Asian Elephant

[hirandesilva]

128892

This Elephant was with some females at the edge of the forest. After a while he saw us and started walking at an angle towards the front and suddenly decided to run in line with my camera upto the vehicle. He was trumpeting and got to us in a few seconds, when he was a few meters away the wild life guard had to talk loud to him. He abruptly stopped 6-8 feet from the vehicle if not he would have banged into us.

As it was a sudden stop all the water inside his trunk which you can see coming at the camera splashed on the camera and me. He stood there for a while trumpeting and decided to walk away. Anticipating something I changed my lens to a 35-70mm just a few seconds before. It was frightening but my thought was that as long as I am inside the vehicle he will not grab me. Picture taken in 2012 at Bundala Wild life Park, Sri Lanka.

D700 35-70mm F2.8 taken at F7.1 1/500 ISO 400. Cropped to make it a vertical. Kept him in the centre for impact from the image. Shadow/highlights, Levels adjusted, NR to Bg and Ele sharpened.

Would like to know your comments.

Thanks

Hiran

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Hiran - good choice to switch lenses. I like the raised leg and the sense of movement here. I think a luminosity mask at about 40% takes it up a notch by adding a little warmth and color depth.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Hiran, firstly I'm a little ahead of anyone who views this, as Hiran asked if I would take a look, so there are elements I am aware of, but that my original observations were correct.

As an image it doesn't really grab me sadly, and the reason perhaps is that it's one of those images that we have ALL taken where the drama at the time outweighs the actual image captured and therefore you don't get the full impact of the situation, but that we will always remember that moment. I could well be wrong and this is just my take.

Overall the image is a little under exposed, plus having a bit more SS would have been better, as the blur of the trunk is not ideal, although I do understand the reasons as per your intro. My original though was it was taken between 4 to 5.00pm in fact 4.50 so the image needs a bit more warmth and adjusting of both exposure & greens you can hopefully get it back on track. Perhaps a little tricky as this may involve various outputs from LR or ACR to make the initial image. In doing so it may add a bit more tonality to the elephant which it needs, plus a few more rounds of USM. I think you could add a bit more colour in the sky too, personal choice, but not much, as you need to balance the overall look & feel for the time of day. Love the Indian Elephants with what looks like, well used ears, where the markings go pink. :S3: If you have the space them moving the whole frame to the left putting the elephant off centre may help, but perhaps it's a try and see before committing?

To save any blushing, I know Hiran has very kindly tried to cover this elephants modesty, but to me this is only nature and if you choose to do a RP Hiran please leave as, unless anyone reading this feels he should not and I respect that.

Hope this helps.

TFS
Steve

[hirandesilva]

128907


Have moved the elephant to the left and changes done to make this look better .

Hiran

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Hiran, I would go back to the central position, moving to the left I think is too much, plus I would drop the highlights/exposure a bit more on the more 'visible' parts now. :bg3: Otherwise looking better, WDYT is it an improvement, is there anything else you would do to improve things?

[Steve Canuel]

Prefer the centered comp of the OP, maybe just slightly more to the left as viewed. Would agree with toning down the bright highlight between the legs, not for modesty's sake but just because it is quite bright.

[hirandesilva]

Should mention, I would have had the trunk in focus as it was curled inwards when he was running up, but applied his brakes very hard which made the trunk come forward and also the ears to move forward.

Steve, Answering your question on improving further, I would like to see him slightly darker, Brighten the eyes and edge of the ears with a darker shade of pink to create the impact of a "charging Elephant" ! Bringing him to the center would also make it better. Thanks for your comments and advice.


Hiran

[Morkel Erasmus]

Certainly a dramatic moment here, Hiran! I like the central positioning and would leave it like that, but your RP does improve things overall.
I think few elephant-charge photos will convey the true menace and angst as most of us will invariably stop shooting when they come too close (what was the exact focal length here - guessing 50-70mm?).

[hirandesilva]

Hi Morkel, Thanks, the focal length was 70mm. The trend is getting more for a Bull Elephant to come charging up to a vehicle, this is because they roam outside the Parks and get chased by villages living in the border areas. So they loose their fear of humans and tend to dislike us.

Hiran