Tag: bobcat

Just once, part 21

Al Denelsbeck

Bobcat Lynx rufus drinking
While I would be totally chuffed to have obtained such a pic of a bobcat (Lynx rufus) in the wild, alas, this is not the case, and this was taken in the NC Zoological Park, part of the reason that it’s only appeared once before. The other part is that, while I’ve seen bobcats twice before to my memory, both times were fleeting and far too brief to bring a camera to bear. As I look at this however, I chide my older self for not framing this better, but I’m fairly certain I slammed the frame out in the bare moment that the bobcat made eye contact.

Bobcats are common throughout North America, and in fact there are now two recognized subspecies: Lynx rufus rufus in the east, and Lynx rufus fasciatus in the west – given that I took this in a zoo in North Carolina, I’d tend to believe this is the former, but who knows how they obtained their specimen? Yet while common, bobcats are also quite shy and tend to be nocturnal, so the chances to spot one are rare, and you largely have to be either very lucky or specifically trying for the subject; up until this writing I’ve never spent enough time in an area they were known to frequent. Both of those that I’ve spotted have been bounding across the road ahead of me, come to think of it: once on Pilot Mountain in NC, actually on the drive into the park (late morning,) and once in Merritt Island in Florida (late afternoon) – that one was huge, and crossed the two-lane road in three bounds. There was a chance that I saw one near Jordan Lake right around here, but it was a fleeting glimpse (true to form, seen in the headlights of the car,) and I’ve found no evidence of them there before or since, so I may have been mistaken.

So let’s put it this way: if I ever discover that they’re frequenting an area that I can spend a little time in, I’ll definitely make the attempt to snag some truly “wild” images – much more effort than I’d put into chasing any songbird, for instance. Or if, you know, there’s some chance of commensurate income from such photos, I’ll even make a dedicated trip – we can deal.

Sunday slide 37

Al Denelsbeck

American bobcat Lynx rufus drinking
This one’s only about seven years old I think, not too long before my slide shooting petered out in favor of digital. Well, not really in favor of, since I still like the color register of slides, but it became harder and more expensive to get them processed, and when doing the more demanding pursuits of macro, it was easier to a) shoot several frames to help ensure critical focus was nailed, and b) see that the lighting was working the way I needed it.

Anyway, this is a bobcat (Lynx rufus) in the NC Zoological Park in Asheboro, NC. I have seen bobcats in the wild, twice, both times so fleetingly that I never even started the motion to bring a camera to bear. Maybe someday, but they’re very scarce around here and I’m rarely spending time in an area where they’re more common. Even when they’re common they’re not, tending to be secretive and more nocturnal, much like the foxes, which we do have in this area and I yet have no photos of. Crappy video, yes, but no photos.

However, this is also an edited photo, since the flash was mounted on the hotshoe of the camera and produced really bright reflections from those eyes. The original, in fact, looks like this:

American bobcat Lynx rufus drinking, without editing
This comes from having the flash too close to the lens and getting a direct reflection from the retina, and can vary depending on how close the subject is and how dilated their pupils are. Usually, I know when this is going to happen and can take steps to prevent it, but sometimes you take what you can get, and getting the flash off-camera on a cord to get outside of the reflectance angle would have required a second person to do the aiming of the flash, and I had only moments to get the shot.

But I want you to go back to the first and look carefully at the eyes, because this is something that is often missed when “red-eye removal” is done. You can’t simply black out the entire reflection and expect it to look natural, because eyes very frequently have natural reflections from the surface, called a catchlight. Those bright spots need to remain to look right, so your editing needs to take this into account. It often takes a bit of practice and some familiarity with more-than-basic editing functions, like de-selecting the outer surface reflections after selecting the retinal reflections, and fuzzing the edges of the selection to prevent unnaturally sharp edges. Not to mention being sure that both eyes are aligned right and you don’t have one reflection skewed further from center than the other to produce a crosseyed or walleyed effect [spellcheck doesn’t like “crosseyed” but is just fine with “walleyed” – go figure].

If and when I get my ‘true wild’ shots of a bobcat, they’ll likely be much worse than this because the conditions will be demanding, yet at the same time they’ll be, you know, true wild shots, and I’ll be more proud of them.