This is a capybara, the largest rodent in the world, with a cattle tyrant on its head. I shot this in the Pantanal region of Brazil with a Canon 500mm f/4 telephoto, handheld, from a boat. My settings were 1/320, f/11, and 640 ISO. The shutter speed really should have been faster, for insurance, so I was fortunate to end up with a tack sharp image. The reason I conduct tours here in early November is to avoid the cloudless days of summer. The end of October and the beginning of November represents the cusp of the rainy season, and clouds typically provide diffused light most of the time. You can never go wrong with soft, even outdoor lighting when taking portraits of people or, as in this case, animals. Patchy lighting, contrast, blown highlights and shadows with no detail are not issues at all with diffused light.
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