400 and a tc/2.0. That gave me an 800mm of focal length. Then I adjusted the focus mode from Fx to Dx, and that gave me another 1.5. The downside to increasing the focal length is that it robs light by two stops and it also reduces the depth of field to only a few inches. This article provides additional Information Understanding Teleconverters. Having the MoosePeterson MP1V2 with me in the front seat allowed me to store the long glass/TC and camera no problem.
Technical: Location & Inspiration
The inspiration is a litter of Red Fox Kits. The location I will keep secret, except to say that cops and neighbors stopped to saw hello and ask me what I was doing. During the stakeout, I researched the habitat and biology of these little kits. The rural location for this den is not typical however the litter of six was normal. The six kits never appeared for me. I also did not see the parents and began to speculate the worse. Hopefully, I’ll check the location out soon and see some activity of the entire litter.
Technical: Craft
In post-production, with wildlife images, I will try and keep my hands off all the darkroom tools. I was trained and have adopted the practice of keeping wildlife images straight out of the camera. However, I took the liberty of toning down some hots spots and removing a few twigs.
