After the snow leopard, we shot racoons and a canadian lynx. Racoons never stop moving so there very hard to shoot. The snow leopard was amazing. We were standing 10ft away from the full grown cat. That alone was worth the price of the workshop.

Posting from the top of a mountain. We’re shooting a mountain lion and, soon, a snow leopard.

A while ago I posted this image I took at Kootenai Creek.

Well, now I’ve spent a little bit of time in Photoshop doing some “pruning”, local color corrections, dodging/burning, and cropping.  Now it looks like this:

And when I say “a little bit of time in Photoshop,” I mean about 8 hours. :)  The hard part was rebuilding the rock where the branch overlapped and making it look believable.  How’d I do? 

This is the image I printed and matted the other day.  It was also the image that was being critiqued.  The teacher who critiqued it seemed to dislike the hard, high contrast light I shot it in.  She said in a perfect world I would have shot it under softer light, like on a cloudy day or when the rock was under shade.  I totally disagree, of course.  If this was a image of a nice, peacefully flowing river, then, yeah, I agree, but this isn’t that type of river.  This was a violent and turbulent stream rushing down the side of the mountain.  The harsh light accentuates that turbulent and chaotic feeling.  I think the light was perfect for the shot I was trying to get.  And since I took the picture, my opinion is the only one that really counts, right? :) 

Anyway, want to buy it?  All it needs is a frame.

I’m currently standing on top of Randolph Hill north of town. It’s a beautiful day.