Wrestling Match

[Loi Nguyen]

It's fun to watch the African Wild Dogs rallying before the evening hunt. One of the dogs would get up and move to a different spot, may be going for a drink, and bedding down again, but eventually they would start rallying, licking the alphas as if begging for food and in this particular case engaging in what looks like a wrestling match.

1Dx
70-200f2.8 II @150mm
1/400
f5.6
ISO-2500
Handheld

Cropped some from top, right, and bottom.

Thank you for your comments.

Loi

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - It's always exciting to see wild dogs and their interaction with each other, especially if there are pups around. Watch the blacks on the dogs as it is choked slightly. You might use small amounts of selective burning and dodging to give the wrestling dogs a bit more definition, separation between them. It's not ideal having the other dog intersecting behind them but not sure if you could have moved the vehicle to get a better position.

TFS,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

Loi, I just cannot believe how many lovely sightings of these lovely painted dogs you have! Brilliant stuff!
Love the interaction you have captured, so typical of their behaviour! Their tummies look full, I wonder who wants to go hunting with a belly index like that?:bg3:
The dogs' faces do look a tad too dark and I am wondering if you could bring some luminosity to the muzzles of the two wrestlers?
Before I forget, I must say I love that chap lying down behind the wrestlers, probably about to jump and join in, or maybe just thinking it's best to preserve that energy for the next hunt...

Kind regards,

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, nice interaction and with a bit of bonding going on too. I also like your choice of crop, thought about cropping more off the RHS, but I like having he bush in. Obviously fighting for light, and more SS would have been good, but... Have you lightened the face of the WD under the front leg? I agree with Gabriela, seeing these in the wild is always a great experience, glad you managed to see them.

TFS
Steve

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Nice to see these lively dogs doing 'their thing', Loi! They really find it difficult to just settle down for a few minutes and there's always at least one culprit starting the next wrestling match! Nothing more to add to the previous comments other than I'd crop out the tree on the right. Great pic!

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone, yes it was such a treat to find the dogs and saw the interaction among the members and the hunts. I increased the exposure by 0.33EV, applied a luminosity mask 30% to tame the highlights, and lightened the face of the dog who was being histed up. No, I didn't do anything with the dog lying behind, just left it as is. I opted to leave the bush in, otherwise the image looks off balance to my eye. Thank you for your comments.

Loi

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely moment Loi - the repost is better for me colour-wise and overall exposure wise.
How about cropping away the bush from right and from top - go tighter?