During my visit at the National Zoo the other day, we stopped into the Small mammal house and enjoyed the little creatures that sleep throughout the day and party all night long.

A pair of Fennec foxes were nestled in the back of their habitat with a dirty and grungy glass in the front. The glass was such a distraction that I needed to use Manual focus to achieve a semblance of focus on my subject.

In a quick moment, he raised his head a little and peeked out and luckily I had made the right exposure adjustments to get at least a couple of captures before he tucked his head back in again.

The image needed a lot of help as it was kinda blurry due to the bad window glass as well as ISO 3200 and 1/60 of a second.

The painterly look appeared from the surroundings and I immediately knew what I was going to do with the image when I got home. With a quick pass-through in Topaz Studio – Impressions, I applied the Swirly Strokes effect at reduced opacity.

Here is the original for your consideration.