Sparring Waterbuck

[Ken Watkins]

Two youngish Males practice for the real battles ahead.

Taken in Kipedo National Park, Northern Uganda, 15th June 2012.

EOS 1D MkIV

500mm F4 hand-held

F8, ISO 400, 1/800

[Gregor Bergquist]

Hi Ken

Great details and moment here. Fabulous horns (again) :)
I would consider two things different with this one. Background and that the right waterbuck is cut off. Maybe both could be made better with a tighter crop (just to get faces and horns inside). A other option if possible is to go much wider, but then the background comes in play.

TFS, Gregor

[Ken Watkins]

Gregor thanks for commenting, this is basically full frame hence the somewhat awkward crop, I will take a look at taking some from the sides as in reality the subject is the heads horns and eyes.

[Rachel Hollander]

Ken -Gregor beat me to it. I would definitely look at a different crop to emphasize the heads and horns and minimize the cut-off body and tightness on top. Nice action captured.

TFS,
Rachel

[Ken Watkins]

I am not a fan of changing images by adding large amounts of canvas, but I have given it a go.

Apart from the extension I certainly think it adds impact.

[Hendri Venter]

Nice close-up action Ken. For me the repost with closer crop do have more impact.

[Steve Canuel]

I like these guys and you got a nice view of the action. Detail and colors look good. Hard to get a good closeup without cutting something off (especially with those long horns). Don't mind the cutoff bits of the OP, my eye goes right to the faces.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Ken,
pretty god job on exposure,timing with the shot and processing.
But both comps do not really work for me.

Cheers Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

Apologies for missing this one, Ken.
Great action, though this is a tough one to compose for (or crop). I appreciate the difficulty of shooting this kind of action up close with a fixed lens...
Here's a different crop suggestion - WDYT?

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel.

No worries, those horns make things difficult, I really think you could crop this in anyway, whether it would please others is of course open to question.