Fearful Eyes

[Andreas Liedmann]

at least it looks like to me .
Hi all , actually i do not think they had fear , because it was a quite relaxed looking situation in the KTP under a big tree ,in the shade during the hottest time of the day . It looked like they have been bored , so they started to rub their horns and finally ending up on their knees and gently clashing und pushing each other .

Canon EOS 1dx
Ef 200 - 400 IS L at 274 mm
HH

F 8 ; Iso 1600 ; 1/1250 sec ; man exp

Processed with DPP 4 and PS CC ; conversion with a script i use from time to time , giving me that punchy look depending on the settings i choose from . I personally think it is borderline of being crunchy , but accept it at the moment :bg3:.

Thanks for looking and commenting to my previous thread

Cheers Andreas

[Gregor Bergquist]

Hi Andreas

I think you like to make crunch pictures in general. And in this b/w conversion I think it works really well. Techs looks very good to me.

The strongest about this picture is of course the graphic elements. Very strong and work excellent. Also a bit cute with that heart shaped form. :)

TFS / Gregor

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

I like the tones, the eye contact and the 'heart' created by the horns as noticed by Gregor. Great action and textures/tone. Thanks Andreas for sharing!

[Charles Jorgensen]

Hi Andreas. I really like this. This is a species that I've battled with - most of my wildebees pics just don't stand out. I love the detail and sharpness of the eyes. The image certainly doesn't look as relaxed as the story you describe. Thanks for sharing.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, I like the almost symmetrical content, the locking antlers, eyes fixed (?). The more 'contrasty/crunchy' look & feel I think works on this one, especially with the stark (white) BKG, and simple colours & tones of the sand. Wish you could play a sound bite of those heads clashing.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks folks for your kind comments ,as always much appreciated .

Gregor - i actually do not like to make crunch picture as you say , and i do not think i post crunchy pictures very often , it happen and happened from time to time . Due to my way of processing i try to extract as much detail as possible, as a side effect the endgame can be crunchy . Mostly this happens in the HL making the image look crunchy . In this case i could have masked the HL in the detail layer(s) just a fraction and the crunchiness would have been eliminated , if you deal with detail like i do it is always a walk on a thin line . Another thing was ,all images of this series are underexposed way too much so i had to open up massively the shadows , as a side affect there was a great deal of tonal flattening from shadow to mid tones , so i had to go for more local contrast to overcome the flattening .......

Steve - in this case all happened very silent and gentle , no hard pushing or hard clashing , not even dust got kicked up by them.

THanks Andreas

[Mike Poole]

Great shot Andreas. The angle of the heads along with the shape formed by the horns works perfectly, and the eye contact finishes everything off well.

well suited to a B+W conversion and nicely processed

Mike

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Mike for stopping by and leave your comment

Cheers Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Andreas,

I actually think Gregor meant "contrasty" when he said "crunch" :w3 This is good crunch - and I too love the symmetry, detail, those wild eyes, the clash - superb conversion, my friend!

Never got to post that image of you and Gemsbok - so sorry, a bit stressful here with work and preparations and - to top it all - something called "load shedding" (no electricity for about two hours at a time, supposed to be scheduled but it always comes as a surprise) has prevented me from being able to process images over the past few evenings.

Another great image Andreas, keep them coming please!

Have a fabulous week-end,

[Giovanni Frescura]

Nice
I like too much B & W for wildlife!!

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andreas - I too like the symmetry here and the heart shape of the horns. Perhaps you should have posted it on Valentine's Day! The conversion works but there are a couple of places where I would reduce the sharpening e.g. the mane along the back (is it a mane with wildebeests?). Great look at the eyes here.

TFS,
Rachel

[D. Robert Franz]

A strong composition and image for sure. The eyes are special!