Elephant close-up

[Nancy Bell]

Photographed on the Chobe River near Kasane, Botswana last month. Here I am using a rented Canon 500 lens (old version) from a special photo boat that has swivel seats with attached swivel tripod heads to mount the camera. Pretty slick and quite comfortable. My goal with this photo was to capture the water dripping as the elephant drank.

Canon 1Dx, Canon 500 f4 L IS, f5, 1/500, iso 2500.

Comments and critiques most appreciated.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Nancy , quite neat close up with that parallel subject is working good , specially with the water droplets falling down.
Nice tones in the subject and the BKG , like wise the colors looking good.I would give the elephant a tad more depth in the 1/2 tones , but would open up the wet area around the trunk and mouth for a bit more detail.Good that get the eye visible.
I would loose the leg on RHS and hope you have a bit more space on top , a wee bit tight to the eye , i feel.

TFS Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice soft light here Nancy - gotta love the elephants of Chobe. Since you already cut the ear I would crop closer...losing the leg as Andreas said and a bit closer from the bottom.
Nice DOF, textures and droplets. Those boats are great, eh?

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Nancy, lovely light and good details with the water droplets. You got good suggestions from Andreas and Morkel above. Loi

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Nancy - classic image, well captured. The complete curve of the trunk and cascading water works well. Good suggestions above for taking it up a notch. Keep them coming.

TFS,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Nancy,

I gather you had a wonderful trip and numerous sightings, well done in capturing this lovely ellie drinking and I am sure you have so many images to share!
I like the detail on the ellie's head (and also on the trunk, particularly these little hairs sticking out:S3:) and the water droplets. I too agree with suggestions above regarding crop:w3

Looking forward to more, Nancy!

Kind regards

[Nancy Bell]

Thanks all! Great suggestions for additional cropping. Appreciate the "many eyes" of all of you and your impressions. Andreas, I would love to have a bit more room on the top. Using the 500mm was a new experience for me and with close-ups did not always frame the best.