Behind the Lens: Into the blizzard
This photograph is of a Blue Morph Arctic Fox in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve in the far northwest of Iceland during a winter blizzard.
The fox, seemingly oblivious to the wild storm raging around it, is entirely at home in the harsh, freezing environment. No other mammal on earth can cope with such extreme cold as the Arctic Fox. Even the Polar Bear will start to shiver before the Arctic Fox.
A little-known fact is that the Arctic Fox has two different morphs. The most common is white in winter, but there is a lesser known morph known as the Blue Fox that turns a chocolate brown in winter. Arctic Foxes are circumpolar, but the white is more dominant everywhere except Iceland.
The choice of framing for this photograph was easy as the fox's pose and tail lend it to being placed on the right-hand side of the frame. The use of negative space greatly helps to frame the fox, while the gentle shadow underneath anchors the fox to the snow-covered ground.
When taking this photograph, I deliberately tilted the camera to exaggerate and emphasise the steepness of the snow where the fox was sitting. The steeper angle helps add additional impact to the photograph.
The photograph was shot RAW and exposed to the right (ETTR) to maximise the file's signal-to-noise ratio and ensure the snow was not underexposed and grey. With winds over 20 metres per second, a very fast shutter speed was needed to freeze the flying snow.
In terms of post-production, very little has been done to the RAW file. A black point and white point were set, along with a slight white balance adjustment to neutralise the snow. Some sharpening was added to counteract the inherent softness of the camera's anti-alias filter. No additional post-production work was required.
Environmental conditions are key for storytelling in this sort of winter wildlife photograph. The flying snow provides the much-needed feeling of a winter blizzard, and the snow sticking to the coat of the fox adds the required drama to complete the story.