Gemsbok/Oryx

[Rachel Hollander]

Taken in Etosha National Park, Namibia in the morning. I do have some with the head up but then the horizon intersected the horizon so I decided to see what you think of this one.

Canon 7D
100-400 @ 210mm
1/2500
f7.1
ISO 400
HH from safari vehicle, straightened, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, selective dodging and burning and sharpened in CS5.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Steve Uffman]

I like it and am jealous....These critters were a bit shy on my trip. and seemed to show up in numbers just before sunset...Wanted images of them so badly I actually took some at ISO 16000 with the 1dx just to see

Your images are always so fine I rarely can do much more than cheer. If it were mine, I might try is to clone the grass at the top over the horizon sky and darker vegetation that has a slight slope. Might eliminate a minor distraction and give the appearance of more head room...might work but might not....

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, thanks for the clarification to the rational of choice with this image, it does give a good insight into your thinking.

As it stands, as presented, I find the subject a little awkward in composition, perhaps loosing some space from the RHS might help balance it out? You have already addressed the reasons why you chosse this shot for the head aspect, so thats fine. Looks like the light was quite harsh, was it? If so, the whites look well handled. I also wonder if it could/would benefit from a Lumo % overlay just to bolster the content? Steve raised a good point, so just that section of sky/horizon and giving it a slight CCW rotation does help, likewise extending the green to lose the sky, but optional/personal choice. Also opening up the smaller shadow areas ie ears, eye etc does make a difference IMHO. I think it could also do with some more USM.

With hindsight you could have dropped the ISO, however not a deal breaker and always good to have a high SS.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Steve and Steve - thanks for the comments and suggestions. Most of the places we went in Namibia the gemsbok wer skittish and kept their distance. The guide promised me they would be more cooperative in Etosha and he was right. This was a little later in the morning, outside of typical game drive hours (we did an all day drive in Etosha with a short stop for lunch), so the light was stronger. I could not decide whether to eliminate the small amount of sky or leave it, easy enough to crop out and to take a bit off the right.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Tom Graham]

Flip it left-right.
Tom

[Steve Uffman]

Flip it left-right.
Tom
Tom can you help me with the logic here? Looking to learn something

[Rachel Hollander]

Steve - Tom knows well that I don't flip my images. There have been a couple of discussions about flipping images. For example,
http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/96960-To-Flip-or-Not-to-Flip-an-Image

[Steve Uffman]

Thanks Rachel, was curious . I know the flipping rules when doing mag/book layouts from journalism days but not in this context. I might not know better but I only flip when it would improve the context such as the flow of the eye on a blog or book. ( I. E in a book layout, I prefer eyes or motion towards center)

[Rachel Hollander]

You're welcome Steve. Personally if I want eyes facing a certain way when doing a photobook of my trip, then I choose an image facing that way rather than flip an image. I think it is has something to do with the fact that I remember the scene and know which way the animal was facing, flipping it doesn't look right to me.

Rachel

[BenBotha]

I also dont always get the reason for flipping. I tmay be that the flipside is flippen better-I could not resist-sorry.:w3

Ben

[Morkel Erasmus]

You're welcome Steve. Personally if I want eyes facing a certain way when doing a photobook of my trip, then I choose an image facing that way rather than flip an image. I think it is has something to do with the fact that I remember the scene and know which way the animal was facing, flipping it doesn't look right to me.

Rachel

I agree here Rachel.
I think the way Tom insists on this action is just "flippant" :w3 (meant in jest, couldn't resist haha).


Nice scene...don't mind the head down. Might crop a sliver off the top to get the BG "uniform", even though it would tighten it up more than most would be comfortable with...:e3

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
nicely processed Qryx image.
Colors , contrast and detail all spot on.Maybe the darks lighten a tad , could it bring even a step up.
Would eliminate the blue sky, too small .Good for nothing.
Comp works well, even if these feeding scenes are mostly looking not that interesting(with head down).

Yeah and another image , that could be flipped.

TFS Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

If I wasn't such a well-mannered lady, I would just flip you all off ... but, seriously, thanks for all the comments and suggestions. :bg3:

Rachel