Kudu hungry birds too

[Anette Mossbacher]

Long time ago, many moon passed when I took this image. That chap was jumping around like a nut case for nearly 5min. No idea what bit him!!
From one second to the other he stopped and started eating, not long when the birdies came in.

I did in LR the normal settings, was not to much, CC levels, midtones and that was it. Than I saw that I cut off the legs, so added some canvas on the bottom to give this chap some virtual legs. Not sure if he was able to walk on :w3

Ooooold 5D, the very first one
sold lens 300mm f/4 IS & 1.4x ext.
ISO320 f/5.6 1/200sec

Ciao Anette

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Anette - Nice look at the kudu. The grass in the mouth and the oxpeckers add to the scene. Good detail and tones. Since you already added canvas I would add even a little more below. Before I read your intro I thought it was a little tight both above and below but more so below still. Other thing I would do is burn the brighter branch in between the horns. I find it drawing the eye slightly. Overall, a nice one with your old gear.

TFS,
Rachel

[Bill Dewey]

Amazing that those "old cameras" still work, just like some of us old folks. The capture of both the animal and the birds feeding makes a very interesting story in a single photo, thanks Rachel, for the ID of the birds, that was one I didn't know. I am often torn on the issue of "how much" negative space, I often find myself drawn to tighter crops, this is another of those very subjective issues we deal with. I agree with Rachel about the distraction between the horns, I personally would be tempted to try using Content Aware Fill in Photoshop, if you use Photoshop, to remove that as well as the branches just behind the animals head. Of course a lot this has to do with how comfortable you are with altering the image in that manner. If we could only get our subjects to always pose in front of non-distracting backgrounds.

Overall very nice, and as I noted, a very nice story of two species wrapped up in a single image.

[haseeb badar]

Hello Anette ! what a beautiful animal , the grass in its mouth and the birds makes it a pretty picture , the dry twigs behind its horns are somewhat distracting but thts part and parcel of wildlife photography !

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Anette,

Always interesting to go back to older images, and I am told the 5D was a great camera:)

Image well processed and I like the lush vegetation surrounding the subject as well as those busy, hungry red-billed oxpeckers.

Like Rachel, I would have liked to see some more space at the bottom of the image - great job with adding canvas by the way, very subtle work:w3

Would love to see another image of polar bears from you, if you have time to look through those folders you might find something you haven't posted yet...

Warmest regards,

[Anette Mossbacher]

Thank you very much Bill, Haseeb and Gabriela.

Sorry for the late reply, got caught in my exhibition to get all done and especially sorted, on top to stay inside the Swiss "rules" with all things.

Will have a look into it for a PB Gabriela, right now I have no time to get my images done!!

Have a great weekend

Ciao Anette