May Theme: ANIMALSCAPES

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hey folks - this is your reminder that our theme for May is ANIMALSCAPES. Show us your photos of animals in their environment, at one with the landscape, in context of their surroundings!
We are looking forward to your posts. As always, remember to add the prefix "Theme" from the dropdown selection box at the top of the thread posting window to your post, makes it easier to distinguish them and for our guest theme judges to pick the winners... :bg3:

These two African Bush Elephants were photographed from a specialised photographic boat on the Chobe river between Botswana and Namibia. They were coming towards the river, and the one in front eventually swam past our boat within 10 meters range.

Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 35mm
f5.6 | 1/400 SS | ISO-280
Kenko Pro Circular Polariser
Close to full frame, crop for rotation and strong placement of the elephants

[John Robinson]

Nice one Morkel I don't mind the "rippled " reflection. Does n't compete with the main sbject.
The sky is great and my only small nit as a non safari photographer is that I would like sme more space on the left with some taken off the right (If you have it)
I am very envious of your places and stuff etc out there. It really is hard to compare with the stuff here we havent got !
Cheers
John

[Loi Nguyen]

Morkel, this is a great image, the clouds, low POV, reflection, water, the elies. It looks a bit too much blue in the sky, but you were there. Was a storm approaching that gave the darkness in the cloud? Loi

[Morkel Erasmus]

John, I do have more space, as a quick fix I could just lop off a bit on the RHS.
Loi - I forgot to mention I used a polariser for the clouds, sky and reflection...:e3...there were storms every day during our safari, and this was a build-up to one for sure.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Morkel love this this for all what it stands for……….. great work.Only thing is that i would remove magenta from the ellies.

Well done :bg3:.

TFS Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Morkel - Beautiful animalscape and reflection. Will leave the colors to others now. We've hardly seen a cloud in the sky.


TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel, this image illustrates my point to Loi nicely. Just had a whole herd of Elephants come down to a waterhole this morning, but a hard shot to isolate. Nice clouds adds depth, sadly as Rachel mentioned, zero clouds here. Like the reflection & cloud vapour trail. Just talking to someone about the boat at Chobe as it came up the other night over dinner.

BTW may see Brendon in the next few days :S3:.

TFS
Steve

[TimothyGriesel]

Hey Morkel. I love this. The reflection adds to the image but doesn't distract you from the main subject. I must agree with John though in that I also feel there is to much space on the right of the frame.

Still lovely image though

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

[Marc Mol]

Good use of the CP filter here Morkel, with subsequent added colour & reflection boost.

[Nancy Bell]

Gotta love that specialized photo boat for getting images from a low POV! The CP really added the color drama to the image. Beautiful compositional layers of foreground water, grass middle ground with the subjects, and the dramatic cloud-filled sky bkgd. I think that ele reflection is the icing on the cake!

[Gabriela Plesea]

This is a beauty in every way, Morkel! Cannot see the magenta on the ellies, I guess my screen is hopeless, if not Magenta-less:t3.

Don't know what I am going to do this month, I have no reasonable animalscapes but maybe I will manage some at Shingwezi and post before the month is over...Meanwhile - I am enjoying this image so much, the vivid colours of the land and those amazing skies, lovely capture Morkel, - congratulations!

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela and others , sorry meant the reds , many times i am looking in LAB mode with my eyes.
For illustration :

Cheers Andreas

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

This is simply stunning Mork. Amazing depth & awesome colours. Superb composition as well.

[Andre Pretorius]

Stunning capture Morkel!

Reading the comments, it dawned on me that I hardly use my smaller lenses, stuck on the 600 or sometimes the 300.

Will force myself to use the shorter focal lengths for the few days in Shingwidzi.

Thanks for pushing me to jump out of my box!:cheers:

Andre

[Don Railton]

Love it all Morkel... Especially the clouds, the depth, the reflection, the little reed in the corner...etc etc.. Wonderful image..

DON

[Giovanni Frescura]

Very very nice.The light is perfect...I known the place and it is the best (as Mana Pools)
It is long time that I no go in Chobe/Savuti section ..but I think it is very interesting and I hope return there

[edwardselfe]

Beautiful. Like the eles as placed. Really great detail and colours.
Ed