Vicuña on the road

Near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.
The driver had to slow down because some vicuñas were crossing.

I shot dozens of times from the inside of a moving vehicle full of people. Not my favorite conditions. This is the one I like the most from that time.

Shot with a Canon 90D and a 55-250mm @250mm. f/11, Av mode, auto ISO.

Edited with Darktable. I had to convert cr3 to dng with dnglab :man_shrugging:

6 Likes

This is a nice capture under challenging conditions, nice job! The leading line from the bottom left that pulls us into the frame, through the main subject and through the rest of the image is really nice.

To improve it, I’d crop out the non-sandy mountain in the top left. If you have other frames that you can blend together where the signs on the right hand side are, I’d do that as well so the right edge isn’t so jarringly cut off, or you could clone them out.

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I enjoy the textures of everything. I wish we got to see more of the background, particularly the top right. In my opinion, the proper framing would have been to have the vicuña at the lower-left third of the frame. Right now, the sandy area feels like a indomitable wall.

As for cropping, what I would do is cut the left side of the image, so we get a tall image. That would deal with the road line and mountain issue that Mica pointed out and also match the over-cropping of the right-hand side. Overall, an interesting image.

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Nice image :slight_smile:

Along the lines of what @paperdigits said, I would crop the image a bit more, so the vicuña is not on the dead center:

this way the road and specially the yellow marks will guide you through the image, the right signs are not a problem anymore, and the overall composition adds a bit of drama or unbalance.

Let me explain the last part: the road, the yellow marks, the position of the vicuña, and even the right rear leg gives the impression of movement to the left, but she has a strong gaze to the right, hence the unbalance (which to me adds a bit of extra interest to the image).

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I would increase the exposure locally at the neck and head somewhat.
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my proposal

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My proposal GIMP 2.10.28 LAB

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