Scavanger's studio

[Shreyas Mantri]

One of my favourite characters from the wild! Have had a few interesting encounters with Hyenas personally, and I don't get tired photographing them. It's amazing how loud they can get, especially when giving out the territorial howl.

Shot in Etosha one morning, when a band was escaping from a Lion's wrath in the distance. Came over in my direction (luckily) and struck a pose.
I've taken out a blue sliver from the top; although it added a nice perspective to the lay of the land, but was kind of distracting too.

Canon 7D, 70-200mm 2.8 II, @ 200mm, f/3.5, 1/3200, ISO 200, EC +1/3

Comments always welcome!

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Shreyas - I like this a lot. Nice look back pose, warm tones and the comp works well. Looks like the light was already harsh but you handled it well. Only thing I would do is back off on the sharpening of the surrounding shrubs and grass a little. Nice one.

TFS,
Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Shreyas, nice pose and the hyena blends in with the surrounding very well. Agreed with Rachel on backing off on the sharpening of the bush. I wish we could see the eye better. F3.5 seems like pretty wide open to get good DOF for this pose. Loi

[Jamie Douglas]

Well done Shreyas. A fine image and great processing which could be further enhanced by reducing the sharpness on the grass as Rachel pointed out.

[Hilary Hann]

I like the tones of this image and the pose of the hyaena but agree on reducing some of the sharpening on the bushes.

[edwardselfe]

Cool quirky image with a good exposure on this guy. Most things been said already, and I love him in the endlessness of that environment. I wonder if the blue sliver would accentuate the enormousness of that habitat or detract from it...
Ed

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice pose and typical Etosha setting/tones here Shreyas. I don't find the light very harsh as it looks consistent with the light in Etosha/Kgalagadi about 60-90 minutes after sunrise?
Another vote for reducing the apparent sharpness of the bushes in the plane of focus.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Shreyas, and congratulations on this lovely capture-like the IQ and in fact just about everything in this image ( I am not going to mention the grass issue again:t3, surely you can fix that).

Kind regards,

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Shreyas, nice image, could go pano and loose more off the top, WDYT?

TFS
Steve

[Anette Mossbacher]

HI Shreyas, as well I vote for less sharpening in the bushes. The light is fine with me. That's how it is over there.

Ciao
Anette

[Gregor Bergquist]

Hi Shreyas

Good with a portrait on a Hyena. i agree, they are cool. I like the way you handle the colors and the background is very nice.

TFS / Gregor

[Shreyas Mantri]

Thanks all for the comments!

@ Ed, like I said, I did debate on keeping the sky and am still not opposed to it. But after viewing it several times, I grew fond of the consistent toning of the foreground especially as it blends well with the Hyena.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Shreyas,
nice look back pose of this hyena, in lovely Etosha landscape.Like the colors you achieved from this location.
Would lose some of the top of the frame.

Nice one.
TFS Andreas