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Questions to guide your feedback
On a warm, sunny early spring day, the turtles came out in droves to warm up in the sun. In this case, it looks like a Red-Eared Slider on the left and a Red-bellied Cooter on the right.
Other Information
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Technical Details
Sunbathing turtles are both fun and challenging to photograph as they are very watchful and quickly slide into the water if you don’t use a stalking approach.
R5, 100-500 @ 428, 1/80 s, f16, tripod and polarizer
First impression: FINALLY, a warm day!! Closely followed by jealousy, as I can’t ever get within 100 feet of a good turtle. And now reading your comments, I see that jealousy was an appropriate response. Good catch!
Sunning turtles always make me smile and this is a double whammy. Mostly I encounter them in the kayak where it’s marginally easier to get close to them. I’ve found populations vary in their sensitivity or tolerance to human activity. Oddly in a very hard-to-get-to creek that is now entirely blocked by fallen trees, I found the turtles to be the least afraid of me in the boat. I could get so close I barely needed a telephoto lens. Crazy.
The different angles here are pleasing as is the two species. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a red-eared since they don’t live where I have paddled. I love the debris on that one, too. Easy to tell it’s just come up through the duckweed. The markings on the painted are really interesting - looks like a scute shed is coming up.
I could see adding a touch of contrast and saturation and maybe masking and reducing the clarity and exposure in the log. Good idea using a polarizer for these guys - the shell sometimes really needs it!
It reminds me of my very first wildlife story, witnessed about 34 years ago.
A Turtle and a Darter were friends, when Turtle used to come on the branch for sunshine, the Darter also used to come there to dry the wings. On the slightest movement, Darter used to take off and Turtle used to jump into the water. I called them sunshine friends. I may still have that slide somewhere
I may prefer some more canvas on the top and if this was mine, I would selectively sharpen the Turtles without sharpening the log.
