Reaching Up

[Morkel Erasmus]

A young elephant bull in Mana Pools, Zimbabwe...reaching as high as he can. This one hadn't fully learned how to rock onto his hind legs yet and was mostly sponging off the bigger/older bull who could do it, waiting for him to break off entire branches and then feast with him.

Techs:
Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II @ 170mm
f7.1 @ 1/400 SS @ ISO-200
full frame image
captured handheld and on foot, late afternoon

[Tom Rambaut]

Seen your image of the bull standing on his back legs! That is a fantastic image. You can see that he is giving it a good go - the leaves in the trunk and the couple of falling leaves give a sense of effort on the elephants part. As if he has just managed to grab some. I like how most of the trunk is in the space with sky as a background. Hope to see a wild elephant one day!

[Brendon Cremer]

Lovely image Morkel, great light and colours well exposed, maybe the ele could do with another round of sharpening but not a biggie, great image.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel, I like the action/behavioural content and the single leaf falling, just adds to the image. Certainly it could stand a bit more sharpening & also a slight tweak in the Yellow channel of selective colour (not just yellow) and adding a bit more depth with a channel curves adjustment I feel helps too. To me it does seems a little bright overall for late afternoon, thought the light might have been a little softer? You are spoilt over there with light. :bg3:

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Morkel - I really like the curve of the trunk towards the viewer, the open mouth and the pieces of leaves falling. Vertical comp works very well. Was it sloping down to the left a bit? It looks to have a slight yellow cast to me. Well done overall though.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks for the feedback and critique, folks! Good call on the colour...:e3

Steve, it was taken at 16h35 in winter, so in Mana this was about an hour before the sun effectively set behind the Zambian escarpment.

The only other place with light quite like Mana, is the Kgalagadi (at least that I've seen)...

Here's a repost with colour balance adjusted, overall luminosity toned down and some sharpening applied.

[Steve Kaluski]

Interesting Morkel, thanks for the info. Seems to me we are on the same train of thought, although I kept the sky (looks a bit yellow, compared to the more red in yours now). Think the odd twig could go on the bow RHS. :w3

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks Steve. The sky was an interesting one, as it was quite hazy from Zambian fires, hence the fact that it's not quite as blue as you'd expect...:t3

[Andrew Merwin]

Fascinating action captured here Morkel. I like the curved trunk clutching the leaves & the open mouth that is anticipating the food. I can imagine the saliva in the ele's mouth.

[Loi Nguyen]

Morkel, this is a fantastic image. I love the composition with the green vegetation on top providing a beautiful frame.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Great repost regarding color. Gotten to see this a few times here locally and its always entertaining, Ellie's have great personalities.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Morkel,
lovely behavior shot of these fantastic animals.

The RP took it up another step, hence the twig:w3.

TFS Andreas

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Morkel,
I really like this one.....just not the twig under the belly. The separation of the trunk and visible mouth is fantastic!