Salvaging a bad photo by Leeco
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Description
Hi all,
I wanted to share this image and see what comments it might generate. This is an unusual photo for several reasons.
In the 1st place, it is very rare to see a full grown wild raccoon out in the middle of the day. This could indicate the possibility of rabies. However, it could also just be a new mother out foraging for her new litter (it is the right time of the year for that to be the case here). This raccoon showed no indication of erratic behavior before or after it became aware of me.
But there was something odd about it - and that was it's color. This was the 2nd reason for this to be an unusual photo. This raccoon was not the typical black and white colors I am used to seeing on a raccoon. The rings on it's tail and many of the markings on the body, were cinnamon colored. A friend of mine(who is as interested in birds as I am in insects) suggested that it might be a 'leucistic' specimen. I had never heard this term before. It refers to unusual pigmentation in animals - apparently a not uncommon occurrence in birds. Live and learn, lol.
The third unusual aspect of this photo was that I am posting it at all. The inset original photo I included looks so-so here but at full resolution - it is obvious the focus was very bad. I don't usually post images that are of this quality - but as I said - this is an unusual situation.
I wanted to try to salvage this image. The normal tweaking of contrasts, sharpness, clarity, etc could do nothing about the poor focus. So I decided to manipulate it to a greater extent than is my normal procedure with critter pics. I decided to turn it into a digital painting.
So here is what I managed to come up with. I hope some find it worth commenting on.
In closing - I am sad to say - my postings will be few and far between for the foreseeable future.
It takes almost 20 min for me to go from clicking on the RR bookmark on my browser to be able to sign in and see all the images on page one of the photo gallery and another 7-8 minutes to see the next page after that and so on. This has been the case for well over a year. I am not sure what RR changed but it makes my accessing and using the site a very frustrating and time consuming process - two conditions I can not deal with at this point in my life.
Take care, enjoy life, and I will be back when I can.
Lee
Comments (5)
durleybeachbum
It is very a beautiful result. I don't often have any trouble withh RR at the moment, maybe it is your server?
MrsLubner
Lee, as someone who has dealt with animal pelts for many years, and raccoons being one of the most common, this is not rare, although, in your area it isn't common either. There are silver raccoons, cinnamon raccoons, black raccoons and grey ones. Although there are other variations that become rarer the further out you go. The term 'melanism' is taken from the Greek meaning black pigment and refers to all black animals. This raccoon is not melanastic. It is a lovely specimen and it's too bad the photo wasn't sharper.
rockstrider
I like what you've done with the filter-effect! I'm afraid that I know nothing about racoons as we dont get them here in the UK but PJ seems to be something of an authority (above)!
bakapo
oh, how lucky you are to see such a different colored raccoon, she's so pretty. I like the filter you used, too.
Katraz
Your shot looks pretty reasonable and living in the UK we don't have Raccoons as for your connection it may be your server or even your home connection as I have a very slow broadband at home but it comes up quite quickly, I am sending this from a laptop connected by a 3G dongle from my caravan at a flower show and that's dial up but its still no more than about 20 seconds to upload.